cigarette lighter blowing fuses???

[jcjcsoccerkid]

my push-in cigarette lighter in my truck blows fuses. its only supposed to be on a 10 amp fuse, i put a 30 in there and it still blew it. im getting really pissed cause i dont like having to roll the windows up everytime i wanna light a joe.

what could it be?? wires touching or something?

oh, and quitting smoking is not a solution i'm willing to accept ha even if i quit i still cant play my ipod or charge my phone cause that damn thing wont work


help me out por favor

[deafbob]

you need to check the wire, i bet there is a nick in the wire that causing shorted the fuse.

[97xenissan]

is there anything that fell inside it, cause this happend to me when i bought my dodge and my kids had dropped a dime in there. causing it to short out but i never noticed it cause it blended in.

[O.G.Tierdrop]

does the lighter fuse blow when your using your ipod/phone charger...i had a element go bad on one, and it cause it to blow everytime i pushed the lighter in....and i light my cigs leaning froward with the winder down, but than again it dont work to good if your rear winder is open, or passenger side winder is too

[Smoke]

does the lighter fuse blow when your using your ipod/phone charger...i had a element go bad on one, and it cause it to blow everytime i pushed the lighter in

If it's popping when you push in the lighter, it's most likely the lighter element like tier said...if it's popping as soon as you plug the fuse in, pop the receptical out and unplug it from the harness and try another 10 amp. If the fuse holds inspect the recptical for anything that could be shorting it out, or pick up another receptical at the junkyard or hit up vg30.

With a volt-ohm meter set on ohms you should see an open across the two terminals. If you are seeing a short repair or replace.

[jcjcsoccerkid]

97xe....i dont think anything is in there but ill go check just to be sure

ill try the ipod today. i havent used that in a year so im not sure

but i know for a fact it does it instantly when i push the lighter in. i have another one lying around, ill try it out. but the thing was, it did it before with the 10a fuse. i put a 30 in, and it worked for a couple weeks and then did it again. hasn't worked since. the lighter itself was working fine the whole time (when the fuse wasn't blown).

smoke.....i have a volt meter at my house so i can try that too. what exactly do i need to do?

[Smoke]

Just pop that receptical out of the dash and unhook the connector from it. Set your VOM to resistance and put a lead on each terminal of the receptical. If it shows OL or open (like when your leads are separate) it's good. If it reads 0.0 (like when you touch your leads together) then it's a hard short and just swap out the receptical.

I don't know the resistance of a normal cig lighter, but it's basically a controlled short (just like the element of your electric stove). If some of the 'fins' inside the lighter are touching the current is going to take the path of least resistance...when resistance drops and voltage stays the same, the current increases and will surpass the working tolerance of that 10 amp fuse. Blammo, blown fuse. A 30 amp might have been enough to hold on for a while, but over time, and depending on the resistance of that lighter, it would probably give up too...if it didn't burn one of the wires open.

While you have that lighter receptical out, plug a new fuse in and see if it blows. If it doesn't take your meter and switch it over to dc volts and see if you have the same voltage at the plug that goes to your receptical as you do at your battery.