Topic

I managed to get myself comprehensively lost driving solo around a strange town so have bitten the bullet and bought a Garmin 52 SatNaV with an air vent holder. The Garmin air vent holder works well on the F and the unit is sensitive enough that it locks on to satellites in the garage. So I'm thinking about a neat semi-permanent hidden wiring system and hope to tap in to some experience.

My thoughts are to have the USB end of the power cable come out through the air vent next to the mount. Any tips on how to do this? I'm then thinking of wiring a hidden 12v cigarette lighter socket for the other end of the power cable to plug in to (looking at You Tube, this seems to be the way most people do it). I'm looking to find an accessory controlled power supply probably in the fuse box under the dash - any suggestions?

Happy to share the finished solution of course.

Richard

I did exactly this. I just used the switched live from the back of the stereo.

If you are using the central vents then routing the usb will be a piece of ????.
Slip a screw driver under the vent and flip it out. There's acres of space to work in behind there and if you site your hidden cigarette lighter behind the kick panel it is a straight run through to the back of the vent area.

My bits to wire the satnav arrived today (trailing cigarette lighter socket and tappit connectors) so I got on to it this afternoon.

Here are the parts:



I removed the centre vent:



And fed the Garmin power lead through the vent with a notch at the back to give the wire some space. I had planned to feed the Garmin plug down to the carpet behind the centre console but it was too fat to go through the gaps so I connected it to the lighter socket and placed the whole lot under the vent space then fed the socket wires through the gap.


I'd decided to tap in to the built-in cigarette lighter socket so fed the wires along the centre tunnel making sure they were well clear of the gear change mechanism:



The Garmin vent holder seems to work best 'upside down':



Everything worked as anticipated and while there is a bit of vibration caused by movement of the air vent fins, it's not too bad and better than sticking in on the windscreen.



The audio is loud enough to hear top down.

Richard

That's a neat solution. Adam Elphick's route for a mobile phone using Waze (a free alternative to sat nav and some think much better and free!) is a twin USB to replace the cigar lighter - as Waze on a phone needs a lot of power or the phone slowly discharges. I lashed out 99p for the vent-mounted sprung holder. The phone connector goes to the USB, which is less tidy, but you can use your phone's charger lead.

Waze is live and constantly updated by other users, which is what makes it so useful, and Uber drivers, for example, often prefer it to Google maps.

So this is my Mk2 installation. On reflection I decided to ditch the radio which I never use in the F and fit a home made blanking plate (a bit cut off the old passenger airbag blank with 2 sprung brackets to hold it in place) to which I've bolted the SatNav attachment clip. The wiring remains as before. I think it looks a bit neater (subjective comment of course) and it doesn't vibrate in the same way that the air vent mount did. Also both centre air vents are back in use.



Richard

I took a different approach: we prefer the Nav to the right rather than centre: I picked up a switched live from the ignition block and used a cig lighter socket so I could use the original lead. The cable comes up the side of the dash next to the A post and the mount sits snugly in the bottom corner of the screen. When not in use the satnav power small plug tucks out of sight. The cig lighter plug and socket are neatly fixed in the fuse box area.

Taking a different approach completely..... still taking shape at the mo but soon....



I have a double din Android head unit with Sat nav, reverse cam etc. ready for it in the loft.