Just finished up the final step of my wireless charger install and thought I would document it here for future reference.
My car does not have nav so I usually leave my phone in the storage cubby directly beneath the climate controls (this one). Seemed like a great candidate to stick a wireless charger in so that my phone can charge while I drive. However, the nearest and easiest source of power to tap into is the cigarette lighter, which stays on continuously. Also, wireless charging produces quite a bit of heat, so I decided to include a switch to turn the charger on and off. Lastly, I wanted to make sure everything looked completely stock which meant no wires and no switches visible.
Note: this did require notching a couple brackets to get everything to fit. None of this is visible when everything is installed, nor does it compromise the brackets, but it is necessary to do it the same way I did.
First was getting the wireless charger working. I bought six things for this:
Once I confirmed all of this worked with my phone, I took the interior apart. Forgot to take pictures, but basic procedure follows:
Now that everything is off, it's time to mock up the wireless charger placement. This is what worked for me:
I attached it to the cubby using double sided gorilla tape. I also secured the tip of the power cable with it to make sure nothing comes apart during use. The cubby does not fit back into its bracket with the charger attached, so time for some notching. This is what I ended up having to remove:
Having this notch allows for the cubby to freely slide in and out of the bracket. I did play around with mounting the charger to the bracket, but this put it too far away from the phone and the charging didn't work.
Wiring consists of plugging everything you bought into each other. USB cable to USB car charger, USB car charger to cigarette lighter socket, cigarette socket wires into piggy back spade terminals. I added a couple zip ties to the USB charger assembly to keep it from falling out. The piggy back spade terminals go between the cigarette lighter and its power connectors, this way no wire splicing is needed. Keep in mind that this will be running off the same fuse that the original cigarette lighter does. However, I've had multiple things running off of this and have yet to blow a fuse.
You can stop here and put everything back together if you do not wish to have the ability to switch the wireless charger on and off. Otherwise, read on.
I decided to mount the power switch beneath my shift boot, so that it would not be visible with everything installed, but I could still easily access it while driving. To do this I created a bracket that attached to the shifter surround and holds the switch. This is what it ended up looking like:
Since the cigarette lighter socket that's been added also feeds my dash cam for parked recordings, I decided to wire the switch into the USB cable instead of the power cable going to the cigarette lighter socket. I stripped the insulation off and wired the switch into the power wire in the USB cable.
Now it's just a matter of reinstalling the bracket below the climate controls (and plugging in all the connectors that go to it), feeding the USB cable through the notch and out by the shifter, and reinstalling the storage cubby with the wireless charger.
A bit more notching is still required to get the switch to fit. The center console needs to be notched between its front screw mount holes to allow the switch to pass through. This is how it should look:
Last thing to notch is the shift boot mounting ring thing. This might not be necessary depending on the type of switch you buy, but I found that it was really hard to reach the switch without it. Here's how much I ended up removing:
With all the notching done, the switch and USB cable can be routed to the back of the shifter surround and mounted.
You can see the additional cigarette lighter/USB charger assembly thing at the top left. I decided to leave it there for easier future troubleshooting since removing the shifter surround is significantly faster than removing the other bracket. There's a ton of space beneath the window switches so fitment is not an issue. This is how the switch fits with the shifter surround:
The screws holding the shifter surround and the shift boot can go back on (and shift knob if you removed that too) and you should be done. This is how things look when everything is back together:
It looks completely stock, no notches or wires or switches or anything are visible and since the switch bracket sits above the shifter surround, trim fitment is completely stock as well. Also, having the switch at the bottom does not interfere with shifting at all.
My car does not have nav so I usually leave my phone in the storage cubby directly beneath the climate controls (this one). Seemed like a great candidate to stick a wireless charger in so that my phone can charge while I drive. However, the nearest and easiest source of power to tap into is the cigarette lighter, which stays on continuously. Also, wireless charging produces quite a bit of heat, so I decided to include a switch to turn the charger on and off. Lastly, I wanted to make sure everything looked completely stock which meant no wires and no switches visible.
Note: this did require notching a couple brackets to get everything to fit. None of this is visible when everything is installed, nor does it compromise the brackets, but it is necessary to do it the same way I did.
First was getting the wireless charger working. I bought six things for this:
- 10W Wireless Charging board - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- Cigarette lighter socket - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- USB car charger that can output more than 15W.
- An appropriate cable to hook up the wireless charger to the USB car charger.
- Two piggy back spade terminals. Be sure to grab a couple sizes since the positive and negative terminals for the cigarette lighter are different. Something like this should work - https://www.amazon.com/DZS-Elec-Conn...ustrial&sr=1-3
- Optional: Small switch to turn wireless charger on and off.
Once I confirmed all of this worked with my phone, I took the interior apart. Forgot to take pictures, but basic procedure follows:
- Remove shifter boot by squeezing the sides and lifting up.
- Optional: You can remove you shift knob if you want to completely remove the boot, but it is not necessary. I did not do this as I've found the shift knob removal and install process to be highly annoying.
- Remove the two phillips screws holding the shifter surround trim to the center console.
- Disconnect electrical connectors for driver and passenger side window switches.
- Completely remove shifter surround by feeding shift boot through it (if you didn't remove your shift knob and boot is still attached).
- Remove storage cubby beneath climate controls by pulling from bottom and sides. Do not pull from the door as you can easily break something.
- If it's being difficult, you can remove your radio and climate controls and push it out from the back.
- Remove the four phillips screws holding the bracket where the storage cubby was to the center console. There are two at the bottom and two right beneath the climate controls.
- Disconnect all connectors and wires going to this bracket.
- Be careful not to short out the cigarette lighter connectors, as you will blow the fuse and waste a bunch of time trying to figure out why your install didn't work.
- Remove bracket.
Now that everything is off, it's time to mock up the wireless charger placement. This is what worked for me:
I attached it to the cubby using double sided gorilla tape. I also secured the tip of the power cable with it to make sure nothing comes apart during use. The cubby does not fit back into its bracket with the charger attached, so time for some notching. This is what I ended up having to remove:
Having this notch allows for the cubby to freely slide in and out of the bracket. I did play around with mounting the charger to the bracket, but this put it too far away from the phone and the charging didn't work.
Wiring consists of plugging everything you bought into each other. USB cable to USB car charger, USB car charger to cigarette lighter socket, cigarette socket wires into piggy back spade terminals. I added a couple zip ties to the USB charger assembly to keep it from falling out. The piggy back spade terminals go between the cigarette lighter and its power connectors, this way no wire splicing is needed. Keep in mind that this will be running off the same fuse that the original cigarette lighter does. However, I've had multiple things running off of this and have yet to blow a fuse.
You can stop here and put everything back together if you do not wish to have the ability to switch the wireless charger on and off. Otherwise, read on.
I decided to mount the power switch beneath my shift boot, so that it would not be visible with everything installed, but I could still easily access it while driving. To do this I created a bracket that attached to the shifter surround and holds the switch. This is what it ended up looking like:
Since the cigarette lighter socket that's been added also feeds my dash cam for parked recordings, I decided to wire the switch into the USB cable instead of the power cable going to the cigarette lighter socket. I stripped the insulation off and wired the switch into the power wire in the USB cable.
Now it's just a matter of reinstalling the bracket below the climate controls (and plugging in all the connectors that go to it), feeding the USB cable through the notch and out by the shifter, and reinstalling the storage cubby with the wireless charger.
A bit more notching is still required to get the switch to fit. The center console needs to be notched between its front screw mount holes to allow the switch to pass through. This is how it should look:
Last thing to notch is the shift boot mounting ring thing. This might not be necessary depending on the type of switch you buy, but I found that it was really hard to reach the switch without it. Here's how much I ended up removing:
With all the notching done, the switch and USB cable can be routed to the back of the shifter surround and mounted.
You can see the additional cigarette lighter/USB charger assembly thing at the top left. I decided to leave it there for easier future troubleshooting since removing the shifter surround is significantly faster than removing the other bracket. There's a ton of space beneath the window switches so fitment is not an issue. This is how the switch fits with the shifter surround:
The screws holding the shifter surround and the shift boot can go back on (and shift knob if you removed that too) and you should be done. This is how things look when everything is back together:
It looks completely stock, no notches or wires or switches or anything are visible and since the switch bracket sits above the shifter surround, trim fitment is completely stock as well. Also, having the switch at the bottom does not interfere with shifting at all.
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