Cigarette Lighter ChangeOver Question

has anyone ever switched over their cigarette lighters/power outputs on a 99 from "full time" power to power that is only on when the key is on? I was just curious as to what the easiest/quickest way would be so i'll have an idea before i get into it. Does the dash have to be removed? What is the easiest way to get into the cig. lgihter area? Im running a radar detector, and a cell phone charger and i dont like to leave them on when the truck is off, and its a pain in the ass to plug/unplug them all the time.

thanks,
jerry

You could put a separate switch on them. The switch would allow the cig lighter to work whenever the switch is on, regardless of key position. That is probably the route I would take. Otherwise, you would have to take the + wire from the cig lighter and connect it to a + ignition wire. There are some other steps and precautions involved. Let us know which method you would prefer and we will help you through it.

Now that we are on this subject, my cigarrete lighter plug is the only one that works, the other two don´t and I already checked the fuses, anybody have an idea what could be wrong?

check the grounds.


as for the original question. I would not go cutting and splicing on original wiring. I would just simply add two oulets (you can get them at any autoparts store) and wire them to an ignition fuse.

...the truck already has 3 outlets, in hindsight, i mis-spoke when i said "ciagretter lighter".. Im actually talking about leaving the cig. lighter as it is, and only switching the 2 auxillary + wires.

thanks,
jerry

Most of the newer trucks have battery run down protection built in... so even if you leave your radar detector or phone charge on after a while they shut off automatically. Not sure what year it started... if you have it and use the key fob to open the doors you probably would never know... it turns back on when you hit the unlock button.

...the truck already has 3 outlets, in hindsight, i mis-spoke when i said "ciagretter lighter".. Im actually talking about leaving the cig. lighter as it is, and only switching the 2 auxillary + wires.

thanks,
jerry

You can buy a hardwire radar detector kit at a local stereo shop for most detectors for about 10$ or you can also cut off the lighter plug of your radar detector too. If you do that use a digital multimeter and put it on diode test (the Beep setting) and put a lead on the socket side and the other on the bare wire side the center pin of the plug is the 12V side and the side contacts are ground. You can wire them in to the 10guage brown wire in the ignition harness. Make sure you fuse that wire at the source of the connection. This way you can run your wires down in below the windshield and along the side of the dash well hidden and out of the way. As for your cell phone charger if you want to wire your aux sockets the same way just cut the orange wire behind the socket and use the same brown wire in the ign. harness and run up to your socket. Be sure to cap off the orange wire that you cut to prevent it from shorting out. Underdash comes off quite easily with 2 7mm bolts and then unsnaps. Then take the metal shield with 4 10mm bolts to access all of your wires. The top dash for your cig. plugs access all of that just unsnaps.

silveradoman,

Have you checked all the fuses? I had the same problem and it was the 20a aux pwr fuse not the cigar fuse.

The one in this picture:
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/uploads/113514/clfuse.jpg

I just checked it, and the fuse is good and the wire to the left is live, 12v, checked the sockets again and no power, is there another fuse inside the cab that I would have to check? :dunno: