ldm125

So my wife's car, an 03 Civic EX Coupe (Auto), has had a "CODE'd" radio and a bad lighter since we bought it a while back. I was told that the battery had been replaced (hence the "CODE"), and we didn't find out about the cig lighter until a few days later when we tried to plug in an iPod.

Anyway, I finally got around to pulling the stereo and getting the serial, and I figured I'd look into the cig lighter problem while I was at it. Broke out the multimeter, and there was no power to the +/- wires leading to the lighter. So I checked the fuse, and there was a 25A in the spot where the 15A was, and it was burnt out. This leads me to believe that there's a short, and the person selling the car knew a bit more that I was led to believe.

Is this a common problem? Is it easily fixed? I would prefer to do it myself if I can, but for the purposes of this thread, assume a low electrical experience, decent general car knowledge, and an ability to learn.

Thanks in advance,
-ldm

ezone

Remove everything from the lighter socket. (Including the dimes and pennies that the kids dropped in there.)
Replace the blown fuse with a good one of the specified rating.
If it will charge your cellphone or power the ipod, you are done.

An accessory or a bad lighter blew the fuse. Some accessory plugs will short out when the tip is mashed all the way in. So pay attention to WHEN that fuse blows.

ldm125

Fair enough. I'll get around to putting it all back together tomorrow. It's just that there was no foreign material in the cig lighter. The fact that it blew a fuse that was +10A "bigger" than the stock one led me to a possible short. I was only asking if this was a common problem before I start popping fuses again.

Nevertheless, thanks for the info
-ldm

ezone

Make sure the socket is empty.

If you stick in a fuse and it blows as soon as you do, then you can worry.

Most likely someone had a bad accessory plug in causing it to blow, and just stuck in whatever fuse was handy.

A bad or wrong length lighter will blow the fuse too.

electric130

iTrader: (44)

A valid concern. Most people don't realize how dangerous putting a larger fuse in really is. You can catch your car on fire.

Disconnect the wire from the socket, them replace fuse. If new one blows, you've got a wiring problem to chase. If it doesn't blow, you likely have a bad socket.