Octavia Rear 12v Socket question

[Mickos]

Hi. I want to add a switch next to my fuel cap open switch to turn the power on and off to the 12v socket in the rear of my estsate.

Does anyone know the best way... ie.. is the wiring for the socket behind the dash ? save having to run a cable down the car, just switch it from the front

[Quinten]

I presume the 12V for the socket in the boot is taken straight from the battery terminals and is a permanent live. Quite possibly I'm wrong though and is it just part of the normal wiring loom going into the boot. One thing though, I'd not recomment having any form of electricity near a fuel tank... but thats just being supersticious (sp?)

[MonkeyHanger]

I presume the 12V for the socket in the boot is taken straight from the battery terminals and is a permanent live. Quite possibly I'm wrong though and is it just part of the normal wiring loom going into the boot. One thing though, I'd not recomment having any form of electricity near a fuel tank... but thats just being supersticious (sp?)

Q, i sincerely hope it goes via a fuse first

As for electricity near a fuel tank, can i mention fuel pumps, fuel guage senders, electric fuel flap releases...

Finding the correct wire out of the loom to split across a switch will be a nightmare i would guess. Is a switch really necessary ?

[Mickos]

It's for my magnetic beacon i use for work on the back of the car. I figured powering it up from the 12v outlet on the estate would be ideal, but it's a bit inappropriate to get out of the car and plug it in everytime I stop.

Thought it would be a nice neat solution if I could use a matching switch on the dash.

[MonkeyHanger]

Ahhh..gotcha !!

How about a longer lead, cunningly concealed under the carpet and routed to the front socket ?

Edit

or better yet, pick up a supply from the front socket, run it thru the switch on the dash, then on to your beacon ?

[SimonT]

I recommend you use a relay to control the back socket. Site the relay near / at the outlet, and then you can run a cable back to the dash. This can be very thin because you are only supplying 50mA or so, rather than having to run a new heavy guage wire.

Alternatively, if you don't want to run wires along the car, and have about

[stopan1j]

Does the convieniece switch on the drivers door turn off the socket, probably not but I think it will turn of the interior cigerette socket - worth a try though, safety feature for children playing

[SimonT]

Does the convieniece switch on the drivers door turn off the socket, probably not but I think it will turn of the interior cigerette socket - worth a try though, safety feature for children playing

I have an Octy hatch, and the switch on my driver's door doesn't even seem to switch on / off the interior socket :confused: (not that I have a "boot" socket).

[humsk]

No, the convenience switch on the drivers door does not turn off the boot socket only the front cigar lighter.

One possible option is to find the appropriate wire in the fuse box (fuse 35 on my estate) - a simple idea would be to wire the switch, with an in-line fuse, to the terminals of a blown fuse plugged into the appropriate socket in the fuse box. This way the mod can be easily removed in the future.

[SimonT]

So should mine work and do this? Where's the relay?

[JayTee]

Hi Simon,

I would endorse the good practice of switching the rear socket power by a relay.

If you look at the Hella site, (www.hella.co.uk) they actually do a radio link switched relay, so you don't have to run any wires!

Might be a bit overkill though.

John.