Wiring a cig lighter in my car.

[megalithic]

My car doesn't have one, so i've bought one which i intend to wire up myself. Rather than mess in the wiring loom i'm gonna take it straight through to the battery, so i'll need a fuse somewhere in-line. Question are, can i solder in a spade type fuse utilising the two prongs ? And what rating fuse should i use ?

Also, the Earth wire, i can earth it to anywhere can't i ? As in i don't need to run it to the battery ?

 

TIA.

[martss]

Do you mean solder wires onto the fuse spades? You'd be better using spade connectors to connect to the fuse so you can change the fuse easier, even better would be a fuse holder that uses glass cartridge fuses.

 

You can earth anywhere, a metal screw into the bodywork is best, but remember to remove some paint down to the metal.

[anywebsite]

There's full instructions for doing it properly at this obscure website: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+wire+a+cigarette+lighter+in+a+car

 

Even I keep forgetting the name of that site, they should advertise it or something, but it tells you how to do all kinds of things.

[XC60]

hi M

firstly don,t solder to the spade terminals buy an inline fuse holder that takes spade terminals, that way if it blows its easier to just pull out the old one and push in a new one. use a fuse of no more than 5 /7amp capacity, yes you can take the earth wire to any point on the car but make sure you remove any paint from under the bolt you are using,and that the wire is tucked away so as not to get pulled. A point to keep in mind is that wiring it in this way means the cig lighter will be permanently live even when the ignition is off. also make sure your wire has a higher amp rating than the fuse otherwise the wire becomes the fuse. hope alll this helps and good luck.

 

chris

[Mossway]

With a bit of googling (or by direct inspection) you should be able to locate an unused fuse slot in your car's fuse box.Otherwise buy an in-line fuse from somewhere like Maplins.It's not a good idea to power the lighter directly from the battery terminal.Size of fuse ? Depends what you want to use it for. -if it's for lighting ciggies then probably 15 to 20 amps, if it's just for charging your phone/Satnav etc then 3 amps should be OK

[megalithic]

Thanks for the replies.

[Alcoblog]

Forget the lighter itself ... simply wire in a fuse that's too small to take any load whatsoever and easily replaceable.

When you want a ciggie, just load a new fuse into the holder and light the fag from it when it explodes! < 0.1 amp

[Dardandec]

use a fuse of no more than 5 /7amp capacity.

 

Car cig lighter circuits are usually 15-20 amps I certainly wouldn't use less than 15 amp fuse unless you want to replace it everytime you plug it in.

 

Also put the fuse as close to the source of power as possible and not on the consumer side of the circuit as this wont protect from shorts.

[Rampent]

My car doesn't have one, so i've bought one which i intend to wire up myself. Rather than mess in the wiring loom i'm gonna take it straight through to the battery, so i'll need a fuse somewhere in-line. Question are, can i solder in a spade type fuse utilising the two prongs ? And what rating fuse should i use ?

Also, the Earth wire, i can earth it to anywhere can't i ? As in i don't need to run it to the battery ?

 

TIA.

 

 

Save all the hassle and potential car fire Mega. Buy one of these, far cheaper and only 10p ...

 

[megalithic]

Cheers Ramps, but i've given up smoking, it's to charge my phone.