I tried charging my phone today and it would not work (the one behind the cupholders). The one in my armrest works, was wondering if anybody else had this problem and has a solution. Does anybody know if each one has its own fuse and where i could locate it if it did. Thanks

 

I blew mine a few weeks ago. It is a 10 amp fuse and there is a spare in the fuse box.

 

The fuse is on a panel under the dash, behind a pop-out panel, just in front of where your left knee is located when sitting in the drivers seat (near the hood release). There is a schematic on the back of the pop-out panel and I think the slot is labeled acc/com (or something like that). How do I know? I just paid the dealer to change that fuse and show me where it's at. BTW - I was told that Nissan cars "do not have cigarette lighters! ... those are power outlets ... don't plug anything in them that draws a lot power!".

Live long, and prosper
Jerry L. Gubka

 

You might also check to see if there is an obstruction in the bottom of the outlet.

I found to great annoyance that a penny just fits into the outlet with very little room to get a tool in to remove it. I had to use a piece of ABC gum on the end of a straw to get it out.

 

I don't get this...its a power outlet yet I'm not supposed to plug in anything that draws alot of power? Wheres the line? Its not like my girlfriend will be plugging in her blowdryer, but what about things such as laptops via a plug adapter? BlackBerry Chargers?

Also, what about the Car adapters that multiply your poweroutlets the ones that you plug in which have three more holes on top? Would using all three concurrently blow out the fuse?

/Has lots of gadgets.

 

I don't know what max amperage is ... I'm just repeating what I was told at the dealership by the tech that worked on my car. Load it up one gadget at a time until it blows. It's not that hard to change the fuse once you know where it is. All I can say is that my Sirius radio is OK, and that's all I want.

Live long, and prosper
Jerry L. Gubka

 

It's a 10 amp fuse! Using a corollary of Ohms' law, P = E*I (thank you Messrs Maxwell and Joules!) you get 120W (of course surge power requirements (i.e. when you first plug something in or turn on the car with it plugged in) are higher and are typically what keep you from getting more than a couple of devices on the circuit.) I can comfortably plug both my bride's and my phone in with no issue BUT let both batteries be low and plug them in and then turn on the car, can (and did) blow the fuse.

 

Why do we call it a cigarette lighter plug if there's no ash tray. Just asking.

 

Actually the lighter can handle more than 10 amps, just upgrade and use a 30 amp fuse and then your girlfriend can blow dry her hair all day without burning it out.

My auxillary plug is blown out in the armrest and I've changed the fuse but it still doesn't work. I had a penny stuck in the one behind the shift lever but I got it out and it worked fine.

 

Now I know why I've been seeing more car fires!

 

LoL. I'd shoot her simply from the noise her blowdryer would cause. But the idea of upgrading to a higher fuse is interesting. Would that be safer in terms of less blow outs down the line? I haven't had any yet but I'd rather tackle problems proactively.

 

Don't change the fuse just and a quality splinter from radishack or something. If you need to run a laptop use a power converter/investor and use the outlet in the arrest.

 

You run the risk of burning your car up. Fuses aren't there to inconvenience us, but to protect us from ourselves and electrical faults and the resultant smoke and fire. If you want additional amperage, do it right...using the right upgraded wiring and receptacles...and upgraded fuse. If you must, use a slo blo fuse but keep it at 10 amps.

 

I've already spoken with the Techs at Nissan on this and they told me that there is nothing wrong with upgrading the fuse, about the only reason why there has been fires has been due to people trying to run things like computers/blow dryers through these outlets on 10 amp fuses without using an upgraded fuse due to the required amount of amperage to run these types of equipment.

 

Call me silly, but I'd tend to trust the engineers that originally designed the electrical system and put in a 10A fuse vs. a service tech that says it's fine. The cost of a 10A vs. 30A fuse is rather insignificant.

I'm a boater, and boaters tend to add lots of new toys and mods which almost always involve electrical work. One of the cardinal rules is not to undersize the wire for the load, and don't just upgrade the fuse.

Electrical fires are not caused by a fuse blowing the protect against an over current situation. Fires ARE caused by upgrading to a larger capacity fuse and NOT upgrading the down-circuit wiring. A wire of a certain size can only handle a certain amount of current over a certain distance. Pushing more current through the same size wire causes the wire to overheat, melt insulation, burn connections, and ultimately, fires.

 

LOL @ the "ABC gum to get it out". I had the same problem...a penny fit so perfect that it was seemingly in there for good. I tried a pen, tweezers (GF's purse), and eventually went to the tool box and got a really small hoobby sized flat head screw driver. Gum...such a better answer.

More related to this thread - - I had my max in to look at the rocking front seat and the same fuse had blown at the same time. Dealership swapped it out and also warned me that my Verizon car charger was likely the issue. The service guy said: "If you're gonna use this charger make sure it's plugged in before the car is turned on...if you're driving and then plug it in you'll blow this fuse constantly". I don't know if anyone heard anything about Verizon specific chargers but he made it a point to say that was the culprit.

 

Thanks for all of the feedback. It was a blown fuse and no I didn't upgrade just used one of the spares avaliable.

 

Dont forget to replace the spare for next time.

 

Speaking of electricity, I'm thinking of splicing a second cigarette lighter inside the dash so I can plug my GPS unit's power cord into it and run the cable up through the top of the dash. However, I want to still use the main cigarette lighter socket for my iPod cradle.

With a setup like that, would the two devices just pull whatever power they needed, or would they be limited to the amount of power being sent down the line? (I know very little about electricity)

Regarding how much juice those two devices use, would the original wiring be able to handle that much? Unfortunately, I don't have a multimeter so I don't know exactly how much either of them use.

 

The title of the thread says "cigarette lighter broke". When did the maxima's start coming with cigarette lighters?

 

Well, we could call it the 12 Volt Socket Built Into The Dashboard Of Cars For Decades But No Longer Called A Cigarette Lighter, or the TVSBITDOCFDBNLCACL.






Or The Socket Formerly Known As Cigarette Lighter.


Seriously though, I went ahead and installed the second TVSBITDOCFDBNLCACL (aka Cigarette Lighter) socket inside the dash of my 01 I30. It was really easy and both sockets show 12 the correct voltage and my GPS unit charges the way it always has. Good stuff.

 

Everybody is saying its a 10 amp fuse but on my panel it says 15

 

I have this exact same problem! Lol, I will test out the gum solution and let you know if it works! Great idea.