How do you remove the cigarette lighter (the cylinder part thing) from the ashtray compartment? I have it sitting here on my couch and I can't figure out how to take it out without breaking the rest of the plastic area. (The plastic is chipped, cracked, and not in good condition as it is, and I don't want to break it any more.)

Also, are there any specific replacements? Or will anything work? I bought one without checking if it will fit, but it has some bracket attached to it that I thought screws on or off. As long as it has positive & negtive wires connected it will work, right?

Could I wire up two cigarette lighters? (No, I don't have a smoking problem. I just want a radar scanner always connected plus a GTech or phone charger or something at the same time.) I noticed a couple of wires (red & black) that looked like they came from the same place as the cig lighter wires. (They aren't connected to anything but taped together at the tips.) The whole group of wires is just taped up from wherever they came from. Could I use those for a second lighter?

I don't think I'm explaining this well at all, sorry. I obviously don't know much about electrical crap. Anything you can tell me would be great, but I really want to know how to take out the lighter cylinder part. Thanks.

 

Why do you want to remove the cigarete lighter from the plastic part? is it not working?
If it's not working make sure you have power to the wires going to the cig lighter first.
Also instaed of wiring up a second lighter either get a splitter thing that pluggs into the cigarette lighter, or buy a cigarette lighter style power outlet and wire one of those in. I know with those as long as it has 12 volts going in and the other wire is grounded, it will work.

 

I want to remove it because it looks corroded or something. I'm sure it doesn't work, and it was never hooked up to the wires. It was like this when I bought it, but I never needed it so I didn't care. And thanks for the advice about the dual lighter thing.

 

Also, when I connected the one I just bought, it sparked when I touched the negative wire to it. I have no idea if that's normal or bad or whatever, so I pulled the fuse before I shoved the wire on all the way. Then the fuse sparked a little and smoked a little when I put it back in. Again, I wouldn't think that that's normal, but I haven't noticed anything not working so I just left it.

By the way, I don't have the actual lighter part to plug in, and nothing was plugged into the lighter cylinder when I did that. I don't recall anything being on in my car (no lights or anything) when that happened, so is that spark a problem?

 

When the fuse smokes thats usually a bad thing. Check to make sure you have the right amp fuse in there.
If nothing was connected then it sounds like there was a problem that some one couldn't figur out and the easy fix was just to disconnect the lighter.
Do you have an after market, stereo system? I believe they are on the same circuit. Check in there to make sure everything is wired right, and that nothing is grounding out anywhere.
Also if the fuse sparked, I bet it blew out so just check to make sure.

 

Yeah the fuse smoked, but it was a REALLY small amount. I don't know what a blown fuse looks like, but I could see some discoloration. I assumed it was blown but the dome light and map lights still work, so I just left it in. I haven't checked my manuals to be sure if these lights use the same fuse, or what else uses that fuse, but it works and I haven't noticed anything else YET, so I left it alone. I also didn't check the manuals to see if I put in the right fuse, but it was the one that was in there when I bought the car (30 amp).

As far as an aftermarket stereo system goes, there is a blaupunkt (spelling?) cd unit, and the rear has sony speakers. I'm sure the deck is aftermarket, the guy who owned the car put it in. The wiring looks alright to me, although I haven't checked it very well (it hasn't had any problems except for the antenna plug so I didn't really look at the rest). I assume the rear speakers weren't originally sonys, but nothing in the sound system is very "fancy." They're all just weak "stockish" things.

And you have no idea how right you are about previous electrical problems. When I got the car, almost everything (except what is absolutely necessary) wasn't plugged in. However, it seemed to me that that was part of the problem. When I plugged in the remote hatch release thing that helped some of my problems. Also, I just assumed my power mirrors were broken, but I just found today that the wires were barely hanging off the switches. I don't think the previous owner cared about accessories at all. I'm wondering what other things that actually work in my car just needs to be plugged in.

By the way, if two wires (red & black) aren't connected to anything (besides where the power is coming from, and being grounded to) does that draw power? I'm still REALLY new to this kind of stuff. Thanks.

 

Just checked chilton's and it should be a 20 amp fuse. That's what I thought, but I didn't have a spare 20 amp fuse earlier so I just popped the 30 amp back in. I'll grab some when I go out tonight just in case I start blowing fuses. Thanks for reminding me.

Also, thanks for all the help and advice so far!