Problem with Radio and Cigarette Lighter

[MicroMike]

I am sorry to be redundant, but I also have a problem with the cig lighter on my 2002 Protege, and it is related to the radio.

When I plug any electrical item (lighter or Ipod adapter or inverter) into the lighter socket the radio goes off. The fuse is not blown because the radio comes back on when I remove the device from the lighter socket.

Does anyone have an idea what is going on here?


Thanks for your help!(usa)

[jomoyo069]

check all the fuses

[jomoyo069]

electric short

[mazda protege 2]

^^ short or fuses

[MicroMike]

Thanks for your suggestions. I did check the fuses and they all look good. I guess I will go back and check them with a multimeter. Any idea where the short might be? I was thinking the lighter socket itself migh be the problem. Should I take it out and check for voltage directly on the positive wire lead?

Thanks for your replies.

[intimidator2000]

Since you already looked at the fuse the only thing I can think of that could be the problem is the cigarette lighter itself, the problem could be the coil inside is not working right. Is inside the cigarette lighter rusted or anything like that?

[MicroMike]

Thanks for the suggestion about corrosion. I do not think so, but I am going out now to see if teher is. I think I might just pull the socket and test for voltage with load on on. Previoulsy when I put a load on the socket the radion went out, but the fuse did not blow.

[MicroMike]

Success!! I got it working. Now we have a lighter and a radio that works.

I want to thank everyone who posted to my question. The answer to my weird problem actually turned out kind of weird too. I checked for corrosion and even removed the socket, but all looked fine. I also directly tested the circuit by using a test light on the plug going to the lighter socket. If I connected the test light to the plug, I got no voltage (the test lamp did not light up) and the radio went off. Thus, I knew hen that it was circuit related.

Then I remembered that my son replaced a blown 15A fuse with one of those types that has a built in LED to show that it is blown. When I swapped this out with a standard fuse all worked fine. I am guessing that the LED-type fuse did not allow enough current to pass due to high resistance.

Soooo, despite wasting some time all is fine now.

Thanks again for everyone’s help.
(breakn)