I have a 2005 Scion xB, and I haven't modified anything except the head unit, so I know this is nothing I messed up, but all of a sudden my cigarette lighter stopped working

Not only does it not work but it fried three phone chargers and one phone! I put the phone charger in the socket, the little red light came on on the phone charger and then i plugged the phone into the charger and the light came off. no charge. i tried it in a different car, the charger never worked again and now the phone doesn't even turn on! i took the phone back to sprint and they said it got fried!

I recently put in a new battery and I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I don't want a dealer to charge me 1000 dollars to fix it if it's something simple! any ideas?

 

Check the socket with a DMM for actual voltage. You should have around 13+v running and around 12v not running. Don't short anything out! Be careful.

Also, a cheep import charger or a name brand one?

G/L!

Robert

 

It's the stock charger! It's always worked and one day, Bam stops working starts frying.

I'm going to check it at Pep Boys tomorrow, will post results, Thanks for the help.

 

check your fuses? Did the charger's fuse blow, or did some peice of metal get lodged ito the cigg lighter socket making contact and burned it out?

 

Is the polarity reversed? The charger or phone SHOULD be polarity protected, but you never know.

 

Double check your battery connections and make sure you have them tight. If they are loose you could get voltage spikes from the alternator, kind of rare but it is the only thing I can think of that could blow out the charger.

 

Most cigarette adaptors have a fuse in the nose. Unscew the top and check that as well - it might have popped.

it may be your new battery connections are not good. Loose terminals will play havoc on your system.

 

My guess is that it's not frying the adapters, but blowing the in-line fuses... check those first.

 

After a little more thought - someone might have reversed the polarity of the cigarette lighter if they had broken the factory plug.

A meter will tell you this - the center should be positive and the case negative.

 

^^Great point!

Robert