Tapping into Cigarette Lighter in dash

[JSFoster75]

I was wiring up some interior LED lights in my wife’s jeep this morning and decided to tap into the cigarette lighter behind the front dash panel, did not realize it would be such a pain to get to.

to remove the bezel that holds the air-conditioning controls, you have to start on the right side and pop it loose, but if for some reason mine did not want to come out and I ended up breaking one of the clips, but I should be able to fix it. Just felt like I was going to rip the dash apart trying to open it. I could not find a wiring diagram for the cigarette lighter, so I just rolled the dice on which one was hot and which one was the illumination ring.

finally got the wiring set up done, so I mounted an extension cigarette lighter under the right hand/passenger side foot well. Since the lights she bought has a remote controller, we can leave them on constantly when the jeep is powered on and just turn them off with the remote.

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[dsgrey]

Nice LED lights!

I thought about tapping into that for my dash cam but after looking at the dash, passenger side firewall plug and the driver's side plug I determined it was very easy to use the driver's side plug to the fuse box. Plus it allows an easy switch from a constant hot or ignition hot fuse such as the radio fuse or seat warmer fuses respectively.

 

[firemk]

I see the Aux switch panel in your photo. You do realize that wiring for these 4 switches as well as two additional non-switched wires are already ran in the passenger compartment on the passenger side, correct? If not, look in your owners manual for the information.

 

[JSFoster75]

I see the Aux switch panel in your photo. You do realize that wiring for these 4 switches as well as two additional non-switched wires are already ran in the passenger compartment on the passenger side, correct? If not, look in your owners manual for the information.

yes, we are going to use those for other things though.

 

[ThinkOutdoors]

Hey @JSFoster75, which wire did you tap into for the positive connection? I tapped into the rear cargo trunk cigarette lighter for my brawlee light and want to tap into the front for some USB ports in the rear center console. There's a negative, pink & yellow, and orange & brown cable. Any chance you remember?

 

[emgeesea]

Hey @JSFoster75, which wire did you tap into for the positive connection? I tapped into the rear cargo trunk cigarette lighter for my brawlee light and want to tap into the front for some USB ports in the rear center console. There's a negative, pink & yellow, and orange & brown cable. Any chance you remember?

I just tapped into the cigarette socket wiring to power a front camera display monitor. I don't recall the color, but one of either the pink/yellow or orange/brown wires is substantially larger than the other. I assumed that would be the positive power wire and the other would be the illumination ring wire. After reassembling, this was correct!

Probably too late for you, but in case anyone else comes across this post.

 

[426 smartin]

Hey @JSFoster75, which wire did you tap into for the positive connection? I tapped into the rear cargo trunk cigarette lighter for my brawlee light and want to tap into the front for some USB ports in the rear center console. There's a negative, pink & yellow, and orange & brown cable. Any chance you remember?

pink & yellow

 

[mattcarvette]

pink & yellow

How did you physically make the tap? Did you cut and splice? Or is there a better way?

 

[JSFoster75]

How did you physically make the tap? Did you cut and splice? Or is there a better way?

I never recommend cutting OEM wires, I would use a piggyback type connector, or a T type connector.

 

[DavidArmen]

This t-harness is perfect for taking power from the cigar lighters in the jeep without cutting any wires at all.

 

[426 smartin]

I used the red 3M t connector

 

[Chupacabra]

I just wired in my dash cam using this one from Amazon. It's a few bucks, but this way there's no cutting/pinching of factory wiring and it was easy. Works great.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0886DNNSP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[mattcarvette]

I just wired in my dash cam using this one from Amazon. It's a few bucks, but this way there's no cutting/pinching of factory wiring and it was easy. Works great.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0886DNNSP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That’s definitely the cleanest way. Thanks!

 

[Wally208]

Has anyone pulled out the cigrette lighter on a JL. My wifes oxygen concentrator keeps blowing fuse it has a 8 amp inline fuse built in that has not blown I am wanting to pull the lighter and check it hopefully without pulling dash apart.

 

[Jerpy]

I just wired in my dash cam using this one from Amazon. It's a few bucks, but this way there's no cutting/pinching of factory wiring and it was easy. Works great.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0886DNNSP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I noticed this has a 10A inline fuse. The LED lights I am attempting to wire up appear to have an F1.5A150V glass tube fuse built into the cigarette lighter plug.

I'm going to err on the side of caution and go with this harness and throw a 2A fuse into the inline fuse holder just to be on the safe side.

On a side note, is there a similar plug-and-play solution to tap into/add a USB port for charging electronics?

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