(Need Help) 12V ACC power CLOSEST to driver side AC.

Hi, I'm trying to hardwire my Garmin GPS, which I want to be located on the left-side (driver's side) of the dashboard. It's around the top area of the driver's side AC. I'm thinking to tap a wire from the fuse box located in the glovebox area and run the wire behind the radio and through the steering compartment then up through the gaps (Need more research on this).

I'm posting this to ask if any of the member had a better idea on where should I be getting my power from? I'm going to use a 12V cigarette lighter I got from Radio Shack's Clearance and also use the original Garmin GPS+Traffic charging plug, which is going to be pretty big when bundled up together. Most of the research I've done suggested me to tap the power from the fuse box, or the cigarette lighter (not powered by ACC, but can be altered easily by tapping the fuse box of the cigar lighter into another acc-powered fuse box). I'm looking for the cleanest install possible with as little cable as possible shown outside of the dashboard panels :)

Additionally, I'm hoping to do another hardwire for my usb-cable to charge up my phone. I'm hoping that I can get rid of the issue coming with charging the phone while using the aux-cable.

Thank you!

Yeah that seems like a lot of work lol

Honestly, both ways that I can think of use a lot of cable, but is clean for wiring. It's mainly because you're using the Garmin charging plug, so the wire is going to be short and the best area to put all that stuff would actually be under the steering column. The the steering column to the GPS, the wiring is fairly straightforward to run.

There's a couple ways to do it. You could make a fused cig lighter through the mobile phone plug that is under the console. Then you can run the wires long the console and straight to the kick panel and plug everything up in there and zip tie it to something. That would be the easiest method.

The other way would to just use an empty fuse box location. Fuse 23 (i think that's the correct one, looked it up earlier for someone here) is what I recommend, because generally cars don't come with the roller blinds. Then run it across the back of everything like you stated. To me this is harder because you need to find a good ground and it's harder to make the cable run. But It's a more OE install IMO which is what I prefer.


What is the issue you have with your phone/aux?

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Originally Posted by sillieidiot

Yeah that seems like a lot of work lol

Honestly, both ways that I can think of use a lot of cable, but is clean for wiring. It's mainly because you're using the Garmin charging plug, so the wire is going to be short and the best area to put all that stuff would actually be under the steering column. The the steering column to the GPS, the wiring is fairly straightforward to run.

There's a couple ways to do it. You could make a fused cig lighter through the mobile phone plug that is under the console. Then you can run the wires long the console and straight to the kick panel and plug everything up in there and zip tie it to something. That would be the easiest method.

The other way would to just use an empty fuse box location. Fuse 23 (i think that's the correct one, looked it up earlier for someone here) is what I recommend, because generally cars don't come with the roller blinds. Then run it across the back of everything like you stated. To me this is harder because you need to find a good ground and it's harder to make the cable run. But It's a more OE install IMO which is what I prefer.


What is the issue you have with your phone/aux?

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Hi, sorry for the late reply. Thank you so much for your help! I'll open up the steering column panels once I got the car back. It's in the shop right now for a tune up refreshment (Fluids, cooling system, etc). I think I'll try your method to run the 12v power from the center console through the kick panel. That seems to be a whole lot easier and cleaner too. Fuse box isn't too bad either since I've dropped down the whole glove box assembly and remove the radio, but not really sure on how to route the cable through the back of the radio till it finally reaches the left of driver side's dashboard.

I'm also thinking to just run the cable through the sunroof motor since the ground is clear, the only issue is the space limitation up there plus the heat induced to the roof to the additional electrical components up there.

The issue I'm having with my phone/aux is that my phone can't be charged while using the aux cable. The aux option will just disappear. I did some research on it and found that some were able to fix the issue using the OEM cable due to a resistor is installed inside the OEM cable, but some still having that issue as well. I'm a pretty lost regarding this one.