Evenin all, wondering if anyone can give me an idea of what is happening... My cigarette lighter isn't working and well, I MUST have my SatNav working (job involves lots of driving). I have replaced the fuse but the previous owner has installed some rather funky blue LED's either side of the central column (only working now after replacing fuse) but my lighter is still NOT working! I can only think it has something to do with the LED's. Does anyone have any clues before I start messing and unscrewing things?
Did it ever work? I was wondering if when they installed the lights they used the power supply to the cig lighter so this now no longer has power. They may have installed another fuse behind the cig lighter and this may have blown. or a connector has slipped off
From memory, if you remove the plastic panel the holds the gear stick gaiter by pulling it up, you should be able to feel the connections to the lighter. To see them use a small mirror It also may help if you remove the ashtray, then the metal cover (2 screws) behind it. Rex.
lighter issues Hi all thanks for replying so quickly I have been pulling, cutting and swearing in my little car today! I managed to get the panel off and it was a very useful tip to find a mirror for this . Using a meter to measure the lighter I found only 4 volts and could now see that the LED wires were attached to the lighter, after disconnecting them I measured 12 volts with the meter. Success?! no, NO! still my SatNav will not work with its charger using the lighter socket (the charger def. works as I have just tried it in another car) - is it that the Amps are low in a Copen? I was wondering as the fuse in the Mondeo is 15A and the Copen is 10A. Has anyone managed to charge a SatNav in a Copen before? Getting frustrated now
Okay, you still have a problem. Satnavs will take less than 2A. Sound like you have a high resistance somewhere in the supply line, so when no current is flowing you will get 12V but as soon as you start to draw current the voltage will drop. Be careful, but I would try... Locate the 10A fuse for the lighter and take it out. Next take a small piece of wire and poke it in the fuse holder terminals (in other words you are replacing the fuse with the wire). The reason for doing this is it will give you access to be able to measure the voltage at the fuse holder. Check the voltage with the sat nav charger disconnected and connected. If it stays about 12V, then the high resistance is in the cable after the fuse holder, but if it drops it shows the resistance is before the fuse holder. Don't forget the high resistance could be in the 0V (earth) side. To prove this, take a piece of wire and connect it to a good earth point. Then the other end to the cigarette lighter. Then try the sat nav charger. Hope this helps, Rex.
Solved by unknown forces In case anyone was following this, the problem got solved a couple of weeks ago... Took the car to an electrical specialist garage. They also measured 12v in the cigarette lighter socket and could see no reason for it not to work. Now back when we first looked at the problem, it seemed that there were LED lights wired into the wiring going into the cigarette lighter and we cut out the LEDs but to no avail. The electrical specialist decided to cut out the T-joins which the LEDs were branching off the wires at the back of the cig lighter (even though the branches no longer went to the LEDS but were in effect just pieces of wire - the ends of which had been masked over to stop any rogue touching) After taking out those t-joins it meant there was no trace at all of the LEDs and, yes, the cigarette lighter was then able to charge up the sat-nav. They didn't know why it should suddenly start working properly again and nor do we but it does and Kate7619 is now happily being sent on world tours by her sat-nav. Maybe there was some other problem (such as a bad earth connection elsewhere that none of us had spotted but is now good again after all the poking around) Car electrics - always a mystery
