Hi, I wonder if anyone can help with advice on a small problem with my otherwise-briliant Nissan Almera: an uncooperative 12v socket.
I hadn't bothered with it so far, but set off last week on a long journey (900 miles in 4 days) and tried to plug in the charger I'd bought for my Nokia mobile phone. No luck, so my mobile conked out while I was away. Grrrrr! :(
It's a standard charger, bought from Tesco, worked fine in other cars (VW, Volvo etc): it has two springy things on its shank, and a pin wot sticks out at the end.
When I remove the cigarette lighter and poke the plug into the socket, it won't go all the way in, and the little red light on the charger doesn't shine.
I then thought that it might be a good idea to try the cigarette lighter, and it doesn't work either :(
Peering inside the socket, I see that at the inner end of the socket there appears to be some sort of padding or something like that. Does anyone know if there is something in there I should try to remove, or is this a back-to-the-dealer situation?
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When I remove the cigarette lighter and poke the plug into the socket, it won't go all the way in, Peering inside the socket, I see that at the inner end of the socket there appears to be some sort of padding or something like that.
>>Does anyone know if there is something in there I should try to remove?
>>
I would suspect that there is a piece of packing /insulation that is designed to stop the lighter being activated during transit. Much like the little plastic strip around batteries on keyring torches etc.
Just give the dealer /any dealer a call and ask the same question of them. I suspect that the "packing" is supposed to be removed duing the "PDI" Pre Delivery Inspection and has got missed.
So probably the high tech solution is to gently remove it with tweezers or lond nosed pliers.
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>>So probably the high tech solution is to gently remove it with tweezers or lond nosed pliers.
Sounds reasonable to me. I would make sure it isn't live first; it's very easy to short this type of socket out, and at best, blow a fuse.
Number_Cruncher
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Thanks, Henry & Number Cruncher.
I sspoke to the dealer, and the service people were not aware of anything which needed to be unpacked from the socket, so they are going to take a look at it on thursday.
While they are at it, they are going to take a look at my interior light, whose switching I don't understand. Map lights are fine, but the main light doesn't seem to have an always-on setting, which is either a design flaw or a glitch (I dunno which).
It feels a bit silly bugging them over something so small, but I guess that's what I paid for when I bought a car under manufacturer's warranty from a main dealer!
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Thanks, Henry & Number Cruncher. I sspoke to the dealer, and the service people were not aware of anything which needed to be unpacked from the socket, so they are going to take a look at it on thursday. While they are at it, they are going to take a look at my interior light, whose switching I don't understand. Map lights are fine, but the main light doesn't seem to have an always-on setting, which is either a design flaw or a glitch (I dunno which).
There definitely is an 'always on' setting.
Our Almera suffered from an erratic inside light till I took it to bits and bent all the springs to make good firm contact with the switches. Been fine since.
It feels a bit silly bugging them over something so small, but I guess that's what I paid for when I bought a car under manufacturer's warranty from a main dealer!
Not tried the lighter on ours - maybe I will next time I'm in it.
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I think you'll find that the "padding" is probably the ceramic insulator that helps the lighter warm up quicker and also protects other parts from heat.
Kevin...
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I used to charge the phone in the car but when I changed phone I needed to buy another charger - it came with 2 ends - 1 fitted / 1 spare which had a longer nose.
The initial tip did not work - changed the end and bingo - car charger worked.
Check the end of the charger -it might not be the end of the charger needs to be changed to the one with the longer nose.
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But,as mentioned cig lighter doesn't work either.It could,of course,be the fuse.
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But,as mentioned cig lighter doesn't work either.It could,of course,be the fuse.
Could be; but there's still still the question of why the charger plug only goes part way into the socket, which may or may not be related.
I will reveal all when the dealer gives me the answer.
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The socket on ours works fine - both the lighter, and a speed camera detection thingy I plugged in to test it.
I did notice the adapter only went part way in until wiggled it a bit, then it clicked home.
Sounds like it's the fuse in your case.
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