Cigarette Lighter Jacks Always On (Help, Please...)

[Guitar3dt]

Hi everybody,

I have a 2000 Toyota Solara SLE and I'm trying to make one of the two cigarette lighter jacks in the dash stay on all the time, even when the ignition is off.

I have a bunch of different gadgets that I need to charge in the car, even when I'm not in it. They shouldn't kill the battery as once they're charged, they no longer draw much power at all.

I had a car once before that worked no matter what position the key was in, so I know that it can be done. Can anybody offer a little help to steer me in the right direction?

Is there an always live 12v wire nearby that I can tap into? I know that there is one for the stereo, but I don't want to overpower it. I'd rather not run a wire straight from the battery if I don't have to.

Thanks for any help you guys can offer!

Tim
Guitar3dt

[theprodigy79]

Pretty easy bro; right now it's connected to the Accessory (ACC) lead... All you gotta do is cut that connection and splice it into a hot lead (straight from the battery).

I believe the wire colors are Gray for the Ignition wire and Blue with a Yellow stripe for the Battery wire... Find a source with the Blue/Yellow wire and run a branch wire off of that to your cigarette lighter, splicing into where the Gray wire is cut off and you'll be set. Just make sure to cap the hot side of the Gray wire so it doesn't ground out anywhere.

As for nearby sources... The radio harness IS your best bet, and it shouldn't "overpower" anything, especially with the type of stuff typically plugged into a cigarette lighter jack.

Welcome to the site BTW, make sure to post an intro so we can all get to know ya.

Peace,

-James

[Guitar3dt]

Hey man,

Thanks for the advice. I spliced a wire into the constant 12v line for the stereo and ran it into the gray wire of the lighter jack (which I cut), but it didn't seem to work right. Whenever I pushed the lighter into the socket, it would light, but all of the stereo equipment came on as if the key was in the ignition!

Any clue what I screwed up?

Thanks again for all the help.

Tim

[theprodigy79]

Just to clarify:

You ran a wire straight from the constant from your radio harness (which you spliced into, but left the wire in tact) to the cigarette lighter socket (which you cut and re-wired the new constant power into)? Were there two or three wires leading into your lighter jack (usually there are two, but in some cases there is a third)? Did you tap the radio harness off the factory wires, or a harness to an aftermarket deck (if applicable)?

Did you double check to make sure all grounds were still in tact, and that there were no bare wires remaining without wire caps or electrical tape covering them?

I'm a bit lost here, so help me out: When you push the lighter in with the car off, it works, however your stereo equipment turns on when you push it in??? Or when your car is off, your stereo equipment is able to be turned on? Or...?

I need those answered before I can give you a good answer.

Thanks,

-James

[Guitar3dt]

Hey James,

I ran a wire straight from the radio harness (not the stock wiring) and made sure that it was the always on 12v from the battery. It was labelled nicely, so I'm positive. I used a little splicing punch-in thing to tap the wire and have another run off of it. (As you can tell by my lingo, I'm no electrician!....bear with me.) There were three wires coming off of the top lighter jack. The other jack below it had only two.

There was a blackish/grayish and white wire and also a pink wire running into it. I cut the gray one and attached it to the new wire I ran from the stereo harness.

All exposed ends were covered with electrical tape to avoid any mishaps.

When I pushed the lighter in with the keys out of the ignition to test it, the lighter warmed up, but also all of the stereo stuff came on as well, as if the key were on accessory. When I pulled the lighter out, they would all shut off.

Haha, the way I figure it, I'm half-way to a push-button start, and people pay a ton of money for those!

In the meantime, I put it back to stock and simply taped the end of the wire I spliced in to avoid any fires. Thanks again for all of the help. I really appreciate it.

Tim

[theprodigy79]

Which lighter did you splice into, the one with three wires or two?

[Guitar3dt]

The jack with 3 wires. It is the topmost jack on the console. The other jack I couldn't reach easily so I figured that one jack would do for the time being.

[theprodigy79]

Sounds like you cut into the ground wire bro (the wire colors vary from model to model, year to year sometimes and the ones I stated were "Toyota generic", so I may not have been correct)...

What's the color scheme of the 3 wires connected to the lighter? For reference, one of them is ignition, one is ground and one is illumination...

If you tapped the ground wire instead of the ignition, the cigarette lighter would essentially become a switch, which would do exactly what you are speaking of. When you press it in it is completing a circuit from "constant to ignition", then back feeding the power to you radio and possibly other accessories. This is actually a method I've used for hooking up a couple competition systems (except with the addition of a diode and a relay) to allow the owners, while at shows, to be able to walk away from their vehicles with their systems on but without the keys in the ignition (the relay is put in place so that when the key is turned to ACC/ON it reverts back to a standard cigarette lighter).

I'd be willing to bet that if you hooked it up again as you had it and pushed in the lighter it ain't gonna get hot.

[Guitar3dt]

That's really interesting...I must've done the wrong wire. I'll definitely have to give it another shot one of these nights.

Thanks again for all the help. I really appreciate it. I'll keep you posted as to what happens.

Tim

[theprodigy79]

When you get back in there post me on the wire colors. The ground SHOULD be black, but MAY be a darker gray... It's always hard to tell from across the internet

Sorry for the frustration, I promise ya we'll get it figured out. And don't worry, nothing you did was damaging or dangerous in any way, just a tad annoying

[Guitar3dt]

James, you're a genius! I switched it up and tried the other wire and it worked perfectly. Funny as the ground tab on the jack was labelled 12v while the other was not. Go figured...


Anyway, now I have to try and figure out how to reach the wires for the lower jack, but as it stands right now, it's a huge improvement. Thanks a ton!

As it turns out the wires were white/black (ground) and blue/pink (12v).


Thanks again!
Tim

[theprodigy79]

No problem Tim, glad you got it working

Enjoy!

-James