Adding a lighter

[Luke]

are you ok with the wiring for the lighter or do you need a pointer

[wardy-uk]

a pointer would be good mate

[Luke]

ok no probs mate
you need to get to the back of the ignition barrel, you might need to take the cowl of the ignition column

with ignition turned off

get the meter with it selected to voltage DC put the black lead on an earth - ideally the battery - terminal but chances are it wont reach so and metal part of the body or mabe the steering coulmn or the switch body

so with the black lead on the earth get the red lead and touch each one of the wire terminals one at a time - look at the reading on the meter one of them should be 12v - thats the power to the key switch

to make it easy you could write all the wire coulors down and what they are in each position - it might help you understand it!

now turn the switch to ignition on so the dash lights come on

then do the same again with the meter - one more wire should now be live 12v this one is the wire you need

follow that wire down as far as you can - its not good to make a joint near a termination

once you have done that with the battery disconnected cut back the insulation and solder your new wire (which will go to the cig lighter socket) to that

remember you'll need a fuse in there too

let us know how you get on

[wardy-uk]

I have yet to try it yet but in the mean time could I run a bit of wire fom th battery to power it?

[Luke]

I have yet to try it yet but in the mean time could I run a bit of wire fom th battery to power it?

yes but put a fuse in it

[wardy-uk]

It already as a fuse in cable to the sat nav from the bit that plugs into the lighter socket. Do I still need to add one?
Cheers William

[AndyG]

Yes As close as possible from where you are taking the power

[Luke]

Yes As close as possible from where you are taking the power

thats right - because if the wire that you have taken from the battery ever wears through and touches to earth then there will be nothing to protect it shorting the battery out and at worse setting fire to the van

if the sat nav has its own fuse then you could protect the wire with a bigger fuse - say 20/25amps

[wardy-uk]

I ran it from the battery worked no problem

Nest thing is to actualy get a lighter socket in there