Hi,

I have just purchased my first focus....love it!

I want to hard wire my new tom tom so the cable doesn't trail down the front of the console.

The guy at the shop said he could do it for £50 by running a type of bike brake cable down the air vent and popping out by the lighter socket.

Has anyone done this before or had this done?

Is it easy to do?

Any advice really appreciated.

Cheers

Jules

Hi,

I have just purchased my first focus....love it!

I want to hard wire my new tom tom so the cable doesn't trail down the front of the console.

The guy at the shop said he could do it for £50 by running a type of bike brake cable down the air vent and popping out by the lighter socket.

Has anyone done this before or had this done?

Is it easy to do?

Any advice really appreciated.

Cheers

Jules

Welcome to the forum Jules.

Only word of advice I would give is this. I read somewhere that the item theft that results in the most vehicle breakins is that of portable sat navs. Hence the advice given is, when leaving the vehicle unattended leave no visual trace of the fact you have a portable sat nav. Be it the sat nav it's self, or the cabling, or the cradle it sits in attached to the dash or the windscreen. Or even the tell tale ring mark the cradle leaves on the windscreen once the cradle has been removed.

Reason being, if the low life who smash your side windows to snatch your sat nav, on seeing any of the tell tale signs of the fact a sat nav is used in the vehicle. And even though the sat nav may not be in it's cradle, they will force entry to check said sat nav it is not hidden within the car.

I've got a TomTom Go series with the latest maps installed, and my music collection on a SD card. I'm insured with Churchill, fully comp, but in the small print, any portable electronic possessions are not insured under said policy, if left in the car whilst it is unattended.

Do I follow said advice..............is the Pope Catholic?

PS: I never leave the TomTom in the car, I bought a carry pouch that you can loop onto your trousers belt, and it does the job fine. In fact first I bought a fabric one [same stuff they make ruck sacks out of. Then I bought a more expensive leather one, but the fabric one cushions TomTom better, looks better, and sleeker.

I have a tom tom one and a focus, and I have an answer to this! it may work for you, or may not but...

I have got a 1-4 12v extension. the head of this (the actual 1st plug, sits where the ashtray used to sit. I then removed, the centre console plastics and ran the cable and the extension under the console and along the gear stick.

I then took out the right hand air vent (centre console) and drilled a hole through the plastic, and fed the tom tom charger through the hole, and out to the front so that it pokes out of the air vent, but is not obvious. I then put the power supply of the tom tom down the back of the stereo to the 4 way adapter and plugged it in. I have done this with a few things including a 12v - USB connection, and a power supply to my FM transmitter which is stashed nicely in the back seat ashtray.

This means that all I have to do is plug the main supply into the centre console outlet, and it powers all of them, I can then freely pull out the tom tom cable and plug it in to the satnav and push it back in again, and when I am done, just got to unplug and tuck the extension plug, into where the ashtray used to sit, and then close the cover.

It took some time to get this right as when you put the vent back in sometimes it nips the cable and isn't as free moving

In picture 2, you can just see the top of the USB cable that is poking out underneath where the cigarette plugs in, so then I can plug in a USB cable to there, and hand the SAT NAV to the wife in case I need her to do anything, or in case she just wants to watch my speed...

Heres some pictures!