I just bought a Garmin Nuvi NAV for my car and it works great....the only thing I'd like to do is hard wire it so I don't have to use up my cigarette lighter...has anyone done this or something similar???

Any suggestions welcome!

 

I just did the same thing but not for nav. I hard wired my radar detector, amp remote wire and an extra power outlet. Go to an auto parts store and buy a relay for hooking up aftermarket driving lights. It should have 4-5 prongs. The back of the box will tell you which one is which. you will run a fused power wire to the battery, a posotive wire from the relay to the nav, ground the nav. and find a power source for the relay. I used the existing power outlet. All said and done it came out looking completly stock and works great and all together I think I invested about 25 dollars including the wire cutters and zip ties. I hope that I was some help. If you need me to I can take some pics of my install to see what you are going for.

 

pics please??

 

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...7/100_0949.jpg

Okay, so i tried to take pics but everything is tucked inside the dash. Here are the things needed excluding the relay and the inline fuse. Here is a step by step of what to do.

1. Locate a power source that turns on and off with the key (so the battery won't go down when the not in use) I tapped into the existing cigarette lighter outlet. Just use a test light and find out which wire is the posotive and there you go. Hook that wire up to the prong on the relay that says "To switching means". This will turn the relay on and off with the key.

2. Route a power wire the battery with an inline fuse. On the 02 S40 there is a hole in the bulkhead just left and up from the brake pedal. It already has a grommet so it works really good. That wire will hook to the prong labeled "Fused power from baattery"

3. Run a wire from the prong labeled "power to lamps" to the power wire on the accessory you are trying to run.

4. Find a good ground source to ground the relay.

5. Ground the accessory inself.

6. Hide all the wires and put the car back together and enjoy your handy work.

 

oh sorry i meant i just wanna see how it looks installed

 

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...7/100_0953.jpg

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...7/100_0952.jpg

here is what it ended up looking like. you can't really see much but thats a good thing. Inside the kick panel there is a remote wire for the stereo and a 2gauger power wire running to the back. All of the other stuff is tucked into the dash out of sight.