Anyone use their cigarette lighter outlet to power the phone? I haven't tried to see if mine even works, let alone plug my phone into it. I'm scared for both my phone and my car. '70 CS.

 

I use the cig outlet on my 70 Cutlass conv with no problems. I replaced the original fuse with a lower rated one. Replacing fuse is not necessary, I just did it for safety purposes. I've heard to many stories of that circuit causing fires.

Don W

 

For some reason the cig lighter outlet on some cars will not work on some charging adapters. What a lot of people do is to install a separate usb receptacle somewhere in the car.

 

You're afraid over nothing. I use the cigarette lighter in my old cars all the time for charging a cell phone or powering a GPS or satellite radio. What do you think is going to happen? The "power points" in modern cars are the same electrically and internally as the cigarette lighter sockets of previous generations. They have to be in order to be compatible with the power cords plugs that plug into these sockets as these plugs haven't changed in design in decades.

The difference between a modern power point and an older cigarette lighter is that the modern power points aren't designed to withstand the heat of an actual cigarette lighter. That's why you're not supposed to plug an actual cigarette lighter head into one of these sockets (at least, the owner's manual says not to plug one in, and I think that's the reason why). But, regardless, 12 volts is 12 volts, whether it's coming out of the cigarette lighter on my '67 Delta 88 or the power point on my 2014 Mazda.

 

If this is true, it's because of a bad design in either the plug or the socket, or one or both is worn. The specifications for a 12V auto plug and socket have not changed. It's the same now as it was 50 years ago.

 

I think this is a bad idea. That circuit does not simply supply power to the cigarette lighter. On the typical car, the same circuit supplies the clock, dome lights, courtesy lights, underhood light, trunk light, and glovebox light. Not every car has every one of these, and in some cars there might be a different arrangement of the circuitry, but the point is that the cigarette lighter is not the sole user of that circuit in any car. That circuit is supposed to use a fuse of a certain size (usually 20-amps), and there's reason the car's designer's chose that size. It is not unsafe to use what Oldsmobile designed the car to use. If you replace it with something lower, you run the risk of blowing the fuse if enough of those devices or lights were to be turned on at the same time.

There are other circuits, such as the stop lights, windshield wipers, heater/AC control, power windows, and possibly others that also use a 20-amp fuse. By your reasoning, you should replace those fuses with something lower-rated as well. Or have you not done that because you actually want those devices and lights to work when you need them?

Where did you hear this? Sounds like an old wive's tale. I've never heard a story like this. That circuit is designed to handle a certain load as defined by the fuse the factory specified for it, and, back in the day, when smoking was much more commonplace than it is now, millions of people driving millions of cars lit millions of cigarettes every day without a problem. I don't recall there being an epidemic of car fires due to the use of the car's cigarette lighter. If there were, I'm sure Ralph Nader would have written another book. If there is a fire, it's because of a failure in some aspect of the electrical system, which is often due to improper shade-tree mechanic intervention, and that's something that even the best-designed electrical system can't plan for.

 

The only fire I have heard of is when a cigarette lighter sticks in and won't shut off heating. Since you are not using it as such, no issue.

 

My 55 cigarette lighter will not power my phone but will light up a cigar (I think, I don't smoke). On long trips I use my jump box which has numerous ports for things I don't have. It's small and doesn't take up hardly any room and no drain on my system...... Tedd

 

I've actually thought of going to the salvage yard to get a cigarette lighter assembly from a car to make a table top lighter. Oldsguy and I smoke cigars and this was one of our ideas for a weekend project. The lighter in my 71 will light a cigar but I never smoke in the car. I don't use the lighter receptacle to charge my phone but my phone sucks so it's dead most of the time anyways...

 

I use mine as a charger, no problems....

 

jaunty75
I think it is a good idea. The amp load from the bulbs on this circuit is 4.5 amps. The factory designates a 25 amp fuse for this circuit. I do not think my cell charger will pull 20.5 amps. Since I will not be using the cigarette lighter which uses a coiled wire heating element(high amp draw) I replaced the factory fuse with one rated for 10 amps. It has worked fine all summer. If it ever blows I will take 2 minutes and replace the fuse with one that I have in the glovebox. By replacing with a smaller fuse the thought is that IF for some strange reason the actual cigarette lighter was used the fuse would blow.

No one said there was an epidemic of cigarette lighters causing fires. I have heard of them causing fires and giving the combination of the heat from the lighter and the high amperage needed for the circuit I decided to eliminate that risk. What would likely happen if the cigarette lighter "stuck" in with a 10 amp rather than a 25 amp fuse, catch on fire or blow the 10 amp fuse?

Don W

 

Don, if the smaller fuse gives you peace of mind then go for it. The thing to be concerned about with fuses is if someone puts a larger fuse in a circuit or; God forbid, a penny to completely bypass the fuse!

 

C'mon, now. You don't use a penny. You use the foil from a stick of gum and wrap it around the blown fuse. You're old enough to know this.

 

Pray tell what happens when the circuit draws that amperage again with the gum wrapper fix?

 

The specially-calibrated paper that the foil is glued-to in the process of wrapping gum prior to sale, will smoke and burn.

This alerts an ASE-certified tech to take the keys away from the owner, and call the local loony-bin.

 

Really, do I have to insert some sort of smiley face emoticon to show it was a joke? What's this world coming to?.

 

Hey, when it's gotta work, it's gotta work. I made a stage monitor amp run on a nail once.

 

I've never seen a penny used for an AGC fuse, I have put them in old round glass fuse receptacles in an old house temporarily. I have used the gum wrapper or tin foil in a clinch too. I tried to run a phone charger off my 67 lighter outlet and it would not work, the lighter works. I do know there are different lighter coil cartridges that were sold for burned out replacements. They are not universal.

 

If your really worried about a fire, leave the fuse in the fuse box (whatever it’s rated for) and put a inline fuse on the power feed to the lighter socket. I would think a 5 amp fuse would be plenty to power a cell charger, radar detector, etc.

 

That's the spirit!

 

Yeah, I remember a old western on TV where a poor farm owner put a penny in his fuse box and the house burnt down. But of course the hero saved the family including the cute daughter and they all lived happily ever after!!

 

Yeah, don't sweat it. There's a couple of notes:

1) The power connector on the back of the lighter socket is, ah, marginal to say the least. Mine got to the point where it'd fall off any time I hit a hard bump. So don't be surprised if you loose power to the socket but everything else seems OK. Hard to get your hand up there to plug it back in though. Even then, the end of the wire is insulated so it'll just flop around a little. If, somehow, the very end touches the body, the fuse will blow.

2) The extremely cheap adapters can fail in spectacular ways. Same goes for the AC plug in adapters - those can even short mains directly to whatever is plugged into the USB socket! So it's worthwhile to spend the extra $4 for a name-brand or semi-name-brand unit. I tend to look at volume of reviews on Amazon. Even if I don't recognize the name, if it has >500 reviews and they trend positive, it's probably good. The super-high-power ones are fine as well. Even 30W is only 2.5A (or less, really).

 

Where can you get them? Since radio shack closed haven't been able to find one.

I've been using the lighter for a few years now. Also downloaded the app Speedometer and put one of those suction cup phone holders in. Any time I do a road trip I set it up and power the phone off the lighter. There's an orange wire with a black rubber angled plug end that slides on to the stud at the back of the lighter housing. Mine has come off a few times. Slight squeeze of the connector seems to have remedied that. The easiest access is right through the clock/blank hole. Pull it out and the wire is just to the right.

 

I can attest to the fusing action of foil gum wrapper. In HS, my classmates and I would test this in the science lab by folding the gum wrapper into a long thin "U", poking a pencil tip through the bottom of the "U", and then using it for "checking" for power at the 120V outlets on the sides of the lab benches. POOF in a bright flash of light every time. While we made no direct impulse current measurements through the foil gum wrapper to determine what their current carrying capability was, we inferred that it had to be less than the circuit breaker rating that was feeding the bench outlets (15-20A at the most).

Maybe this is why schools these days don't have 120V outlets in their science lab benches?

 

Yep, same thing on my car. The bullet connector got loose over time and would lose connection, and crimping it a bit cured the issue.

 

 

I Routed out the hole on my 64 F-85 and there you go.

 

Tedd - I have the same issue on my 56. Good to know it is not only on my car. Lighter works great but no power for GPS or phone.
Rick

 

Rick, at least you have a 20 amp fuse on the back of your lighter, in case something bad happens.

 

This discussion motivated me to tackle one of my back burner projects. Those of you in readerland with children know how much of a hassle it is traveling with multiple kids fighting over a phone charger. I have considered mounting a USB port in the rear ashtrays. I have had these USB charging ports for a couple years, I got a couple good and junk ashtrays from Scott (oldspackrat) I didn’t want to cut up the ones on my car in case my idea wouldn’t work. I used the junk pitted ashtrays for a prototype, then copied it with nice ashtrays. This is the result

Ashtray lid closed, looks stock. Needs a little cleanup and polishing

I cut about an inch and a half from the bottom of the ashtray, then welded a piece of thin sheet metal, drilled a hole for the power port. I trimmed the tray so the lid would just miss the port.

Open the lid, plug in the charger. Kids can’t go anywhere without their phones!! God forbid they look out the windows.

A quick disconnect, using Metri-PAC 150 terminals. These terminal bodies are commonly used for door courtesy lamps on late 80s mid 90s GM cars

now need to make one for the other side, then tear out the door panels and run some wiring.

 

I like it.

 

FYI
My GMC Sierra 2500 SLT came with what is called a Power Point to plug in accessories (looks like a cigar lighter unit) - and with the free Up Fitter money I had them install a cigar lighter & ashtray cup holder unit (though I don't smoke). I had a $50 credit left and that was the only thing that cost roughly that much. When you buy new as a commercial buyer they offer $900 in free GM accessories from their dealer installed option catalogue - I got running boards & a lighter -

The lighter and power point look identical but the lighter only works in the lighter BUT SOME and not all plug in accessories work in one or the other and some both depending the era and manufacturer - the power point has a plastic hinged snap close cover for when not in use ...

So the sockets look similar but are different to some degree +-

 

The sockets should be IDENTICAL electrically as far as what can plug into them. I can plug my modern GPS or cell phone charger or satellite radio into the cigarette lighter in my '78 Toro or my '67 Delta 88 just as easily as I can plug them into the power point on my 2014 Mazda.

The difference between a vintage cigarette lighter and a modern "power point" is that the power point is not designed to take the heat put out by an actual cigarette lighter. (That's why manufacturers stopped calling them cigarette lighters and came up with the term "power point.") So even though the actual lighter part of the cigarette lighter from my '78 Toro would fit just fine in the socket in my 2014 Mazda, the owner's manual warns against this for fire, melted plastic, and safety reasons.

When's the last time you saw an actual ash tray in new car?

 

so you cannot use the power point to heat you cigar lighter !
like you said there is a fire hazard +-

 

For the most part, yes. But there are some modern power points that CAN be used as a cigarette lighter.

Here's one. Note the cigarette symbol on the cap. I've seen situations like this where the car comes with a power point capable of handling a cigarette lighter, but a cigarette lighter head is not included with the car. There is just a plastic cap there. If you want an actual lighter, you have to buy one from the dealer or an auto parts store.





Here's one that's not for use as a cigarette lighter. The label just says 12 V.






The only reason that power plugs and power ports for automobiles are large, cylindrical things is because they came originally from cigarette lighters. When cigarette lighters first appeared in cars, lighting cigarettes was what they were solely used for. It wasn't until later that manufacturers came up with other devices for use in a car that needed power, and the easiest place to get that power was from the cigarette lighter because it was there. But in order for a device to be able to get its power from a cigarette lighter, it needed to have a plug shaped like a cigarette lighter head, and that's why modern 12 Volt car plugs are shaped the way they are. Certainly if manufacturers had it to do all over again with regard to providing power ports in cars, they would have standardized on something far less large and cumbersome, but that's the legacy of using what were originally cigarette lighters as the source of power for things other than cigarette lighters.

 

Actually, they were originally called cigar lighters which is why they are huge.

 

My 70S cigarette lighter was toast so an aftermarket power outlet went in its place. It works better than a cigarette lighter socket.

 

Yes, quite true. I remember this.

In the owner's manual for my '78, it's just called "Lighter" in the index and in the manual, but in the text they call it a cigarette lighter.






In the owner's manual for the '73 Custom Cruiser I used to own (don't have the car, but had two copies of the manual, so I kept one), the wording about the lighter is identical to the above except it says "all Oldsmobile CIGAR lighters have a heat-sensitive..."

 

Interesting that every commercial passenger airplane has an ash tray in the restroom door, but it is against federal law to smoke on airplanes.

 

Funny how designs have changed the 55 has 4 ashtrays and no cup holders. Amazing how people have altered in their habits in a half a century..... Tedd