Electrical problems?

[capewaveride]

I installed a cd player and hard wired an IPod into my 2001 impreza and everything worked fine for many months. Now my cigarette lighter plug quit working, everytime I change the fuse it blows the instant I try to use the lighter. Also, my drivers side headlight has blown four times in the past two years. Maybe related to my other problem. Can this be possible that my wiring has screwed all this up?

[porcupine73]

Hi, interesting issues, a few questions:

Now my cigarette lighter plug quit working, everytime I change the fuse it blows the instant I try to use the lighter.

Do you mean the lighter socket or the plug of whatever you're plugging into the socket? What device are you plugging in? It sounds like there is a short somewhere along the line, I had this happen one time I think and it turned out there was a piece of metal that fell into the socket and was shorting out when I tried to plug something into it.

Also, my drivers side headlight has blown four times in the past two years. Maybe related to my other problem.

I'm assuming you mean the bulb and not some other fuse. the only way I can think of wiring causing a headlight to blow would be maybe an intermittent connection that is turning the bulb on and off repeatedly or a voltage spike with enough current to overpower the bulb, but neither of those seem very likely.

[capewaveride]

Hi, interesting issues, a few questions:Do you mean the lighter socket or the plug of whatever you're plugging into the socket? What device are you plugging in? It sounds like there is a short somewhere along the line, I had this happen one time I think and it turned out there was a piece of metal that fell into the socket and was shorting out when I tried to plug something into it.I'm assuming you mean the bulb and not some other fuse. the only way I can think of wiring causing a headlight to blow would be maybe an intermittent connection that is turning the bulb on and off repeatedly or a voltage spike with enough current to overpower the bulb, but neither of those seem very likely.

 

 

Porcupine, Thankyou for your reply.

 

The actual lighter socket is not working. I generally use the socket to charge my cell phone and to plug in a radar detector. When the fuse blows it also cuts power to the lighter socket type plug in the rear of the car.

So, your'e saying it's unlikely that the problems are related? And what do you think about it having something to do with my audio wiring behind the cd deck?

[porcupine73]

Did you tie in the ipod into the same circuit as the lighter socket? Maybe you're overloading it. Can you explain again the exact circumstances under which the fuse blows? You must have a short or overload if the fuse keeps popping, though a slight overload might take a few seconds to pop the fuse.