Basic Car Electrics

YourName

Ok so my Seat Ibiza never came with a Cigarette Lighter, long story, but obviously I need one.

So I picked up a a pack of Access-a-fuse, I know a few people on here have used them, a new cigarette lighter, some wire and some spade connectors.

So there are two "terminals" on the cigarette lighter, so presumably one has to be connected to a bit of metal on the car and the other to the power source (accessafuse), so I put it all together and nothing, absolutely nothing.

So bearing in mind I don't have a clue about electrics, and I am at my wits end with this one, does anyone have any clue what I could be doing wrong???

colm_mcm

the terminal at the centre is the + and the one on the outside is the -

Where have you connected the - wire to?

try using the casing of the stereo as an earth

YourName

I have just stuck it to the door frame while I was testing to see if it works.

Obviously once it is touching it is good yeh, I will try the stereo casing now.

mickdw

Do you have power at the fuse you are using? Key on/off?
Is that access fuse suitable for a heating element appliance which I would imagine requires a strong current?

If power is coming to the lighter, try another earth. Then dont forget to push the button on the lighter

langdang

YourName wrote: »

So bearing in mind I don't have a clue about electrics, and I am at my wits end with this one, does anyone have any clue what I could be doing wrong???

Maybe this is too basic a suggestion but - get a cheap multimeter so you can tell where you have voltage and where you don't

YourName

I have been trying to get a cigarette lighter into my car for well over a year and I am constantly having problems, and I am after giving it one more shot there, putting the wire onto the stereo, and bingo it works ! ! ! Thanks a million, genius'.

Now when I used the cigarette lighter as a lighter a little smoke came out just before I pulled it out, i don;t know if it was gonna pop up or not because I didn't wait, is there and risks with this set up now, can I do any damage??? Fire or anything??? All I know is that the cigarette lighter is 12 Volts, so is everything above board, like obviously I don't understand amps and everything else, I just want a cigarette lighter to charge the mobile and Sat Nav, and I don't want to do anything wrong.

I assume the fuse will just do its job if anything goes wrong obviously but you can't be too careful.

Also one last question, I want to buy some wire/cable to hook this up properly and mount it somewhere, what sort of cable am I looking at getting??? I will probably pick it up online because I work horrible hours.

Seanieke

I'd say the smoke may not have been a good sign. A lighter like that would have a heavy load and draw a few amps, the smaller the cable the less amps it can carry. So what I'd do for safety sake is throw away the lighter element. Have you put the fuse on the live ( + ) side?

Chargers & Sat Navs would have a low enough current...(Checks Google...)
about .5 of an amp, 1.5 / 15 AWG cable would easily get you out.

If you want to be REALLY safe, put in the smallest fuse you have, if that blows go up a size till it doesn't blow, that way your cable's safe.

YourName

I think it may have just been because it was a brand new cigarette lighter, I hooked it up again and waited till it popped out, all was working fine and no smoke, did it a few times and everything seemed normal.

Ok I will pick up a big bit of cable, yeh I won;t be using the lighter so I may as well throw away the button in case some of the kids start messing with it.

I can't figure out which fuse could be constant positive as opposed to accelerator positive (I'm probably saying that wrong), if you get what I mean. I was thinking about putting a light in the boot, but that would need to be able to be used when the engine is switched off too, I know I could start splicing wires and stuff, but I don't want to start doing that stuff I would rather use these new fuses.

colm_mcm

does your cabin interior light come on when you open the boot?

YourName

No but obviously I can get it to come on when I open the doors

colm_mcm

reason i asked was if there was already a switch on the boot door.

YourName

Yeh I get what you mean, but theres no switch, only on the doors.

YourName

Do you think this cable would be ok for most stuff???

And where else is a god place to attacha ground because it seems when I connect it to the top of the stereo it seems to mess with the reception.

thxireland

hi if you are use the power cables form the radio you may have a problem with overload on the fuse if so you could damage the cabling in your car a blow a fuse what would be best if possible would be to wire it straight from the battery with an inline fuse that would eliminate any problems such as overloading or cable burning out but you have to have a fuse on it the cigarette light on it's own won't pull power until pushed down so won't drain the battery just be carful if you use a charger if so wire a relay to the acc for the trigger and the main power from the battery

YourName

No splicing any cables here, as I said in the first post, I used access-a-fuse devices, which have an inbuilt 2nd fuse for the cigarette lighter anyway.