I have to admit I was very nervous taking out the center console but the instructions I've seen on Youtube were great - all the way down to which colored wire goes on what plug on the back of the USB charger. The prior owner had one in, but I stupidly took it out thinking it did not work - turns out the fuse was bad. Top tip - check the fuses first. But, it was a several hour odyssey to make sure I had the right wiring connectors. Overall very happy with this. I use a Garmin OBD2 port plug to power my front dash cam and my GPS, so I needed a separate power plug for my phone.
J gate cover removed -

Back console cover removed

Console off

Plug wired in

 

Nice! I did this as well last fall. I found one with green lighting to match rest of interior lights but mine only
has two ports, one 2.1 amp and one 1.something amp. Either way, good job! I’m a heavy smoker but always have lighters on me and a spare in the car, so push cigarette lighters are useless to me. Plus mine was so corroded from spilt drinks it was un-savable. And also as a kid I pushed in the lighter socket in my moms gremlin wagon, when it popped out I pulled it out and dared my sister to touch it….glowing red hot ready to light up any Marlboro or camel that came its way….well she did and got hurt but I don’t think as much as I did when my parents found out…so yeah do away with those antiquated sockets and modernize a little!!!

 

I recommend adding a trad 12v in either the glovebox or trunk or both to complement the one in the console. some day you may need to use a tire inflator or other traditional accessory and find yourself wanting...

 

Even smarter mod (and both quicker and more practical) is to retain the cigar socket but chuck the push-in lighter and replace with a dual USB adapter . . . but not just any garden variety adapter ! Grab the ones that have a central digital readout of the car battery voltage. Start the engine and note the 14+ volts that verifies your alternator is charging properly, then watch as it drops to around 13 volts (typically 12.9 volts) after the initial part of journey, that shows that the car battery has recovered to full charge.

This daily monitoring of alternator + battery charging can guard against so many low battery problems in these vehicles . . . as well as USB charging of phone and tablet.
I buy mine online direct from China in lots of 5 or more for around AU$20 total, post free (ie $4 ea) and that's ridiculous as cheap insurance.

Cheers,

 

I’m hesitant to go back in but I see the value in what you are saying.

 

The aux connectors in the boot/trunk and behind the passenger side glovebox make things much simpler. You don't need to piggy back off other lines and they give you a switched and unswitched option. I used the glovebox switched supply to install a four port USB charger in the centre glovebox (I removed the fitted telephone as I don't use it) and then put a switched USB charger and an unswitched standard cigar lighter style socket in the boot. I put in chargers with voltage meters - as @cat_as_trophy says, well worth keeping an eye on your battery and alternator condition.

You don't need a special connector to plug in - you can just use standard female spade connectors. I've attached the dealer instructions although I think they are a sticky somewhere.


Switched (right) and unswitched in the boot.

The centre glovebox.

 

Can you post the wiring instructions? I don't see them. Thanks!

 

Sorry, not sure what happened there. Hopefully, it's attached this time but here's also a link to the document at jagrepair.com:

JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource

 

Thanks. I'd love to find either of those harnesses- front or rear. Looks like none are available.

 

Even when you can find them, they are very expensive and, in my opinion, a complete waste of money. It's very simple to create a harness yourself so I thought I might as well write it up. I've done it on both my XK8 and X308 Daimler. The photos below are for adding the accessories in the boot but the only different for the front is that you need to take the glovebox out to get to the connector - it's attached to the bottom of the A-Pillar.

You need:

• A standard relay. Details of the Bosch relay I bought are below but there were other cheaper options - I paid £12 for what I think is a good quality product
• A 3-Way AMP Series 250 connector. This is optional - I already had one in a drawer that I used on the XK8 but didn't bother for the X308
• Three coloured automotive wiring of sufficient length - I used 7mm in Black (Ground), Red (Permanent Live) and Blue (Switched Live)
• Insulated female blade connectors - 6.5mm I think.
• A crimp tool

Hopefully pictures fill the gaps:



The relay I bought




The relay installed in the luggage compartment fuse box. Note you may also need to put a 10A fuse in slot 17 in the same fuse box




Here's the auxiliary connector. The top horizontal connector is the Ground (car wiring is black), bottom left vertical is the permanent live (Brown/Light Green) and the bottom right vertical is the switched live (Purple/Brown). There's enough space to simply insert individual insulated 6.5 mm female spade connectors if you don't have a three way nyoc connector.



This is the optional 3-way connector - I didn't bother.




The dual port USB/Cigar Lighter solution I bought on Amazon already included these wires. All I had to do was to put a single female connector on the bare ends.



I added the blue wiring with the same connector for the switched live connection.


All that was now left to do was push the insulated connectors one to the appropriate male contacts in the aux socket and install and wire up the ports/cigar lighter as you can see in my previous post.

Overall cost excluding the ports was less than £15 and is much tidier (and, dare I say, safer) solution to tapping into existing wires.

I hope this helps.

 

This looks fantastic. Can you post up photos of how you mounted the cigarette lighter and then how you connected the wires to the relay? I definitely need to do this mod. I assume it would be the same if you wired it to the front relay?

 

Pretty straight forward as to how I mounted the ports in the boot but I've attached a photo. Between the seats, I just drilled a suitable size hole in the base of the glovebox.

You don't need to attach anything to the relay. You should find an empty relay socket in the luggage compartment fuse box and that's where you put the Bosch (or cheaper alternative) relay. This controls both the connector behind the passenger side glove compartment and the one in the boot. You then just need to attach the cables direct into those connectors. I've attached further photos below:



Luggage compartment fuse box showing the space for the relay.



And with the relay inserted!



Here's a rear shot of the twin sockets shown in an earlier photo.



And these are the three wires (ground, permanent live and switched liver) attached into the auxiliary connector close to the battery positive terminal.

 

I am half considering getting one of these that you describe but I wonder if the typical ones I see on Amazon, etc. easily fit in the relatively confined space where the cig ligher is.

 

Thanks so much for these photos. I now have another project! I've got to get my rear parking sensors to function, but then this project. I need to retire so I can spend more time on things like this.

 

I only see these.

These are not used.