Hey everyone still pretty new here I guess. I have been lurking for over a year now so finally made an account. I have a 2003 V10 4x4 EB X. Bought her with 55,000 on her she rides great. I have already did a dome light switch, Changed all 10! of my spark plugs and installed new boots, Changing my oil every 3,000 or sooner. And looking to install a full exhaust system from the headers back. Also installed new exhaust manifold studs and getting rid of that POS Y pipe. Prior to this I never set hands on my truck other than the air filter. Now after reading FTE for a year the amount of information hat is on her makes it easy to do things.

So what I have a question on is. I installed a cigarette lighter in the center console so I can have my phone charging cable run out of the front of the console and not have clutter on my dash. Question is I'm looking to land my power so that when the truck is off the cigarette lighter does not have power. I did several searches and couldn't really find anything to point me in the right direction. Any help would be appreciated.

 

The changing stations say 3000 miles and the factory says 5-6k usually but the factory doesn't profit. I would just put a simple question to get to the point about your wiring next time to get better results and you won't have to listen to people like me blabbing off on a tangent.

 

Welcome to the club. I'm pretty new here also. I think FTE is awesome and the link should come with the owners manual or something. I'm just curious about why you spent a whole year reading threads and posts without wanting to jump in and ask for help. Could of saved some pretty pennies. I must of spent a total of 2 minutes before I pulled the trigger on joining. I couldn't resist.

I guess what your first responder means is next time get to the point.
At least that''s what I picked up. We were taken for a spin before finding out what the issue was. But i think everyone has their own issues and that's why they joined. Yours thou small is valid and I'll do my best to help you as a way of paying back all the help I've gotten from the many nice folks here. it's the least one can do.

Here's a suggestion, Run your new lighter wires to the stock lighter wires. It's already connected to the switch and it should turn power off to the lighter when you turn the truck off and it should work like it should. I would put a fuse between the connection just to be on the safe side. The biggest challenge would be hiding the wires. I'm thinking of putting a multiple power grid in my Ex for my power tools, laptop and the kids PlayStation 3. Just need a good Amp and some wiring.. Let us know how you did.
Good luck...

 

On my fords the cig outlet doesn't turn off with the switch better make sure before doing it

 

On my Ex the switch has to be on to get power at the lighter. My last vehicle it didnt need to be on to get power. I feel safer with it off when I turn the truck off because if you leave anything connected you might be draining power from the battery. So your battery life would be shorter.

Run the live to the acc on the ignition and ground it. That's how it should be in the first place.

 

On every ford I've ever owned (save the 66 mustang) which makes 6, the cigarette light/power point has always remained hot with key off.


Try to tap the 12v swithed power wire that goes into the stereo/headunit. That will accomplish your goal.

Regards,
Josh

 

I would stay away from the radio as there is enough stuff running off that as it is and if you ever plug more than a cell phone charger into it you could risk damaging the head unit.

I would personally go to one of two places depending on how much juice I ever planned on having it draw.

1: If like one person said they were going to run a bunch of electronics on a large power inverter I would be run an amp kit to where the inverter was and treat it more like an amp than just some accessory.

2: If it will only be used for small things I would tap into the ignition harness, or behind the fuse panel works but from all the time i spent doing remote starts the harness is just easier for me, and using my multimeter, a test light would work too i guess but I try to never use them, and find the wire that turns on with the key in the run or acc position.

If option 2 I would probably go with some 12 ga speaker wire and just use one side of it, I have lots of it laying around, make sure you put a fuse in close to wherever you tap into your source, 15 or 20 amp is more than adequate depending on the size wire used of course. My method for taping into the wire is strip a 1 inch section of wire, without cutting, then with a hook tool or some other small sharp object put an eyelet in the section you just striped. then strip off about an inch or so on a piece of wire about 6 or 8 inches long and feed it thru the eyelet and wrap it very tightly over the striped section and cover with electrical tape, i would then put a zip tie around the 2 wires together so it is harder to pull the wire you added out. I then crimp a fem spade plug on the other end, that fits one blade on a blade fuse, and put the same fem spade on the end of the wire I am going to run to the console.

There you have it a solid install that is protected should never come undone.

At least that is how I would do it.

 

Welcome to FTE.

It's probably easier to get the "add a circuit" (do a google search)
clip into the fuse panel directly. It's a metal clip that lets you
"add a circuit" by slipping this into an existing fuse's power clip
it even has it's own new fuse.

Just pick a fuse on the fuse panel that is "switched"
(no power when key is off)
and you'll be able to run your own circuit w/o worrying too much.
You could probably remove the driver kick panel & door sill trim and
run the wire to and under your driver seat and make it neat an tidy.

 

Thanks for all of the replies.

809taino: All of my cig lighters have power when the car is off. What year is yours ?

Eastland: Thanks for all the info. This spare plug is only going to run this cell charger. Charger only uses 5-7 watts of power. I think I will use your method and use my muti meter and check which wires become hot when I turn the key.

 

I have a 2000, It's my first ford so I wouldn't know if they all came like this but I know Mine shuts off when the ignition is off. My 94 suburban was the same way. Lets us know how you turned out.