I use the cigarette lighter outlet for a satnav in my A3 Sportback and was surprised to find the outlet is live even when the ignition is off, leading to the possibility of draining the battery if I am not careful. Is this normal?

I'm fairly sure that's how they come on the A3...

Thanks James. I guess I shall have to poke around in the wiring to find a supply that is switched with the key.

I always find using a fuse tap/piggyback is quite a neat way of doing it as you don't have to chop any wires etc

I haven't seen those until now. I must investigate further.

On 5/11/2016 at 9:45 AM, cliffcoggin said:

I haven't seen those until now. I must investigate further.

They're pretty useful. I usually use them for hardwiring dash cams etc

After a couple of false starts the sat nav is now permanently wired to a key switched circuit. Thanks for the tip James about piggy back fuse taps. An added benefit to the job is having less than a foot of wire on show above the dash, so it looks far tidier.

On 5/18/2016 at 2:47 PM, cliffcoggin said:

After a couple of false starts the sat nav is now permanently wired to a key switched circuit. Thanks for the tip James about piggy back fuse taps. An added benefit to the job is having less than a foot of wire on show above the dash, so it looks far tidier.

Glad you managed to sort it - the fuse taps are pretty useful for all sorts of things! 

Are you able to give more details how to do that? As i do have same issue.
I have bought some amazon fuse taps, but it did not work for me. Maybe those needs to be special piggy back?

EDIT:
Looks like I have an answer already, as I have flipped fuse taps around, will test that later.