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Cigarette lighter adapter quit working

C

carmike692000

NAXJA Forum User
Location
North Carolina
Just as the title says, my cigarette lighter adapter quit working. For a while it would almost kinda maybe work sometimes if you were really lucky. Meaning, I'd plug my phone into it to charge it, and I'd have to wiggle it around to get it just right, then I couldn't move the phone at all or it'd move out of place and stop working again.

Well, since I've had the dash off for a while now, I just went outside and took off the little panel around the cigarette lighter adapter. I played around with it for a while, looking at all the connections and can't make it work. What do you think could be wrong? Is there a common problem with them?

Here's the assembly:
IMG_1209.jpg

IMG_1214.jpg



Looks a little rough down in there if you ask me:
IMG_1213.jpg



What's that extra little connector doing there? When I pulled it out of the dash it was all wrapped up with the other wires. Is it supposed to be connected to anything?
IMG_1215.jpg




Now, in my curiosity I decided to take off the panel where the switch for the rear window wiper resides. So I took it off, am fiddling with it, and manage to take the bulb out. I can't for the life of me figure out how to put it back in there. Help!
IMG_1218.jpg



Thanks!!
 
It looks like the end of the plug is rusted. That would explain it working sometimes and not others.

With the meter you would connect the black (negative) lead to the side of the plug and the red (positive) lead slide into the plug to the end, your meter should read +12 v or more.

HTH
Paul
 
1) Lighter sockets depend, to a limited extent, on spring contacts. Spring contacts do wear out over time. You should be able to get a replacement socket and element at your local parts house.

2) The lamp holders are of the "twist & lock" type - you'll have to line the tabs up with the notches on the socket, insert, and twise - gently - to lock it in place. They do break rather easily, so be careful...

3) That wire? No idea offhand. Looks like it's Orange w/White tracer, and there's only one of them, yes? What year is your rig? If I have the FSM for it, I'll look it up and see what I can find out...

(Yes, I know I could look at your profile - but who's to say you've only got one rig? I've got several, and so do a number of other people here...)
 
Paul R said:
It looks like the end of the plug is rusted. That would explain it working sometimes and not others.

With the meter you would connect the black (negative) lead to the side of the plug and the red (positive) lead slide into the plug to the end, your meter should read +12 v or more.

HTH
Paul
Click to expand...
Thanks for the explanation; I'll go try that in a minute...assuming I can find Dad's multimeter.
 
Last edited:
5-90 said:
1) Lighter sockets depend, to a limited extent, on spring contacts. Spring contacts do wear out over time. You should be able to get a replacement socket and element at your local parts house.

2) The lamp holders are of the "twist & lock" type - you'll have to line the tabs up with the notches on the socket, insert, and twise - gently - to lock it in place. They do break rather easily, so be careful...

3) That wire? No idea offhand. Looks like it's Orange w/White tracer, and there's only one of them, yes? What year is your rig? If I have the FSM for it, I'll look it up and see what I can find out...

(Yes, I know I could look at your profile - but who's to say you've only got one rig? I've got several, and so do a number of other people here...)
Click to expand...
Ahh, yes. I remember you from when I was more active here. The generous, overflowing source of knowledge of all things Jeep.

I'll test the socket and maybe end up replacing it. I assume any aftermarket socket would work? I'll start googling them assuming mine fails the multimeter test.

I have to replace that bulb 'gently'? You know who you're talking to??

Yeah, that's an orange wire with a white tracer...lone wolf.

My rig's a 1995, and there's no way under the sun I could be fortunate enough to have more than one!

Thanks.
 
i think that wire is for the "illuminated lighter", some xj's had a clear ring that lit up, this may be it. i think i tapped that wire to run an extra socket where the clock goes, i really cant remember though.

~sm
 
Well that's interesting, because my lighter has a green translucent plastic ring around it that I just assumed would light up to match the glow around the ignition...but it doesn't light up. There also doesn't appear to be anything around there to hook it up to.
 
carmike692000 said:
Ahh, yes. I remember you from when I was more active here. The generous, overflowing source of knowledge of all things Jeep.

I'll test the socket and maybe end up replacing it. I assume any aftermarket socket would work? I'll start googling them assuming mine fails the multimeter test.

I have to replace that bulb 'gently'? You know who you're talking to??

Yeah, that's an orange wire with a white tracer...lone wolf.

My rig's a 1995, and there's no way under the sun I could be fortunate enough to have more than one!

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I don't have a 1995 FSM (who does? Sound off!) yet, so I can't look it up. However, the "glow ring" lead suggestion does make sense - and it would ground though the lighter socket itself, which is why it's a lone power lead. While you're about it with the meter, you may want to check voltage in that lead against lighter socket ground, with the lights on, and see if it has power.

If it's powered, and it was mine, I'd feel a lot better if it were covered - any bit of plastic taped down, or a small baggie with a zip-tie holding it in place would serve. If you use the small baggie, make sure to tack the wire down to the harness (another zip-tie) to make sure it doesn't go anywhere. You could also use electrical tape, but if you decide to use it for another pilot lamp somewhere else, you'll have to deal with sticky residue from the tape.

And yes, I do mean "gently." It does break easily - and I have a similar problem. There are times when us "big guys" don't know our own power, aren't there...?
 
Good luck getting the bulb back in there: it looks like the tabs already broke off. Look down in the hole, and the tabs should be stuck to the glue-like black stuff. I did the same thing.
 
Is that what happened? I already broke it? I went out to the Jeep again to try and get it to go back in there...and I just couldn't see any way in the world it was going to go back in there. I guess that's why. :(
 
Greenlantern said:
i didnt read all the post, but did you check the fuse???

:peace:
Click to expand...

While normally a valid point, a fuse would not cause an intermittent & gradual failure - it just goes out.

My suggestion is borne of experience with the same problem - thus, the solution. Since the contacts are sprung, they really do start to wear - like any spring will. This gives rise to an intermittent/gradual failure to make contact.

I can't remember a fuse ever blowing "gradually" - even a "slow-blow" fuse takes only four or five seconds to fail. And, slow-blow fuses are fairly rare - usually, with a device that experiences high transient surge loads on startup and shutdown (that are not directly harmful to the device,) or anything that wants a "soft" power-off all the time. I don't think I've even seen a slow-blow fuse in ten years or so...
 
carmike692000 said:
I don't think so, but I'm not sure.

That's why I tried it out earlier off, ACC, and on.
Click to expand...

True on RENIX, but I don't know about later years. I've installed a couple of lighter plugs on a switch and a relay to make them "hot anytime" without needing a key - comes in handy...
 
Well, I just tested it out with a multimeter. No matter the position of the ignition switch, using the power lead and ground there at the adapter, I'm getting nothing.

I tested out that 'other' wire, too. With the lights on, it reads from 11 to 13 volts. With the lights off, nada. So I guess that is what that wire's for. Wonder why I don't have a light for it to hook up to, though?


Now, last night when I was making sure all the connections were tight and trying to make my phone charger work, I noticed my HU stopped working. I don't have my amp installed right now, so I have no music, but I could still read the time on the HU and open it and do everything with it just like normal. Until last night, that is, when I realized it was dead. No clock, no nothing. Same thing today, so I just pulled it out.

Well, with the HU out of the way, I was able to trace that purple with white tracer power lead to back behind the dash, where it looks like it joins a huge bundle of other wires.


I guess I wanna know...now...what do I do next? Put it all back together and forget about using the cigarette lighter adapter? haha
 
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