How to hardwire Tomtom into E61?
Discussion
Car is an E61 2008, and im fed up with bashing my knuckles on the charger for my Tomtom when its plugged into the ciggy socket. The hard wire kits are available on Ebay and thought I'd have a go myself.
How do I get the dash apart to connect up? Also where is the best point to connect to? I only need power, not expecting it to work through the stereo..
I was planning on using one of the air vent clips rather than windscreen suction thingy for mounting the tomtom.
Thanks
How do I get the dash apart to connect up? Also where is the best point to connect to? I only need power, not expecting it to work through the stereo..
I was planning on using one of the air vent clips rather than windscreen suction thingy for mounting the tomtom.
Thanks
Pull off the gearstick surround.
Pull off the idrive controller.
Then put a knife under the back of the trim near the armrest, aluminum, wood etc. and prise it up. It is on pins so will come up as you wiggle it.
The whole thing will come up and away.
Undo any cable for switches etc.
You will see a brown and a green/yellow wire going to the ciggy lighter. This is 12v switched.
Buy a female lighter extension from halfords for £3,99 and cut the end off leaving bare wires. Crimp these to the ciggy lighter wires.
Plug your tomtom into this and run the wire under the dash trim, you can just tuck it in, and then under the rubber door surround up onto the dash.
If you want it to be really neat you can take off the a pillar trim and tucj it under there too.
Good luck!!
Pull off the idrive controller.
Then put a knife under the back of the trim near the armrest, aluminum, wood etc. and prise it up. It is on pins so will come up as you wiggle it.
The whole thing will come up and away.
Undo any cable for switches etc.
You will see a brown and a green/yellow wire going to the ciggy lighter. This is 12v switched.
Buy a female lighter extension from halfords for £3,99 and cut the end off leaving bare wires. Crimp these to the ciggy lighter wires.
Plug your tomtom into this and run the wire under the dash trim, you can just tuck it in, and then under the rubber door surround up onto the dash.
If you want it to be really neat you can take off the a pillar trim and tucj it under there too.
Good luck!!
You could tap into the 12v supply feeding the torch charging socket in the glovebox. In the US there's a lead available that plugs into that socket which has a ciggy lighter socket on the other end - most useful for charging phones, etc. For reasons I can't understand it's not available in the UK. Power does get shut off after the engine's shut off though.
phelix said:
You could tap into the 12v supply feeding the torch charging socket in the glovebox. In the US there's a lead available that plugs into that socket which has a ciggy lighter socket on the other end - most useful for charging phones, etc. For reasons I can't understand it's not available in the UK. Power does get shut off after the engine's shut off though.
I bought one of these for this very reason and it works a treat...........Just can't remember where from :duh:
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