Hi
Has anyone else had problems with a TomTom power cable (or ANY other power cable for that matter) in the Civic's lighter socket? When I push it in, it's quite stiff (ooh-err!) but when I pull it out, the entire lighter-socket comes out of the console complete with dangling wires. It seems it's only held in by two tiny lugs and it's much easier to pull the socket out of the car than the power cable out of the socket. The same thing happens with my mobile phone charger. It seems the socket is slightly smaller diameter than standard sockets and as such, most chargers I've tried seem to get jammed in the socket.
From now on, I'm going to have to charge my TomTom in the house or modify the charger somehow so it pulls out more easily.
Am Having a cigar lighter put into the glove compartment by the dealer, doing it free of charge. Seems the tom tom cable will just make it through the side of the lid.
Any ideas where to place the tom tom as am not keen on the windscreen?
You can't really hold the outside. The bit that comes out in my car (the metal insert) is only about 2mm bigger than the charger itself and that makes it pretty much impossible to hold in place unless your fingers happen to be flat bladed screwdrivers (which I expect is true for some of the posters on this site! ).
Another thing: The power cable is right in the way of the gear stick once you've plugged it in. What idiot thought to put it there knowing it would be primarily used for chargers!
No - in my focus I used to have it on the windscreen, but in the civic, the windscreen is really far away (I have to sit quite far back) and I can't reach it very easily. I think I'm going to have to put some kind of mount in, but I can't mod anything as I'm only leasing my Civic (not that I would ever consider drilling the dashboard anyway - but I have found that hot glue guns are useful for affixing things in a secure but removable way).
As in your situation you may not mod anything on the car I have the following tip: Use the 12 V connection in the boot and lay a cable under the carpet / doorsteps from the boot to the dashboard and use that for your TomTom device.
I spent a while searching and couldn't find any mention of a fix - although many others have mentioned this is a problem. If anyone finds the fix, please post below.
If the thread is about brodit clips (can't open it cos pc is playing silly you know whats) then they don't do clips for the 510, 710 or 910...too complicated apparently
Using the cigarette lighter is very much like making love to a beautiful woman.....actually I'll stop there! Mine feels tight but hasn't come out as yet, perhaps some carefully applied superglue will assist.
or there is a thread in the How To section somewhere which details how to wire in an extension lighter socket, which you could then put wherever you want
Have sorted out my tomtom problems, attached the tomtom to the shiny part of the dash (just to the right of display) using the suction holder, had a cigar lighter socked put into the glove compartment. The cable long is easily enough to reach tomtom.
Now I can take it out when needed, and hide it when not.
Hmm. I thought the suction holder was too big to be used this way. I'm sure my suction holder is taller than the "shiny area" and therefore won't stick to it. Can you post a pic? Which tomtom do you have?
Thanks for the pics. That setup looks quite neat but I have a TomTom 910 and there's no way it will work - the suction cup must be an inch or so bigger than the one on the TomTom One and as such it can't get a seal on any part of the panel. The only thing I can think of is to perhaps glue a plastic disc to the dash using a hot glue gun and hope it doesn't mark it. Either that, or I'll have to find a gooseneck windscreen mount for the 910. The 910 is REALLY heavy though and doesn't take well to a gooseneck style mount.
Hey Nick, I had the same problems. I used my TomTom to navigate me to a bad part of town that I had to go to. Obviously I needed to hide the TomTom before it caught the eye of the local twockers, so just before I stopped my car, I pulled the plug out of the socket and ended up with a lump of plastic in my hand, connected by a bunch of wires to the centre console. The plug is just too big for the socket, and in any case, it fouls the gear stick in 4th/6th as you found. So you can either run it on batteries like I do, or hardwire the charger into the fuse box or the wires to the cigarette lighter.
Happy Navigating!
P.S. luckily I managed to disconnect the charger and hide the TomTom before twockers had a look in.
For fixing on the perspex part of the dash, try Tesa Powerstrips or 3M Command Strips.
These are self adhesive double sided sticky foam pads. However, unlike the standard sticky pads, they have a small tab at the side. If you pull sideways, the foam stretches and comes away without leaving any marks.
I've not tried them on the dash, but I've used them a few times elsewhere and they are very effective indeed.
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