12 Volt Power Points

[cdestuck]

Went to hook up my GPS in my 2010 RX, really surprised and disappointed there are no 12 volt power points close to the upper dash area. Closest one is at the bottom of the arm rest comsole. Long, in the way cord to run from ther up to the dash. Lottle more thought here would have been nice.

[cduluk]

Went to hook up my GPS in my 2010 RX, really surprised and disappointed there are no 12 volt power points close to the upper dash area. Closest one is at the bottom of the arm rest comsole. Long, in the way cord to run from ther up to the dash. Lottle more thought here would have been nice.

Damn! This is the second complaint from a 010 Rx350 owner about this :P Lexus, you listening? ;)

If you want, you could do a little wiring; buy a used lighter socket from ebay, drill a hole in the upper dash somewhere, put it in, and wire it to the other one below. Might not look that bad :)

[cdestuck]

Thought of doing that and putting the second somewhere in the opening beneath the console. At least it would have to lay over the top of the entire console as it goes to the windshield area.

[down2sea]

Make it three. The location of the two 12V outlets and the Aux. outlets in the bottom of the center console, requiring the removal of a tray and a box to access them doesn't make sense. If you were only plugging something in once I guess it wouldn't be much of a problem, but pulling all of the junk out to either plug in or unplug seems that very little planning and forethought was given to this power point.

The issue of "snaking" wires out of there and draping them over the console just doesn't fly with the other "attention to detail" areas of a fine vehicle. The USB port, being located in the same area, requires a flash light and a bit of contortion to insure proper orientation prior to "plugging in." How much nicer things would be if Toyota would have simply reversed the orientation and mounted the outlets flush on the outside of the center console and perhaps added one to the front dashboard (and one to the rear of the center console) would have been nice.

These are "Power Outlets" now, not cigarette lighters--no need to hide them just because there is no "ash" tray.

[cduluk]

i use the cig lighter outlet for my cellphone charger, i use it all the time

[down2sea]

i use the cig lighter outlet for my cellphone charger, i use it all the time

Well, I guess I'm either blind or need a new eyeglass prescription as there is no "cig" lighter outlet nor ashtray in my 2010. There are the 2 12VDC "Power Ports" a USB and audio mini-jack located in the lower part of the center console as well as a 12V power port located in the rear cargo area. Your response prompted me to go out and take another look and nope, no cigarette lighter.

Heck, even my old '41 Chevy 1/2 ton has a 6V cigar lighter in the dash but I doubt there were any 6V accessories that were used at the time.

[cduluk]

I don't know what the exact "name" is, but i've always known it as the lighter plug outlet.

[cdestuck]

Looks like your RX is a pre 2010 model, no plug on the 2010's like that.

[muffalones]

Well, I guess I'm either blind or need a new eyeglass prescription as there is no "cig" lighter outlet nor ashtray in my 2010. There are the 2 12VDC "Power Ports" a USB and audio mini-jack located in the lower part of the center console as well as a 12V power port located in the rear cargo area. Your response prompted me to go out and take another look and nope, no cigarette lighter.

Heck, even my old '41 Chevy 1/2 ton has a 6V cigar lighter in the dash but I doubt there were any 6V accessories that were used at the time.

Is this post even serious? I have never, ever heard anyone call those "power ports" anything besides cigarette lighters. Man, some people on this site are so picky and argumentative.

[cduluk]

Well, I guess I'm either blind or need a new eyeglass prescription as there is no "cig" lighter outlet nor ashtray in my 2010. There are the 2 12VDC "Power Ports" a USB and audio mini-jack located in the lower part of the center console as well as a 12V power port located in the rear cargo area. Your response prompted me to go out and take another look and nope, no cigarette lighter.

Heck, even my old '41 Chevy 1/2 ton has a 6V cigar lighter in the dash but I doubt there were any 6V accessories that were used at the time.

Is this post even serious? I have never, ever heard anyone call those "power ports" anything besides cigarette lighters. Man, some people on this site are so picky and argumentative.

+1 !!!!!! lol

[jdmcmillian]

I know this post is a bit old, but I'm going to post here in case anyone else is looking either for this model and year or a different make altogether.

First a cigarette lighter port can handle the heat generated from a lighter.  Plug an electric lighter into an accessory port and it will melt the surrounding plastic.  Good luck with that.  It's good to differentiate between the two lest some idiot starts their car on fire.  Best case scenario is you end up with burnt plastic smell permeating your car. worst case.....You decide.

Enough of that.

I bypassed the power port problem by finding an alternative source.  If you have electric seats, then they should work with the key switched off.  If they do, then the seats have a constant +12V source going to them.  I tapped into the passenger seat, right in the front there's a molex connector. the inner one(left hand side/the side towards the center of the vehicle is easiest to get to).  3 wires, Black, White-Black Strip and Black-Silver Spots.  The black is +12V almost straight to the battery.  The other 2 are grounds, the white-Black stripe seems to have something in between because I found some resistance on it, so I used the Black-Silver Spotted one which showed less resistance to a known ground (Accessory Outlet/Power Port on the floor board).

As your mileage may vary, check all connections with a voltage and resistance meter before connecting anything to it (This is from memory, and I have not gone out to verify the colors before posting) so if you fry your precious electronics, as always, I'm not responsible.  So don't go blowing up your car or shocking your girl-friend in the not so friendly way.  Unless its what you really want to do.