How To Connect Car Stereo To 12 Volt Cigarette Lighter Socket

If you want you can tap into a 12 volt source and connect your aftermarket car stereo to your vehicles cigarette lighter socket. Wiring up your car radio to a cigarette lighter socket is actually a good idea if the main feed is being problematic or not cutting off when you turn off the ignition, so you have to manually turn off the car stereo. All 12 volt cigarette lighter sockets also have a fuse inline to prevent any shorts creating any damage to your headunit. I have personally done a few cars that have a car stereo connect to a cigarette lighter and have always worked flawlessly. The performance is how it normally should be and it doesn't turn off at high volume levels. When using a length of extra speaker wire to extend the connection from the stereos wiring harness plug, make sure you use nice thick 20 gauge wire. The thicker the better the higher level of current will be transferred providing a solider power and ground connections. Since you are just temporally tapping into the wiring of the cigarette lighter socket it still will work as normal and will not be affected in anyway. So you can still charge your iphone or Samsung phone using a usb cable and plug in your sat nav.

1) Turn off the cars ignition. Pop the hood and disconnect the positive terminal from the battery. This is to prevent any shorts occurring when working on your vehicle.

2) Find the cig socket location on the dashboard. You will require a flat head screwdriver to remove it from its metal clips or plastic housing that holds in place.

3) Once removed, you will see two wires connecting into the back of it. One being red positive and the other being black negative.

4) Solder two extra pieces of wire onto each terminal and run them up to the din slot for the radio. It would be ideal to use a spare piece of speaker cable and match the wires colors.

5) Look for the yellow, red and black wires on the wiring harness that is connected into the back of the CD player fitted in your car. Connect the positive wire coming from the cig socket to the yellow and red wires on the stereo's plug. Connect the black wire to the ground wire which is the same color on the back of the wiring harness. Using electrical tape to cover up any naked connections to prevent blowing fuses later on after the install.

6) Once you have wired everything up accordingly, push the cig socket back into its hole and push the car stereo back into its din slot. Reconnect the positive terminal back onto the battery. Start your car, the headunit should power on and off with the ignition.