Cigarette Lighter not working

[Taraka30]

Hi all,

Jumped in the car the other day, plugged in my road angel and found that the cigarette lighter isn't working. I've tested it with the lighter itself too so fairly sure it's the socket that is broken rather than the road angel. Any thoughts on what to check next?

I've checked what I think is the correct fuse but to be honest my fuse board (98 Chim 500) doesn't match any of those shown in the bible. The horn still works, which seems to be the only thing sharing a fuse with the lighter but that's by no means a certainty. The illumination around the lighter still works but I imagine that's on a different circuit.

Without starting to remove the lighter I'm at a bit of a loss. Any ideas how the lighter comes out? Many seem to just pull out but mine seems pretty well fastened in...

[lewis_sharman]

I had the door skin off of mine last week, and the lighter just looked like it was on plastic clips?

Th door only took about 30 minutes to get apart, and wasnt as much of a nightmare as i had heard. It may be worth checking if you are getting a voltage to the wires?

I know you can get standard lighter replacements in halfords for not very much (we had to change one on a mates Clio)and they are pretty easy to fit if that is the problem?

If not then maybe look for loose connections / corrosion on the contacts

Sorry if this is'nt much help

[chrispitman]

You could have a broken wire in tube that links the door to body due to all the flexing.

[blujay10]

I had this too. Was pretty corroded inside where the lighter pushes in,so replaced with a new one which worked fine for a couple of months. Then the wire kept dropping out of the bottom and the only solution was to solder it in place and then cover with plastic sealer to hold it in. No problems since. Ok, hands up, I didnt actually do the job myself, had it done during annual service at Walldonway.....

[Taraka30]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll take a look at it in the next couple of days and let you know what I find.

[scotty_d]

Will be corrorded i suspect mine was the same had to cut the wires back a bit to find fresh wire and join a new section in.

[GJR]

As scotty_d said, it's quite likely that the connections to the lighter are corroded. If you're not sure how to remove the door panel there is a door trim removal guide on the Griff pages TGP's. You should only need to remove the front moulding IIRC.

This has happend to mine in the past and worked fine again once the connections were cleaned up. It's happened again now, but this time the mirror controls no longer respond either. When I get around to sorting it I'm tempted to use some kind of sealant on the contacts to help prevent it happening again in the future.

[sparkesp]

Hello, related to the topic, but slightly different.

Came home tonight, parked up, and pulled the ciggy lighter adapter for my ipod out, and the metal end fell off and back down in to the ciggy lighter body. (It had come unscrewed)

Anyway, some sparking as I removed it with wodden tweesers, and now the ciggy lighter does not work.

Tried all the 15A fuses in the box, and they are ok. I only tried the 15A as per the posts above, it seems that these are the only type that feed the lighter, and share the horn... all ok.

Fuse 10 seems a favourite for the ciggy lighter in the bible, and this too is ok.

Am stumped. If there an in line fuse in the door?

Where else can I go? Ideas welcome.

Thanks,

Peter.

[GreenV8S]

I suspect one of the wires has fallen off the back. Be careful while you're poking around, because it's easy to short the live wire to earth.

[sparkesp]

GreenV8S said:

I suspect one of the wires has fallen off the back. Be careful while you're poking around, because it's easy to short the live wire to earth.

Hi Green, Thanks for the reply. I suspect its shorted, as when I tried to get the metal end of the Ipod charger out, there were a few sparks.

Does that mean a new lighter socket, or is something else blown in the circuit.

[SILICONE KID]

just pack in smoking !

[peebee]

Fixed mine recently (it had never worked). The cable that passes through the door opening had seemingly broken and so I bypassed it with a piece of suitable sized cable.

I did then manage to short the fixture and found it had then blown a fuse. Fuseboxes are not always the same and so I suggest that if you may have shorted it check all the fuses!

[T_Pot]

does it still ight up?

mine stopped last week, i took it apart and used the light feed to feed the lighter, works fine now

[sparkesp]

Found it!

You gotta love these cars or you would spit!

Ciggy lighter was taken off the 30A heated seats fuse (slot 4). I dont have heated seats so didnt check it.

LOL... all fixed.

Thanks for the advice above.

Peter