Cigarette lighter woes

[3fifty]

If I plug a cell phone charger into the cig lighter, it works fine. If I plug an inverter into it it shuts the inverter off. Why?

By shut off I mean the light turns red and it doesnt supply power.

 

[Talyn]

Most likely the inverted doesn't work, or it has a problem with its plug.

The lighter plug/ accessory plug either works or it doesn't. The sockets aren't a very good design to begin with but if it fails it usually blows the fuse.

 

[stewie]

plug the inverter into someone else's cig lighter and see if the problem continues. if so, the inverter/components bad.

 

[3fifty]

Ive tried two different inverters. Neither worked. One was brand new. The other works fine in another Jeep.

 

[ehall]

The sockets get gummed up and corroded on the back. Find a clean in the junkyard

 

[NCjeepgirl83]

Well at least your cig lighter works! Mine doesn't even work at all anymore!

 

[Pelican]

I don't know what wattage inverter you are working with, but mine shuts down if it doesn't have adequate voltage available. With these old sockets, who knows. I would put a meter on it.

 

[kastein]

The wiring for the cigarette lighter may be very thin for your purposes - I'd recommend running a dedicated DC power line if it's over say two hundred watts or so (15 amps DC). I ran 10 gauge boat cable direct to the power distribution block input terminal for my ham radio, CB, and low-end speaker amp. The best route is along the wire harness at the back of the engine compartment, then through the firewall in the grommet for the hood release latch cable (slice it, put over both cables, electrical tape it to reseal), then along the underside of the dash paneling. Make sure you fuse the positive line right where it goes into the power distribution block.

 

[DansGreyMj]

The one in mine only works if the plug is in a certain position, Sometimes I have to slowly turn the plug to get it working.

 

[MaxxXJ]

=) i can use my 15A air compessor on my acc plug but if i use it on my cig lighter side on the driver side, it pops a fuse, BUT it still runs my compressor =)

 

[philagony94xj]

I am bringing this one back after 3 months....... my question is which fuse is the cig lighter? Theres no labeling under the dash block. And my Hayes manual gives no diagram for it! Very confused. Anyone know if theres a thread here with a pic of the block with labeling........and yes i did try searching but to no avail.

 

[joe_peters]

Pop the cigarette lighter socket out of there and replace it with a power socket (unless, horrors, you smoke!) and that would be a good time to upgrade the wiring.

 

[MaxxXJ]

it is between 18 and 25 iirc... its a 15a fuse if that helps :/ i have the fuse diagram in my jeep( which is downstairs and half way across the parking lot)... i printed it off a site i found online, which doesnt help u cuz my motherboard took a dookie and the only internet access i have is my phone also im a y2k so my fuse box may be different than urs, only thing u can do is trial and error, pull every fuse until u find it or light test them

 

[98XJRC]

ehh at least yours somewhat works. My cig blows a fuse the second you put a new one in. The accessory one works fine though

 

[mini=man]

I am bringing this one back after 3 months....... my question is which fuse is the cig lighter? Theres no labeling under the dash block. And my Hayes manual gives no diagram for it! Very confused. Anyone know if theres a thread here with a pic of the block with labeling........and yes i did try searching but to no avail.

I'm too lazy to read all the posts but the cig lighter fuse is the same as the radio fuse. Try load testing your batt. My power inverter works great in my Jeep but my friends Tahoe had a weak batt and kept it kept kicking out. you may just have a weak battery.

 

[MaxxXJ]

ehh at least yours somewhat works. My cig blows a fuse the second you put a new one in. The accessory one works fine though

that would lead me to assume that its got a short somewhere more than likely the positive wire is grounding out and shorting the fuse. if it were me id cut the existing wire back from the fuse block tie in a new wire and rerun a new wire to the cig lighter, that would eliminate the possibilities of a bad wire... from there idk

 

[CherBear]

The one in mine only works if the plug is in a certain position, Sometimes I have to slowly turn the plug to get it working.

Me too. Mine has always been kind of weird like that. You could wire your own up if you really wanted to make clean connection.