Cigar Lighter Install I Thought Was a No-Brainer???

[joshnjulie1]

This is the one I installed:
http://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/Complete_Lighter_Kit_6777yr

I 'assumed' the center post with the nut was the power and the tab coming off the outer casing was the ground.

Went to turn her over and nothing, a complete battery drain.
Did I hook this up wrong, was a ground required? What the heck?

 

[Past_Miner]

You have the wiring correct. The tab the outer casing is also the "jam nut" that clamps the whole thing to the dash, it has to be the ground. These aren't as easy as they seem to actually install. I have cross threaded quite a few and had some odd problems in the past.

Get out a test meter and test for resistance between the post and the tab (or any other vehicle ground). If you have any measurable resistance you have a cross circuit directly to ground. Since the lighter is always hot it would drain the battery.

I suppose it could be bad out of the box. Take the whole thing out of the dash and test between the post and the metal part of the inner casing. The same will be true here, if you have measurable resistance you have a short. If it tests okay you probably just have it cross threaded and something, somewhere it touching where it shouldn't. These are pretty simple so I would think it would have to be the wires themselves touching if the inner casing is good.

 

[joshnjulie1]

Barring the testing, would it be smart to hook it up to switched/acc power instead of being hot all the time in case these things act up often enough?

 

[bmc69]

This is the one I installed:
http://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/Complete_Lighter_Kit_6777yr

I 'assumed' the center post with the nut was the power and the tab coming off the outer casing was the ground.

Went to turn her over and nothing, a complete battery drain.
Did I hook this up wrong, was a ground required? What the heck?

There is more than one thing wrong here, it seems to me. If in fact the "new" lighter wiring install was what drained the battery, the short circuit involved there should have, instead, very quickly blown the fuse that feeds that circuit.

 

[joshnjulie1]

HA. It did a number of times. When I tried to wire it up I blew the fuse half a dozen times. I thought it was the order in which I was installing it so I didn't put the fuse in until it was installed. Blowing the fuse now makes me think that there is something wrong with the unit itself. What do you think?

 

[bknbronco]

If you think its the unit itself you can get that same exact thing at walmart in the automotive section by them fuses you also need to grab.

I wouldn't put a switch on it...instead id figure out the real problem. Adding a switch just makes for more things to go wrong and trouble shoot later in life. A cigarette lighter is as simple a install as there is. Maybe something internal isn't insulating the inner part as it should.

Maybe it has to do with the actual lighter part that heats up? Does it blow fuses with the knob in or out or both? The knob completes the circuit and I could see if that was bad it would be like touching a + and - wire together. JUST BE GLAD YOU DIDNT BURN IT DOWN LAST NIGHT!

The unit itself should actually ground through the dash, but the gound wire is just another redundant wire. I don't think I have but one wire (the +) going to mine. Just make sure you clean some paint off the backside of the hole.....or add a ground wire on that tab. But that ground ant the problem.

 

[joshnjulie1]

Damnit.....ok.
And I thought I was out of things to tinker with on the Bronco this weekend.

 

[Blue Bastard]

I just installed one, I did ground it with the tab. works fine, no battery drain. The problem i had was the new lighter (stock looking replica) it self only worked once? the outlet is fine. oh well I dont plan on smoking any big ass stoggie's in it any way.

 

[bknbronco]

oh well I dont plan on smoking any big ass stoggie's in it any way.

I put a plastic plug in mine like this...
http://www.firebirdcentral.com/product_p/das-127.htm

If there is in fact a problem with that push in plug then WH needs to know about it. A good reason for them to clear there shelves of them before somebodys bronco burns to the ground. This is two accounts so far in the same week! Hopefully dirt donk reads this

 

[bmc69]

Damnit.....ok.
And I thought I was out of things to tinker with on the Bronco this weekend.

*snicker* ...you were just kidding...right? ;D

 

[joshnjulie1]

As a side note, I installed my audio system 2 weeks ago. After that and before installing the lighter, I had no problems with the battery that I know of. With that being said,
what is the proper way to trace battery drain.
I feel I may have to perform a trace fo the source from not only the lighter, but the radio and amp as well just to make sure I am not looking in the wrong spot or blaming the wrong component.

I am pretty positive it is not the ausio system, that would have drained my battery much quicker.

 

[joshnjulie1]

*snicker* ...you were just kidding...right? ;D

I will fix this and the next problem will ultimatley present itself. It is always fun to see what issue pops up next after fixing the current one.

 

[bknbronco]

unplug the harness from the radio. Pull the huge fuse to the amps. Then pull the pos wire off the battery and get a cheepo test light and clip the light to the pos wire and push the probe to the + battery terminal. The light should be off. If its light up at all then something is drawing power. Now with that test light still hooked up put the large amp fuse back in. Test light should still be off, if it turns on then the amp is drawing power which it shouldn't because the blue wire to the amp istnt even hooked to the radio. That blue wire tells the amp to turn on. Pull the amp fuse again and instead plug the radio harness in. Turn radio off the light should glow dimly because of the power that keeps presets and clock. Turn radio on and light should glow a bit brighter.

Sometimes guys hook up the radio wrong. The small, usually yellow wire I think is for the presets and goes to a always hot connection. This will be a constant draw but so small that it shouldn't drain a battery for weeks if not months. The radios red wire, the one with a inline fuse should go to a ignition on positive hookup so it only has power when the key is on. That red wire sometimes gets hooked up to a constant pos lead which will drain your battery if you forget to turn the radio off every time.

You can test the cig lighter the same way. Pull that pos lead of the center post and hook your test light between the wire and the lighter terminal. I shouldn't glow at all. Plug something into the lighter like your phone or GPS and the light should light up.

Long story short a test light that's hooked up inline to anything shouldn't glow until you power up whatever your trying to test. The more the light glows the more power is being drawn.

 

[DirtDonk]

Hey Josh and BlueB, sorry to hear about your problems! Blue, was that one of ours too? Or did you source it somewhere else? If one of ours, let me know.

Either way, I've just sent an e-mail reminder to me and will start checking what's on our shelves tomorrow.
In the meantime, we'll take return and replace, if desired, any defective unit with a good one. But let's check all the things out for sure.
I (or someone else) will check the ones at our end, but definitely do the tests described by the others to see just what's going on.

Josh, do you have any other add-on stuff hooked to that fuse by any chance?
Where did you connect the ground? I can't remember for sure, but I think the original just grounded through the case to the dash, and did not have a separate grounding wire. The separate wire is a much better, more consistent, way to do it. But still curious where you ran yours, if you did.

And when you replaced the last fuse, did you use the same size that had been blowing previously? Or did you uprate it to a higher capacity? If so, how high did you have to go before it stopped blowing?

Thanks. And again, sorry for the headaches.
Blue, since yours just failed after using it, that's an easy thing to send you out a new one. Just let me know if it's one of ours and I'll get a new one going. Josh, same thing if it turns out to be defective. We don't want to rule anything out though, so definitely do the other stuff.

Talk to you soon.

Paul

 

[Blue Bastard]

Think I got mine elsewhere. Socket works fine and does not blow fuses. The lighter filament on it got hot real fast and popped the fuse. Replaced the fuse and lighter no workey. Thanks for the concern. I will note the filament looks very weak and is only about half the size of a factory one. Just sayin.

 

[joshnjulie1]

Josh, do you have any other add-on stuff hooked to that fuse by any chance?
Where did you connect the ground? I can't remember for sure, but I think the original just grounded through the case to the dash, and did not have a separate grounding wire. The separate wire is a much better, more consistent, way to do it. But still curious where you ran yours, if you did.

And when you replaced the last fuse, did you use the same size that had been blowing previously? Or did you uprate it to a higher capacity? If so, how high did you have to go before it stopped blowing?

Thanks. And again, sorry for the headaches.
Blue, since yours just failed after using it, that's an easy thing to send you out a new one. Just let me know if it's one of ours and I'll get a new one going. Josh, same thing if it turns out to be defective. We don't want to rule anything out though, so definitely do the other stuff.

Talk to you soon.

Paul

Not sure what else runs with that fuse, but must be a constant. Replaced it each time with the installed 10 amp fuse (New Centech harness).
Trying an experiment now. I am logging the battery drain with the lighter unplugged to document its decline. If it is still draining like I think it is, I will have to look elsewhere (radio). If not, I may recharge and rehook up lighter to verify it being the source.

 

[joshnjulie1]

So if I remove the + cable frm the battery, I should be able to hook a light inbetween the + post of the battery and the +cable I just removed. if it does glow, it is pulling power. It should pull power (glow) as the constant from the radio is hooked up correct?

If I unplug the harness it should not glow and if the fuse for the amp is pulled it should not glow. I think I have the basics.

One question, I have one of thos test lights with a point and roach clip. Should I make my own lower watt tester just in case that thing is either on/off. Is there a cheap way to make a tester with a light (and which type of light) that will start to glow at the smallest amount of draw?

 

[DirtDonk]

Most test lights I've ever used were able to just glow with the barest of loads. In fact, up to a point you can tell pretty easily if a load is anything from just barely there, to several amps bright.
Not sure what the max capacity of a typical test light is though (maybe 10 amps or less?) but they definitely go dim or bright depending on the load. If you have your documentation still, see if you can find a rating.
If it's an LED light, I'm not sure how those work. But the old-styles were pretty "readable" over a short range.

If it's got a replaceable fuse in it's handle or line, so much the better. You can use it even if you're not sure how much is going to be pulled through it, and if it blows the fuse, you know you need to start looking for bigger loads.

Paul

 

[joshnjulie1]

Battery disconnected
Using test light & meter set @ 20 DCV
No glow (at all) and 0.00 on the meter (even goes "-" on and off)

COULD IT ACTUALLY BE A BAD CELL IN THE BATTERY?

 

[joshnjulie1]

Or,,,,,,
Am I using my digital meter on the wrong setting.
I tried switching back and forth with the neg and pos with no change.