Cigarette Lighter Charge Stays On When Car Is Off
 

i recently installed a dash cam on my car. the dash is supposed to come on when i turn on the car and off when i turn off the car. the issue is, our cars' cigarette lighter stays on forever. and yes i have tested it, i left the dash cam plugged in on my lunch break and it kept recording the entire hour.

my question is, is there a solution to turning off and on the cig. lighter? i found this thread doing a google search: https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=526646

and secondly, the dash cam has a on and off button, if i leave the cable plugged into the cig light and just turn the dash cam off and on with the button, will it drain the battery.

thanks.....

Following...

Question...I know some BMWs have a 12v charging socket below the dash/glovebox area...if you have it...is that socket "switched" (turns off after 16 minutes or when ignition is turned off)? Or does it stay hot all the time like the other cigarette lighter sockets?

i have the dash cam plugged into that exact 12v charging socket below the dash/glovebox area. i ran the wires under the head liner and under the glove box.

:thumbup: ...guess that answers that question...thanks for the verification and specifics as to which socket you were referencing.


BTW...what's your model year? Asking because some of the early build (or pre facelift models)...the little orange gear-shift light never turns off either...perhaps its related in that if your little orange light never turns off...it also means your 12v charging sockets also remain hot all the time.

can you please elaborate, does the charge from that socket stay on all the time? but i believe its the same with all the socket, if its not. let me know, i can ran the wire to the socket in front of the rear seat.

i have a 2003 4.4i. the little orange gear-shift light is on. i'm at work now. but i can confirm that after work.

I have a 2001 3.0i, and once drained my battery by leaving a GPS plugged into that 12V outlet in the passenger footwell.

And for the OP's question about whether it would work to power off and on each time, sure that would work fine. Except for the time you forget to power off and the battery drains. And then for the time you forget to turn it on and don't have the video you need. So no, you really need to get that switch thing figured out.

I know in other cars, there is sometimes a little relay at the fuse box that switches power for the switched power outlets. Then people short those out to enable power on all the time. You want the opposite, so perhaps adding a relay would do the job.

Whatever the solution is, I bet a lot of us will be interested in it. :popcorn:

I keep my solar charger/battery tender plug into the cigarette lighter underneath the glove box. Sometime I will use the power plug at the back of the truck when I have the solar charger sitting on the retractable cover.

I don't know if it's relevant but when I was using a FM transmitter before and it was connected to my ipod, the plug would stay live if the ipod was playing even long after the X was turned off (till song list ended). But if the ipod was off the transmitter/plug would shut down in about 15 minutes. I think that a live draw on a plug keeps the ibus from shutting down. Try turning on your dashcams accelerometer so it only runs while moving and shuts down after a few minutes of standstill... This might save you from a wiring job.

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