Hardwiring connection for phone charger / 12V accessory

[Eddy77]

Car = 209 CLK

Hi all, thought I’d post this as it may be useful. I bought a wireless charger / holder for my phone last week. You put your phone in the cradle and it wireless charges for the holder. Said holder therefore needs a 12V connection. Not wishing to have an ugly cigarette lighter plug with cables running down the dash, I decided to hardwire it.

First I located the cigar lighter fuse which is in the engine bay. Bought a fuse tab connector from Halfords for a fiver which allows you to take two feeds from a single fuse in the box. The first feed does the existing lighter. The second one provides the live feed for my charger.


Next challenge was to find a way through the bulkhead. Luckily there is some yellow sponges material filling a hole behind the engine fuse box on the drivers side. On the other side of that hole is the fuse box in the main car, just below the steering wheel. I removed the fuse box panel for the driver side in car fuse box and carefully pushed a long knitting needle through the spongey material from the engine fuse box into the driver side fuse box. Much to my relief the needle appeared and I was able to thread the live wire through from the engine fuse box to the driver side fuse box. Managed to run the cable from the charger down into the driver side fuse box by tucking it behind the dashboard and trim so wire is completely hidden. Connected the neutral to the chassis, connected the live from the engine fuse box to the charger cable and hey presto, all works.

It would have been easier to piggy back off a fuse in the drivers side fuse box but they all seem to remain live even when ignition is off and I was nervous about battery drain. The only one I could find which switches off with ignition is the cigar lighter which is why I had to go through the bulkhead from the engine fuse box where the cigar fuse lives.

Here is the Halfords widget:

Car Fuses - Glass, Micro & Maxi Blade Fuses | Halfords UK

Visit Halfords for all of your replacement car fuse needs, including blade, maxi and micro blade fuses, glass fuses, and more.

www.halfords.com

And here is the finished installation

 

[Gollom]

Car = 209 CLK

Hi all, thought I’d post this as it may be useful. I bought a wireless charger / holder for my phone last week. You put your phone in the cradle and it wireless charges for the holder. Said holder therefore needs a 12V connection. Not wishing to have an ugly cigarette lighter plug with cables running down the dash, I decided to hardwire it.

First I located the cigar lighter fuse which is in the engine bay. Bought a fuse tab connector from Halfords for a fiver which allows you to take two feeds from a single fuse in the box. The first feed does the existing lighter. The second one provides the live feed for my charger.


Next challenge was to find a way through the bulkhead. Luckily there is some yellow sponges material filling a hole behind the engine fuse box on the drivers side. On the other side of that hole is the fuse box in the main car, just below the steering wheel. I removed the fuse box panel for the driver side in car fuse box and carefully pushed a long knitting needle through the spongey material from the engine fuse box into the driver side fuse box. Much to my relief the needle appeared and I was able to thread the live wire through from the engine fuse box to the driver side fuse box. Managed to run the cable from the charger down into the driver side fuse box by tucking it behind the dashboard and trim so wire is completely hidden. Connected the neutral to the chassis, connected the live from the engine fuse box to the charger cable and hey presto, all works.

It would have been easier to piggy back off a fuse in the drivers side fuse box but they all seem to remain live even when ignition is off and I was nervous about battery drain. The only one I could find which switches off with ignition is the cigar lighter which is why I had to go through the bulkhead from the engine fuse box where the cigar fuse lives.

Here is the Halfords widget:

Car Fuses - Glass, Micro & Maxi Blade Fuses | Halfords UK

Visit Halfords for all of your replacement car fuse needs, including blade, maxi and micro blade fuses, glass fuses, and more.

www.halfords.com

And here is the finished installation

Brilliant. This kind of post is what makes this forum the best forum!

 

[Eddy77]

Thanks. I agree, sharing little tips is what adds value. I actually found the information about how to get through the bulkhead via YouTube as I couldn’t figure out how to find my way through. Thank god for the interweb!