Gingerbreadman

Ok so here is the short and skinny of it. After a while of random radio issues, I have figured out the following. When I plug something into the cigarette lighter (i guess they are called accessory power ports now or something similar) it will blow the radio fuse. the cigarette lighters are on the same fuse as the radio and something seems to be shorting out and blowing the fuse. I would have thought it was the case of the cigarette lighter being loose and touching something as i have seen before on another vehicle, EXCEPT that i doscovered this morning that it happens when I plug into either the plug in the center console or the one under the radio. Any ideas what this might be?

I just thought of something... i only plugged my cell phone charger in to those two ports so that could be the problem.... I dont think so but i will pursue that route as well. I will try another device when i get home. Other suggestions or experiences are welcome.

One more note ... if nothing is plugged into the cigarette lighter the fuse will not blow and the radio will work indefinately. As soon as I plug an item in to the port....pop.... I am out of business until I stop and change the fuse. I am not sure it pops evry time but has been pretty consistent the last 6 or so fuses.

theacolyte

2 things.

First of all, I was told by Acura when I bought the car that the fuses for the ciggarette lighter sockets were NOT RATED high enough to support a ciggarette lighter.

Also, the only other time I've ran into this was in my 1994 Nissan Quest -- I had a penny lodged in the back that I didn't see. Shorted it every time!

Gingerbreadman

I was trying to support a cell phone actually which draws maybe a milliamp. i dunno but that isnt it i dont think. And for the penny thing, was that blowing the fuse as soon as you applied power or just when you plugged something in? and you mean a penny was inside the cigarette lighter or behind it?

Oh and bump... so more can contemplate this puzzling dilemma.

theacolyte

Ah the cell phone was blowing it out... Ouch. If a lighter was doing it I'd understand. I'd still try another device anyway, maybe your charger is weird.

The penny was in the socket itself at the bottom, and it actually happened 3 times -- I was stupid and kept using the ashtray as a cointray as well as an ashtray. 2 times it just shorted when the penny went back there, once it didn't short until the penny was back there and I tried to use the lighter.

dnam85

Same shit happened to me. The penny was in the lighter socket so as i was trying to take it out, I think I blown the fuse and my audio is out. Can you tell me where the audio fuse is located at? I checked the fuse box, I don't see any audio fuse.

fsttyms1

Passenger side #9