Shmee

iTrader: (3)

Ok, so i have already sorted this out, its more just a heads up for others...

As part of my air install, took out the ashtray to modify it so i could mount my controls in it. Part of that included disconnecting the wiring from the base of the cig-lighter.

Upon reassembly of everything, i went to test drive the car in the rain and found that i had no climate control of any sort. Also I had no defrost, no fan, no rear defrost and no back light either. with the difficulty i had pulling the 0/1 gauge power cable through the wheel-well harness boot (as per Timmy0Tools air install thread) i was worried that i may have damaged some wiring or the back side of the fuse panel as they are right there. so i started to dig. keep in mind i'm 10 days into a pretty massive project and not totally thinking straight at this point, so this might be obvious to others right out of the gate.

heater fuse was fine under the kick panel... ok...?

heater relay had power and continuity to the fuse panel... ok....?

stereo worked fine, and so did everything else.... ok...?

i checked my connections for my air install behind the ashtray, unplugged everything and still no dice.... ok.....?

connected everything back up when i noticed my phone, that i thought was charging, didn't make the normal noise when it gets plugged into power. checked and sure enough it wasn't charging.

checked the cig fuse and sure enough it was blown. pop a new one in and it blows too. being lazy at this point and having a bag of 15a fuses, i disconnected everything including the cig-lighter, pop in a new fuse and suddenly the Climate control, clock and outside temp start working...... WTF...?

plug my air stuff back in and still it works, plug in the cig lighter and poof, everything is out again.....

at this point i quickly pulled the console apart and removed the ashtray from it's bracket, grabbed my multi-meter and did a quick continuity check at the harness and sure enough the lighter was a completed circuit. tested at the back of the lighter and all around the body still had continuity so I pulled the harness off the back and noticed there was a crack i the black plastic pancake isolator between the power and the ground, but no continuity. after some additional testing, what i figure happened was that when i removed the harness from the back of the lighter the first time, the centre pole(hot) shifted and was contacting the shell of the lighter causing the fuse to pop. i played with it for a good 10 mins trying different things before finally i stopped getting continuity and had resolved the problem. put everything back together and in the car. Sure enough everything works perfectly.

i'm probably to blame for the problem since i was in there and disconnected everything however, the plastic isolator and harness showed serious signs of heat cycling and degradation. On higher mileage cars, older or heavy smoker cars the isolator could become so brittle it crumbles and cause the short. it could also be caused by a overly aggressive/twisting power-accessory install/removal from the cig lighter socket by twisting the hot-side prongs into contact with the shell of the socket.


and the TL;DNR.

if you have a 95-97(maybe other years too) and your climate control, clock and outside temp do not function and nor does your your cigarette lighter... it's probably the lighter blowing the lighter fuse and taking everything out.

all in all, it took me longer to write this out then it did to fix the problem but had it not been for my compressors running when i first plugged in my phone and not noticed the lack of the little charging chime, i probably would still be chasing my tail on this one.

hopefully this will help someone down the road.

oha dn for tools, all you really need is a plastic trim tool, phillips screwdriver, 7mm socket or wrench and a basic multi-meter/continuity tester. you don't even have to pull anything apart to test it!

Just stick one end/probe of the multi-meter down to the bottom of the lighter socket and touch the centre pole, and the other to the rim of the socket. if you have continuity, the socket is shorted out and you need to pop the panel and figure out why.