Thread: Removing ash tray/rearranging cigarette lighter?

I don't smoke and won't allow it in my car, so I don't need the ashtray. Since the cigarette lighter is attached to the pull out tray with the ashtray, is it easy to take the lighter out of the tray and take out the ashtray out? I want to retain the lighter for power, in addition to the one on the passenger side. I'm thinking of mounting it farther back, as I don't need the lighter feature, just the power feature. Is this doable?

i thought about doing this too, but instead i took out the ashtray cup itself, it just pops out, and use the slid tray with lighter outlet for other purposes... i put a flat peice of ABS in the now open hole from the ashtray cup, and used it to hid switches in there... (for strobes, and soon for the angeleye rings if i hook them up in my projectors....)

I have a 3 way splitter that I want to try mount where the tray is now, so that's why I need to remove it. I think it will just look cleaner to have it there as well as allow me to still use the storage in front of the console. I also have a satellite radio power cable that is short, so I can't just mount the splitter on the passenger side where the additional outlet is. I'm probably going to have to pull off the dash soon anyway to try to replace the LCD light on the factory radio that is out, but that's another thread.

Just an update. You can remove the tray, it just requires a bit of work. I had to put the car in gear to give me room, and pulling and shifting the tray side to side worked it out. Just be careful not to pull too hard or you might break the cables attached to the lighter. Once the tray was out, I disconnected the power to the cigarette lighter. More spinning and pushing and pulling got the cigarette lighter off the tray. Now I just need to attach my splitter to the metal piece directly under the A/C-heater controls, and I'll have my mount. And as soon as I get my tape player, accessory cable, and new LED, I can put my dash back together!

Originally Posted by archemedes

can you see the area it mounts (as in the bracketry)?

Kind of. But I didn't unscrew anything permanently, as I took out four screws and it didn't move. There were two directly under the air controls, and two farther back in the small console storage. I saw a fifth screw to the right of the console storage, but I couldn't see how it would affect the tray either. I wanted to leave the metal plate to use it for mounting purposes, so it is possible that taking that plate out would also remove the tray.