Hi all

I have a road angel (gps speed camera alerts for those who aren't sure what it does) and i want to power it from the ignition of my car. It needs to sit on top of the dash and preferably in the corner. Does anybody have any advice on how i may go about this?? It normally runs of the 12v cigerette adapter.

Thanks

Ben

 

It depends on how much or how little you want to dismantle your interior.

My solution for a Garmin was to mount it low down in front of the gear lever, with the suction pad mounting in the small cubby box under the CD drive. This meant that I could parallel up the wires to the cigar lighter, so all the wiring is hidden. Plus my Satnav isn't on view if I park up and can't be bothered to remove it, and it doesn't leave tell-tale marks on the screen. This has the advantage in my case that when I switch off the ignition, the Nav goes off, and when I switch the ignition back on, the Nav comes on too. My aerial for the Traffic Information goes upwards and is hidden behind the dash trim. I still get good satellite lock with the Nav mounted down there.

As most suction pads won't stick to the area in front of the iDrive, there were some posts on this forum from someone who had put a clear film in front of the iDrive - not the screen - and this allowed suction pads to stick. Unfortunately I only saw this after I had mounted mine.

Mike

 

Hi Mike

Thanks for the info. Is it possible to just solder in to the back of the cigar lighter with the new cables or is it a different type of connection?

Ben

 

You could solder directly, but the wires that go to the power socket are the super-flexible type, and the socket moves so much. I went an inch or so further back to the plug, cut the wires and chocolate-blocked them, along with an extension for my Nav. Subtle hey??

Mike

 

I used the power outlet in the passenger side foot well. There is a hole in the foot well plastic cover through which I fed the wire back up and out of the way. Open the glove box and remove the iDrive display (2 screws on top) and you can feed the wire out by the side of the iDrive display. From there it is a short distance to my radar detector on top of the dash.

 

I don't know about the later cars, but I understand that here in the UK we didn't get passenger side power sockets (or boot/trunk ones either).

We didn't get the boot/trunk opener either on early cars unless we had an E61 - the retrofit was an easy and cheap job though.

Mike

 

Hi

I do not have a footwell 12v socket. If i didn't want to take apart the centre console could i run a socket from the fuse box behind the glovebox over to the drivers side then just hide the cables behind the trim under the sterring column?

Thanks

Ben

 

Just take a "stakon" tab and stick it into the top bus of the fuse panel to the right of the (2) 5 amp fuses. Add an "in line" fuse holder and the you're on your way. Of course it will always be hot. I think the bottom bus is switched.

 

sounds great! thanks very much

Ben