Does anyone know an easy way to get continuous power to one or both of the 12 V power outlets? I would like to leave my cell phone charging overnight sometimes.

Any car stereo installation shop can do this for you. Call around to see who has the best price.

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I'm guessing the power gets cut to the 12v outlets in order to prevent battery drain. Why not just plug your cellphone charger in 110v outlet instead of risking draining your car battery?

Charging a cell phone uses a minute amount of power, not enough to drain a car battery. When you park your car it's not practical to sit by a 120 volt power outlet for 2 hours while the cell phone battery charges up. Much easier to just leave it charging in the car and taking messages if anyone calls.

One thing I thought was nice in my 03 PT Cruiser was that it had 2 outlets. One was on all the time and one was on/off with the key.
I just wish one of the outlets wasn't all the way in the back.

I bet it is possible to do a similar thing in the TCH.

CoastaleTech, makers of the infamous EV button mod, have another mod for the PriusII to enable the always-on 12V outlet. If anyone has the service manual for the TCH, I'm sure we could figure this out! I'd like it as well!

http://www.coastaletech.com/power_outlet_mod.htm

My last car a GM Pontiac Bonneville on each power outlet the fuse could be switched to either continuous power off with the ignition, you just change the position of the fuse. There are many things such as this in the TCH that lack imagination on Toyota's part. Such as dead battery protection, on many cars if you leave the lights on inside the vehicle by mistake they automatically go off after 10 minutes. You don't come back next morning and find you have a car with a dead battery!

Paulgw — One easy way to get low-current 12-V power, even when the car is off, would be to connect to the DLC3 (i.e., "OBDII") diagnostic connector below the steering column. It's permanently powered: pin 4 is chassis ground, and pin 16 is +12 V. You'd need to buy a plug and wire an appropriate adapter cable.

Stan

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Thanks Stan that sounds like a great idea I will definitely try this when I get a chance.

Will see if it is practical to reconnect 1 of the 2 power adapters to this source on the input side of pin 16. If not will buy a DLC3 plug and wire to a 3rd power adapter.

On second thoughts I will probably go the latter route so I do not forget and plug in something that might draw too much current by mistake. Do you know if pin 16 is fused and if so what it's rating of it is?

Regards, Paul

Paulgw — The Repair Manual shows that the DLC3 connector is protected by a 7.5-A fuse (labelled OBD). This should be more than enough for cell-phone charging purposes. [The regular power outlets have a 20-A fuse for the two together.] Let us know how this works out!

Stan