Jaguar74

I don't know why but anything I tried to plug into my cigarette lighter plug seems to be too small and won't make contact. Is there some sort of adapter that is necessary to make items such as radar detectors,, phones fit the plug? Thanks for any help. 1991 C2

spartansix

So, for some insane reason Porsche used a weird size for the cigarette lighter, which, as you say, is marginally larger in diameter than the modern standard.
You'll find adapters for the DIN size, which was used on old Ferraris and some BMW motorcycles, but that's even bigger, and won't work.
My car came with a thin metal shim insert, which takes up the slack. I can't find such a thing for sale anywhere, but I think it is possible to make one.

See this thread for guidance: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...od-5-99-a.html

BLACK3.2

What works for me are the cigarette lighter chargers that have metal springs on the side. You can put a pen or other metal part under the spring and pry them up so that they jut out more. Once you've done that, it will fit fine in the cig lighter. You want one like this:

Spyerx

my valentine 1 plug seems to hold in OK. I wired in a USB charger for charging devices.

rost12

I use this one, it fits well enough.

Bergvill FX

just beware that not all usb plugs give enough juice to charge modern big battery phones (like iPhone 11), the one above is barely enough

mundo-kombi

I've just ditched the cigarette lighter altogether, maybe that is something you may consider. I was looking for a fitted USB-C socket and found one on Amazon that provided 1 x USB-C, 1 x standard USB QC 3.0 and a handy LED votage display.

I removed the stock cigarette lighter socket (there is a simple trick to removing it, ask me how if you want to know) and my new USB socket fitted exactly in the hole left in the dash, no modification was needed and it's easy enough to revert back to the OG cigarette lighter at a later date. Wiring was easy, just a switched live (P-CONT from the stereo for example) and an earth.

Here it is fitted, apologies for the poor quality, foto taken at night with flash....


Blanking plates replaces a stereo head unit. Fitted with a controller for a Bluetooth Kenwood amplifier, negating the need for a traditional head unit.

gavonder

I've done this & it works beautifully.

911Jetta

That looks great!

It motivated me to go out into the garage and start thinking about removing whatever was installed in in the empty center button (US cars don’t have the rear fog button, so that space is usually blank). Rotating ****, so must be stereo related?

Your USB/LED mod would look great there also. Since this spot is usually solid on US cars, is it easy to enlarge the hole in the dash from outside? Does a cover pop off?

Would love more pics of the process to show the wiring, etc.

spartansix

This appears to be the part. Note that you will need a ~27 mm hole, which is significantly larger than the hole for the stock switch.
As long as you're okay with that, it should be easy enough to enlarge the hole. Porsche does make a blanking plug for the dash switches, but it would be too small for the hole you'd drill to fit that device.
Wiring is very simple, connect the red wire to either the yellow or the red radio wire (depending on whether you want constant or ignition switched power) and connect the black wire to any ground point under the dash.

r-mm

If you're like me and blue light burns your eyes up in a nice vintage german sportscar... this is very subtle and fits tight.

911Jetta

Plus it comes with a cap to cover everything if you want. Thanks for the technical help, sounds doable (even for me).

I understand the blue light comment, verses the rest of the dash lights. My radio faceplate light was blue, lots of blue light. Didn’t think the design or display color fit, so did the lazy man radio delete since day one (ie: just detached the faceplate).

That said, I like seeing the LED voltmeter and have a blue dash so it could work.


This one might be better. Randomly found this U-Toob channel recently, the LED voltmeter light looks like a good fit for our cars. Installed and lighted at 9:35

mundo-kombi

Hey 911Jetta.

Happy to give any advice I can. First of all, there is no permanent modification needed, no enlarging of holes. There's few additional fotos that I can provide that will help you, but I've attached what I can. You'll see that where you have that rocker switch fitted (where the rear fog light is normally placed on ROW cars), there is a "rosette", or a piece of circular plastic trim. This same rosette surrounds the cigarette lighter socket and needs to be removed...

Circular dash switch trim that surrounds the cigarette lighter. This will pop out with ease and may even come out as your remove the cigarette lighter.

Once you've removed this trim, you'll be left with a hole exactly the size needed to insert the USB socket - a hole of about 28mm. The internal diameter of the rosette is about 25mm, too small to insert the USB socket. Remove it and keep is safe with your cigarette lighter should you or the next owner want to revert back to stock.


I've pulled the USB socket to show the hole with the rosette removed.

As for the wiring, not much to say. Black wire to connect to chassis ground, fused red wire to connect to 12V positive. You'll need to connect the red wire to an ignition switched source, otherwise the LED on the USB socket will be permanently illuminated, slowly draining your battery. This means therefore that the USB socket will only work when the ignition is on. Wire up to permanent 12V if you want it to work with the ignition off, but choose a USB charger without a battery level indicator. You'll find a switched 12V source connected to your stereo headunit so you could T off that. If you run a stock head unit, CR-1 for example, or stock stereo head unit wiring, ask around on this forum which wire provides switched 12V to the stereo.


Behind your stereo you may have a chassis ground location on the bulkhead. Here I've connected the ground wire from the Bluetooth Wireless Amplifier and the USB socket to this chassis ground.


I chose this particular USB socket as it has a USB-C connector. In case you're not aware, USB-C is the new standard for power and data transmission, and the new standard for power delivery (USB-PD) is delivered using the USB-C connector, it's much faster to charge and transmit data than anything before. It can provide up to 100W, so will charge laptops too. If you're phone doesn't have USB-C, your next one will, so will your laptop.

In the 964 I use my cell phone for GPS, radio, streaming music, and of course to make and receive calls, so the (cell phone) battery takes a beating and I figured the quick charge capabilities of USB-PD would be of benefit.

Have fun!!

mundo-kombi

That's the exact item I ordered from Amazon.

You would not need to enlarge the hole in the dash, with all plastic trim removed (that which the toggle switch is mounted into, see my previous post), what will remain in the dash is a hole of the exact size needed of, as as you say, 27mm more or less.

mundo-kombi

I'm sure I found on Amazon other USB sockets with battery condition indicators in other colors, green maybe. The blue however is fairly descreet (especially if you have the splash proof cover fitted, which fades the blue somewhat) and in either case, there's no comparison to those Japanese headunits with their offensive flashing lights

sooner964

@mundo-kombi what is the simple trick to removing the lighter plug? I found an old thread dating back to 2002 that describes a procedure and I'm curious if it is the same as yours? Thanks!