2nd and 3rd cigarette lighters don't have power... ???

[hop]

I tried searching but didn't find any suitable answers, so here goes:

My Legacy has two extra 12v sockets where the ashtray should go. Bonus! However, neither of them work. I have traced the wires as far as they will go and haven't had any luck figuring out what the deal is, and the fuse in the fusebox by the driver side door only deals with the standard cigarette lighter socket on the far right. Can anyone help me get these things to work?

Thanks!

[Flowmastered87GL]

can you just wire them in parallel with the normal lighter?

[subie94]

I tried searching but didn't find any suitable answers, so here goes:

My Legacy has two extra 12v sockets where the ashtray should go. Bonus! However, neither of them work. I have traced the wires as far as they will go and haven't had any luck figuring out what the deal is, and the fuse in the fusebox by the driver side door only deals with the standard cigarette lighter socket on the far right. Can anyone help me get these things to work?

Thanks!

 

i'd pull them out an make sure there isn't anything wrong with the sockets themselves.i had a cig lighter go bad and it turned out that a small wire that was used to connect two different contact points was broken and didn't allow the current to flow.

[Al_SemC]

can you just wire them in parallel with the normal lighter?

My only concern with pulling power from the feed for the original socket is that you're supposed to be able to pull 120W max from one of those. I think it's got a 15A fuse all its own in the panel. I'd have to look in the manual to be sure. Regardless, having three sockets on the same feed means you could easily draw far too much power through the wiring for the original. At best, you'd blow fuses alot. At worst, it could cause a fire.

 

If it were me, I'd be wiring two new feeds up to ignition-hot on the fuseblock and installing either two inlines or an auxilliary fuseblock to support fuses for each socket. Much more work, yes, but it'll be safer, less prone to failure and maybe even work better.

[PAezb]

i'd pull them out an make sure there isn't anything wrong with the sockets themselves.i had a cig lighter go bad and it turned out that a small wire that was used to connect two different contact points was broken and didn't allow the current to flow.

 

I had the same problem on the socket in my 96 OBW recently. I think the wire is a solder-like material that will melt easily if the current and/or the socket itself produces too much heat for any extended time.

 

I simply used electical solder to repair the bridge between the contacts. Works fine now.