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Maintenance Guides / Tomtom 520 facelift neat dash mount solution
« on: 22 October 2009, 10:28:13 »
I read the comments about the Police struggling to find space for their equipment on the dash with interest, as I was struggling to fit a sat-nav anywhere except on the screen, with the plug in the ashtray and messy cable everywhere.
SOLUTION:
This works for a box standard 2008 tomtom 520 with genuine dc power lead (just long enough!) and standard stick on window mount.
You will need: 40cm cable tie or stiff wire, number-plate self-tapping screw with black head cover.
1/turn the window mount upside down and push the base in the gap between the rubberised top of the dash and above the left centre airvent so the suction side is against the top of the dash underside and is pushed in as far as poss.
2/ attach nav unit and lead, position carefully, mark around front edge of the suction base
3/ remove unit and lead
4/ using one number plate self tapping screw (no longer than 12mm) with black plastic flip over cover and a power driver, screw between the vanes, through the clear suction base and into the underside of the dash top, so it is held in place by the screw and wedged firmly in above the vents. Fit tight.
5/ flip the screw cover and clip in place to make screw invisible
6/ plug the lead into the rear lighter socket at back of centre armrest
7/ lay the lead along side the passenger seat and drop the plug in the passenger footwell
8/ push a 40cm long cable tie/piece of wire through the gap in the trim directly to the front left of the gearstick, below left of the trim under the ashtray
9/ kneel in passenger footwell and pull centre console trim towards you so that you can feed the cable tie through from the front left edge of the centre console to your hand in the footwell.
10/ gaffer tape the tomtom lead to the cable tie and then pull it back through the hole so plug is in front of gearstick, below ashtray
11/ attach plug lead into unit and fit to mount
12/ push the cable between the far left side of the radio/switch console and the rubberised console outer-edge. Persuade it with the end of the key if needed-leave enough "give" at plug end to plug/unplug.
13/ push all cabling behind trim and upwards under the centre console from rear to front alongside passenger seat and tension until if feels right.
VOILA: a permanently mounted bracket that is hard to spot, tidy cabling, front ashtray/cig lighter unaffected, tomtom unit near to you so easy to program and bluetooth handsfree works well, all vents and switches still accessible and usable. Looks great, works very well.
Downsides: one (invisible) screwhole in underside of dash upper if removed, rear socket is easy to kick out, tomtom mount will never suck glass again as is holed. Tomtom auto light/dark function gets confused as under dash top.
I have done this and can highly recommend this mod; see my photo guide:-
