My cigarette lighter has always annoyed me. I don’t smoke, so it’s pretty useless. On top of that it always slipped into the pushed-in position so when I pulled it out to charge something I would burn myself. Today I looked at my iPhone charger (which I also use for all of my other car devices) and noticed that it was the same size as the cigarette lighter. I decided to take it apart and wire it directly to the 12V input. A little plastruct bondene, epoxy and solder and voila, cigarette lighter deleted. Now I have a much more useful permanent charging solution in my car. The little ring even lights up green when not charging, amber when charging.

Keep in mind, my car is an 07, so I do not have the bluetooth with the USB under the switchpack.

 

Very cool, I might have to think about doing something like that with my R53.

 

Way cool!

 

i liek that idea BUT too stupid to do it..

 

That's a great idea! All of our phones have a USB to phone cable, so I may just copy you

Which iPhone charger were you using?

 

That is effin' sweet.

 

cool idea.

 

We need more details on the part number or model number of that charger.

I also don't smoke or let anyone smoke in my car so this would be a great change for me.

 

Thanks for the compliments.

The charger is the Griffin PowerJolt for iPhone. There are several different versions of this with the same name. I have linked to the one that I used.

It is a bit difficult to get the charger apart, I had pry the top off and then cut the bottom of mine with a pair of dykes to access the circuit board. The top round part fits pretty well where the cig lighter 12V outlet used to be, I just pushed it in with a bit of pressure. I used one half of the bottom part, cutting off any excess plastic and then put the circuit board back and mounted it in the center console with some epoxy. There are a couple of pigtails soldered to the circuit board with spades on the end. I connected those directly to the 12V wiring for the cig lighter and thats about it.

 

Thanks, Just placed my order. This will make it so much easier to get rid of some wires with bulky cigarette lighter ends.

 

coop310 how do you take the cup holders off? I want to hard wire my gps to the same power as the cig lighter vs running a wire all the way to the fuse box(I have to keep my lighter plug for the traffic reciever so I have to find a female lighter some place)

 

The cupholders are part of the whole center console (between the seats), I don't think that you can remove them separately.

 

Has anyone else done this? Schatzy?
I'd love to see some pics.

 

I have not had a good weather day yet. It is still cold here in Central Mass., and the few days that have been somewhat nice i have been away on ski trips. Maybe this weekend though but i hear notw that it is supposed to rain. Someday

 

What if you get rid of your iPhone?

Kidding...but I wanted to beat someone to the punch.

 

The USB charger that I used charges "most standard USB devices" and has charged every one that I have tested.

My last 3 phones (iPhone, Cingular 2125, RAZR) have all charged via USB, as does my GPS (Garmin Nuvi) and digital camera (Sony point and shoot). In fact, I cannot remember the last time that I had a device in my car that did not charge via USB.

On top of that, nearly all cellular phone manufacturers have signed an agreement to standardize the charging interface to reduce the number of discarded chargers in landfills (Apple was the only major hold-out) and the interface that the consortium chose was USB, so I think I am in pretty good shape.

 

Coop310, that is amazing work! Well done, very unique and most certainly more useful as you are right, everything now a days is charged via USB!

 

This is really cool. I think you should write up a detailed DIY.

 

 

nvm... i think it's just easier to get this:

http://i.gizmodo.com/5220668/i-would...rger-in-my-car

 

Now if id did not say Belkin on it it would really be nice. But the wording can probably be take off with the right chemicals.

 

or a permanent marker

 

I went with just replacing the lighter with a rechargeable mini LED flashlight in jet black.

 

That's awesome!! Cool idea!

 

Awesome mod dude