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LAND ROVER DISCOVERY
AUXILIARY 12 V POWER OUTLET INSTALLATION REFERENCE INFORMATION ***PERFORM THIS MODIFICATION AT YOUR OWN RISK!*** This is meant to be performed by someone familiar with basic automotive wiring, experience with power tools, and a general safe working knowledge around vehicles, electricity, etc... Always work carefully! It is best to always disconnect the ground wire from your battery/vehicle before doing electrical work! Below is an outline highlighting the installation of several 12V power outlets in a 2003 Land Rover Discovery. A glovebox outlet will be installed for power supply to a Garmin Dash-Mounted GPS (wire can be tucked between the dash & windshield, then run into the side of the glovebox for a 'clean' look) An outlet will be installed in the center console for supplying power to a cell phone, etc... Two outlets will be installed in the rear exterior of the center console for power supply to the kids' DVD player, etc... You will need:
For the glovebox, start by drilling a small hole in the bottom of the glovebox. This minimizes the amount of 'pull' that the cord will see when opening and closing the glovebox.
Here a 3/8" spade bit was used to drill the hole through the plastic glovebox. Make sure the hole is toward the REAR of the glovebox so you don't inadvertantly drill through the front panel of the glovebox. Using a pre-wired & fully enclosed female aux power outlet, dis-assemble by twisting the assembly apart & run approximately 8 feet of wire through the end cover. There are two simple joints that can be unsoldered & re-soldered with the new wire. The center wire is the (+) Positive wire.
After soldering the wire, you can feed it down through the glovebox hole and reach up in the corner near the dash & the center console junction to grab & pull the slack through. Then simply bend the side of the center console out slightly to fish the wire back to the rear area of the center console (see the next steps for directions to remove the rear cover of the center console). Notice the 'cap' on the outlet to prevent any spare change or tools from shorting out the outlet & creating a problem.
Leave the end of the wire back there until all other jacks are installed. The lower portion of the center console can easily be removed with 4 screws (slide both front seats all the way forward to expose the screws). Once removed, mark two holes approximately 2" inward from the vent holes and 2" down from the curve. This allows the outlets to be between the factory wiring harness and the center console support steel (This is very important, there is not much extra room in this area, so drill carefully!). Use a 7/8" Spade bit to drill the holes. As a drill guide, it helps to apply a strip of masking tape STRAIGHT across the console, then mark the hole centers on the tape.
For the center console inside outlet, simply remove the trim panel from the window switches (this one simply pulled off), then unscrew the four screws holding the window switch/heater panel in place. Drill a 7/8" hole in the console & be careful not to bump, cut, or nick any wires when drilling here.
Now that all of the holes are drilled, you can mount your outlets in the panels & prepare for wiring.
This replacement outlet or 'replacement well' was purchased at Fleet Farm for about $2.50 (each). For power supply, an 'add-a-circuit' fitting was used
in the panel underneath the driver's side dash. For light amperage installations,
this shouldn't present a big problem, however, if you plan to plug in
some high-current items, I would recommend tapping into the main panel
under the hood, or running a separate supply line all together. This fitting was rated for 10A, and just to be safe, 10 gauge wire was spliced onto the fitting (approximately 8 feet). This wire was run under the dash (as shown) and again down the side of the center console all the way to the rear of the console.
And it's always a good idea to label your new wiring!
For the ground wire, approximately 18" of 10 gauge wire was cut & a 1/4" diameter ring terminal was added to the end.
The ring terminal & M6 nut can then simply be slid over the existing stud underneath the center console. Notice the 'concealed mount' CB on the left of the photo! There will be a write-up on this install soon as well!
Always a good idea to check the power with the key on and off at this point to be sure your ground and hot lead are properly hooked up. Be sure not to short out the wires!
For each drilled location, install a new 'well'. This is done by unscrewing the back sleeve, sliding the front 'inner sleeve' through the hole, then tightening the back sleeve onto the inner sleeve & sandwiching the outlet tightly onto the plastic panel.
You can now see the female (center) and male (side) spade plugs on each outlet. Make up three pigtails with the two-conductor wire. I suggest making them each about 24" long so you have plenty of wire to work with. Put a female spade plug on each conductor on one end of the wire, leave the other end with about 3/4" of bare wire exposed. Noting which side is positive and which is negative, hook up all three wells to the wire and run the wire out the back of the center console (near where you already ran the hot lead, and the glovebox two-conductor wire.
Now that all of the wires are run, secure a large wire nut to the positive and negative wires and wrap with electrical tape or shrink-wrap. There is plenty of room below the console to then tuck the wires prior to re-installing the lower cover.
After re-installing, the rear outlets should look like this... (the loose wire here is from my shop light - it is NOT part of the install)
The center console (inner) outlet should look like this... (nevermind the half-installed grommet around the CB feed wire - it was still in progress when the photo was snapped)
And the glovebox outlet should look like this...
If you have questions/suggestions, or feedback, please e-mail rick@tachyonmotorsports.com!
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