Hey all, first time starting a thread. I recently picked up my 2023 Model Y, and one of the first things I wanted was to hardwire my phone mount charger. I like the clean look and convenience . There are quite a few threads and YouTube videos on how to hardwire your dashcam, phone charger, etc.:
I unfortunately didn’t take a lot of photos for this install, but hopefully it’s enough to at least give you an idea of where to route your cables and where to hardwire. This method is actually incredibly easy, and require less removal of panels.
Once you have access to the rear of the panel where your two USB-C ports live in your center storage, you’ll see a gray, black, red, and blue wire. You want to tap into the red for power, and black for your ground. This should give you a constant 15V of power to your accessories.
Please note: this port doesn’t turn off when the car is “off”. You can test this out yourself before taking anything apart by plugging your phone into the USB-C port and then locking up your car. Make sure you are aware of this if you plan to do this for a radar detector, dashcam, etc., that doesn’t have an auto-shutdown.
If you need more detail or have any questions, I’m happy to respond and provide any help I can. Thanks.
- Driver’s side footwell - there’s an open port for the trailer brake that should be supplying 15V. Unfortunately, Tesla apparently has turned this off with the newer vehicles, and at the time of this post, has still not implemented a fix for this yet (search other posts on this issue)
- Front passenger side footwell - Good luck trying to find the right wire here. There are loads of red wires, and none of them seem to be the 15V source. I tested about 7 of them buried in the bundle with no luck.
I unfortunately didn’t take a lot of photos for this install, but hopefully it’s enough to at least give you an idea of where to route your cables and where to hardwire. This method is actually incredibly easy, and require less removal of panels.
Once you have access to the rear of the panel where your two USB-C ports live in your center storage, you’ll see a gray, black, red, and blue wire. You want to tap into the red for power, and black for your ground. This should give you a constant 15V of power to your accessories.
Please note: this port doesn’t turn off when the car is “off”. You can test this out yourself before taking anything apart by plugging your phone into the USB-C port and then locking up your car. Make sure you are aware of this if you plan to do this for a radar detector, dashcam, etc., that doesn’t have an auto-shutdown.
If you need more detail or have any questions, I’m happy to respond and provide any help I can. Thanks.