what are the 3 wires coming off cig lighter?

[LegoHead]

I expected there to only be two, +ve and -ve, but there are three. Is one a seperate earth or something?

My car is 172ph2 , I am going to hardwire my gps, road angel and phone charger into this as its the most easily accessible.

thanks.

 

[M1TCH]

there is no negative as such in a car, everything 12v is fed with a live and the other goes straight to ground(cars chassis) not sure but possibly the 3rd wire carrys on the live elsewhere.

 

[Rich]

One is for the light.

 

[Jaffa182]

1 is positve, another is a chassis ground and the other is a positive for the light.

 

[M1TCH]

think thats sussed it out for ya!

 

[LegoHead]

thanks guys, will need to figure out which is which, might just go down scrappies and get a spare to play around with.

 

[Rich]

There was a thread on here the other day, with a diagram of which wire was which.

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?t=109483