Hey guys, I want to wire my XM receiver into the cig. lighter so that I don't have wires going all over the place. Is there a good walkthrough anywhere on the boards or can someone give me some advice? I did a ton of searches and couldn't find anything. Thanks a lot.
Hardwiring a Sat. Receiver through the lighter?
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I've wired in two radar detectors through this method.
Lift your center consol lid. Grab the front of it and lift, this will loosen and pull out the plastic piece that surrounds the emergency brake handle.
Next, lift the piece surrounding your shifter
with the car off, stick your thumb into the cig lighter and grab a hold of this piece and gently , but firmly pull it out and towards you. This will give you access to the back of the cig lighter.
I soldered in a speaker wire here and ran it under the dash, along the inside of the weather stripping (totally invisible) under the headliner and down right above the rearview mirror. (there is a semicircle spot for a wire to come down here anyways.
Lift your center consol lid. Grab the front of it and lift, this will loosen and pull out the plastic piece that surrounds the emergency brake handle.
Next, lift the piece surrounding your shifter
with the car off, stick your thumb into the cig lighter and grab a hold of this piece and gently , but firmly pull it out and towards you. This will give you access to the back of the cig lighter.
I soldered in a speaker wire here and ran it under the dash, along the inside of the weather stripping (totally invisible) under the headliner and down right above the rearview mirror. (there is a semicircle spot for a wire to come down here anyways.
So if I get access to the wires behind the lighter, I can just snip the wires and then connect the power wires on my XM to that and I will have dedicated power to the XM? How do I know which wires to connect? Each would have a + and a - and I want to make sure I twist the correct ones together.
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I just stripped the wires and exposed some then soldered on. you can also use "wire taps" to gain access without snipping wires.
When you pull off the cig. lighter panel directly behind the cig lighter is a plastic plug that goes itno the back of it. (you can slide this connector free of the panel for easier maneuvering) there should be a orange and black wire. The orange will come straight off the back of the lighter adn the black shoudl seem to attach closer to the side of the lighter.
orange is + or positive black is - or negative.
if you use speaker wire to run the power to the adaptor youll remember which is which(often spearker wire has one side with a stripe and one side without)
I ran my wire under the dash and under the door weather stripping. (just pull back with a flathead screwdriver and push it in) you can do that all the way up the door then gently using your fingers, you can tuck the spoeaker wire under the headliner in the front.
does that make sense?
When you pull off the cig. lighter panel directly behind the cig lighter is a plastic plug that goes itno the back of it. (you can slide this connector free of the panel for easier maneuvering) there should be a orange and black wire. The orange will come straight off the back of the lighter adn the black shoudl seem to attach closer to the side of the lighter.
orange is + or positive black is - or negative.
if you use speaker wire to run the power to the adaptor youll remember which is which(often spearker wire has one side with a stripe and one side without)
I ran my wire under the dash and under the door weather stripping. (just pull back with a flathead screwdriver and push it in) you can do that all the way up the door then gently using your fingers, you can tuck the spoeaker wire under the headliner in the front.
does that make sense?
I've used wiretaps in the same install in a friend's 3 and they worked great.
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I used the wiretaps for mine, but i like soldering.. it's more secure. there's nothng more annoying than having your electronics come undone.
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I have.... not the tapped wire but the one branching off of it. i used to do some major electrical work when I used to have an offroad truck. Those are not the kinda things you want to have come loose.
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I got a pm from a guy around here who's interested in me doing this for him. If you want I'll document the process for you digitally and post it. I'm guessing it'll be next week or so.
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