'03 F250, FX4, CC, V10 if it matters.

My lovely wife bought me a pair of seat heaters for Christmas for my truck. They've got a standard 12v plug to put into the cigarette lighter. They work like a champ when plugged into the accessory power point, but don't work when I plugged into the cig lighter.

Since I'm not a COMPLETE moron, I checked the fuse (#12) and it was blown. Cool, easy fix. Replaced the fuse, plugged in and no power. WTF? Plug in the cig lighter and no response from that either. OK, check fuse again. Nope, fuse is fine.

So, what are my next steps? I'm a mechanical guy, not an electrical guy, so I always ask stupid questions when it comes to electrons! How do I fix a cig lighter? What do I need to check?

Thanks!
Kevin

 

CJB fuse F12 goes only to the Data Link Connector (pin 16) and the cigar lighter. You'll probably want to break out the test meter or test lamp and see if you have power at either point. Also, look at the contacts for F12 and make certain that they are not damaged or stretched out.

This assumes that any fuse inside the heater plugs is also good. If the heater works in the aux point, then they're fine. If might just be a mechanical (shape) problem of the plug(s) on the heater(s).

 

most of the time the cig lighter burns out, if you changed the fuse id get a 12volt test light and check the cig lighter to see if it powered. if not unclip the lighter and check the wire going to it if the wire is powered then just go to a Ford dealer and buy a new cig lighter and put it back together

 

Yep, ground your test light clip, and use the pointed part to test the "center"
point, inside where the lighter goes,
make sure you don't touch the sides of the light case, or you'll blow the fuse again.