Questions and Answers

Toyota Cigarette Lighter Installation Q. Hi Vincent, My question is regarding how to properly wire an 12 volt auxiliary cigarette lighter into my 1989 Toyota. I have the accessory. It has a standard positive and negative lead with a 20 amp fuse in the positive. The leads are only a few inches long however. Can I simply strip these and wire them long enough to reach my battery through the fire wall?

What gauge wire minimum? And how to ground the negative? I thought that I could wire the positive directly to the post as the previous owner had done for the trailer he towed. And I noticed on the fender well a small black rectangle attached to the fender well with two threaded posts. Is this to ground the negative?

Thank you...

A. You can add as much wire to the leads as you need. And 18 or 16 gauge wire would be the smallest I would go with. If you are going to use it to power something like an portable air compressor, I would go heavier, 14 or 12 gauge. The smaller the gauge number, the thicker the wire.

You can run the wire out to the battery, but I would look for someplace closer if possible. It is best to find a circuit that is OFF when the key is OFF. A test light will help you locate an ACCY circuit you can tap off of. As for the ground, you can ground it to anything metal near the installation point.

The idea is to keep the amount of wire to a minimum and the installation simple.