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http://p-car.com/technical/cigarette.htm

Cigarette adapter

Contributed by: Ray Calvo

GETTING POWER FOR YOUR ACCESSORIES

It's been several years since I covered this issue, so I figured an update is in order.

If you have ever tried to use the cigarette lighter in your Porsche to power a 12V accessory (cell phone, radar detector, CB radio, phaser cannon, etc.), I'm sure you've noticed that the standard power plug on many of these accessories does not fit in the Porsche lighter plug very well. Well, there are two fixes which you can try.

First is a cheap little plastic sleeve that fits over your standard 12V accessory plug. This expands the plug diameter so that it fits snugly (well, relatively) in the cigarette lighter socket. Cost is only about $2, they're readily available at any large cell phone shop. Might try them before next alternative.

After trying the above option, it improved matters, but I was still getting power cutout occasionally (big bumps, or if I bumped the power cord). The sleeve helped, but still allowed some "slop" in the fit. What I tried next was a power plug available from Porsche. This fits snugly in your cigarette lighter socket, is sturdily constructed, and has screw terminals for connecting the power leads (positive goes to the center terminal). I made up an adapter from this Porsche plug (about $12 at your dealer) and a US-style cigarette lighter socket available at any auto parts store. This is a firm, solid power connection.

Oh, yeah, the plug is part no. 901 613 801 00


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Unkle

Hi, thanks very much,

Do you have any pics of the Porsche part? I can't picture how it looks with screw terminals, (probably me being dim)

foxford

Hawk,
That's an adapter to use cig lighter plug accessories in a BMW
motorcyle's accessory plug which is maybe 1/2" in diam.

hawk911

oh well, the idea's the same

i have an open spot on my dash that I could just use for a US lighter assembly, but I don't really want to cut into it. Maybe just replace the old style with a new plug?

Unkle

This annoying little thing is fixed,
In the end to solve it i used a cut piece of black corrugated plastic, its perfect as it flexes around the sat nav plug hole but remains perfectly ridged along the length to keep it tight. just did a 50 mile country and dual carriage way run.

Probably because corrugated plastic is made to remain stiff along one axes and flexible along the other its perfect, I had a large sheet for some time and thought i would give it a try. Just slide it in, then push the plug in adaptor on the top

altarchsa

"Oh well" the idea may be the same but $17 lighter in the pocket and 6 days later I can tell you it's not the same. I bought the adapter and as stated it is about 1/2 the diameter of the Pcar cig lighter hole.

psiegel

I wired mine in directly. You can buy a wire for the Garmin at a number of places like (http://www.amazon.com/Gilsson-Direct.../dp/B001A4HAQ2) no affiliation that includes an inline fuse. I routed the wire under the dash, around the passengers side up behind the side of the dash and through (under) the windshield defrost vent. I pop the connector out in the middle deforest vent, with plenty of wire to pull out when in use and push back in when not in use. The level of difficulty is about a 1 out of 10 and there are no wires hanging out in front of the dash and it frees up the lighter for another use, like charging the cell phone so i can still work when i don't want too.