Fair enough William. No point in making unnecessary work for yourself. Have you checked that power to the cigarette lighter socket turns off with the ignition? It varies from car to car.

Hi Clifford, No, I'm pretty sure mine stays on so I would need to unplug I guess. I would need to decide long-term what I will do but it looks like I can only have a cable coming down to the driver side fusebox if I'm going to hardwire it and that will mean leaving the cable in view as the A pillar trim removal is looking like a major faff.

Hope you have a battery charger because you are bound to forget to unplug the lighter socket.

Hi Magnet,

he’s not exactly planning to fiddle with his cars electrics, he just wants to tap into a fuse way. It’s far less risky than home electrics, which is allowed in law yet ve seen horrendous diy jobs that made me pale when I found them (ceiling rise broken apart & un insulated brass connector block just pushed up through the ceiling is one. Wall lights with mounting screws through the live wire, so the unearthed metal casing became live when the lights were on. (This is in house we’re in now), I’ve had worse, cottage in Cornwall had one power Junction box under the unearthed metal bath, another JB was buried in the wall with 3 wire + earth one side & 2x twin & earth the other. I found by ear when the loose connections inside starting arcing & causing lights to flicker !

 But putting a piggy back fuse into a cars fuse way isn’t making any changes to the vehicle electrics. So to my engineers eye, is perfectly reasonable.

Cliff, he’s planning on hard wiring into the fuse box on the end of the dash,so it goes off with the ignition/start ccts, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

BUT, if anyone does have an issue with the battery draining for any reason;  because I don’t use my Allroad every day (sometimes not even every week), I bought a £20 12v DC solar panel, it’s about foolscap paper size (about 2-3” longer than A4 if you haven't heard of it before), it plugs into the OBD port & trickle charges the battery. It works really well.

William, there is an alternative route as most dashcam power cables are many metres long.

it should be fairly easy to release the edge of the headlining above the dash and above the door, to tuck the lead behind it, then run the lead down the B pillar and along behind the carpet at the bottom of the door, then up behind the footwell/door frame trim to the fuse box.

if the cables not long enough, it’s say enough to solder or crimp a join (2, so you can use both existing end connections) to extend it, there are solder & crimp connectors that you can get that come with a seal sealing heat shrink wrap. Just use a wire the same size & colour.

 

Good alternative!

Dave, 

Any particular reason to repeat (some 49 mins ago), a post you made 21 hrs ago? 
I think it’s now high time William is left to make up his own mind - which it seems he has already done. 
Based on this, I feel we should thank you for your contribution towards this thread, and now lock it. 

 

No, got home late & found a post that looked like a draft, so sent it! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Must have left it open before we left this morning!

 

Everyone. Could I buy an adapter and power it from my mirror?

Not sure there is such a thing available.

and getting at the wiring to splice it in is likely to be a bit of a challenge.

hmm looks like I might consider just going back to plan A and hardwiring. thank you all for your help. Its been very useful and has given me a number of options to ponder 

Good luck whatever you decide.