The cigarette lighter in both of my Maximas has been an annoying POS. Trying to get power out of that thing usually works 50% of the time at best. Wiggling the power adapter often will fix the problem, but only until the next time I bump it. I finally got fed up and figured out what it's malfunction is.

At the bottom center of the lighter is a little ring where the nub from a power adapter will contact. In my car that ring was clean on it's face but had a bunch of corrosion on the inside.

Since many power adapter nubs are convex, they would seat in the corroded center of the ring and not work. Wiggling the adapter would often put the nub in contact with the clean face of that ring giving it power.

I took a dremel with a thin pointy grinding tool and cleaned up all the corrosion in the center of that ring. The lighter has work flawlessly since.

 

cool man and you didnt even have to spend any coin to get it fixed. Be careful what you stick inside power outlets. Might just zap your ballhair off!

 

Right, it's important to have the car off when you're doing this. If you're not lazy like me it would be smart to disconnect the battery.