Fuse on 2000 Grand Am SE

[blackhawk 10+ year member]

When I bought the car the fuse for the cigar lighter/accessory plug-in was blown, so I replaced it. I bought a car charger for my cell phone, and the fuse was ready to blow again. It had burn marks on the blade, and the dealer said there's a short somewhere (he said it was in my new charger, which i doubt, since it was blown from the previous owner). I was wondering if anybody else has had this happen, or if there's an easy way to find the short without taking it in to the dealer and paying 50 bucks an hour for them to sit around. Any help is appreciated.

Click to read more...

 

[thatsgonnahurt 10+ year member]

leave the car charger out and replace the fuse. if the fuse blows the problem is in the wiring. if it doesn't, plug in the car charger, if the fuse blows the problem is either the charger or the wrong value fuse.

 

[KaeZoo 10+ year member]

If you're finding burn marks on the fuse blades, that doesn't mean it's ready to blow from overcurrent. It's more likely that the fuse fits loosely in the socket, and you're getting some arcing which causes the char marks on the metal. If you have a short in the cig lighter wiring, it will blow the fuse, but it wouldn't cause marks on the fuse blades.

 

[blackhawk 10+ year member]

Actually, though the burns may have been caused by a loose fit, I'm sure that the problem is the car wiring. The owner's manual had the cigar lighter fuse circled in a diagram, which my brother forgot to mention earlier. The other night we used the charger in a different vehicle to charge a phone from dead to full and there have been no problems in that car as far as I know. We pushed the fuse in as far as it would go, I don't know how it would've made an arc unless the replacements from National Bushing are crap and don't fit right.

 

[KaeZoo 10+ year member]

Here's what I would do:

Disconnect your negative battery terminal.

Pull off the dash panel around the radio, which has the cigarette lighter built into it. You'll need to pry off the trim ring around the key switch. Unplug the lighter and also the plugs at the top of the panel. Remove the three screws holding the radio in and remove the radio.

The cigarette lighter plug should have two wires: one orange, one black. Cut the orange wire an inch or two away from the plug. Tape off the wire end that leads back into the car.

If you look back along the left side of the radio cavity, you'll see a bundle of wires that runs vertically, wrapped in cloth tape. This is the vehicle's ignition harness and leads to the key switch. Carefully cut away some of the tape so you can access the wires. You should find several 12-ga wires: red, red/white, pink, brown, yellow, orange and green.

If you want the cigarette lighter to have power all the time, with the key on or off, then use the red or red/white wire. If you want the lighter to be controlled by the key switch, use the brown wire. Strip away some of the insulation without cutting the wire. Tap in a 16-gauge wire that you'll run down to the cigarette lighter. It is important that you put a fuse in the new wire, as close as possible to the ignition harness. Use a 15 amp fuse.

Make sure everything's taped up again before you reconnect the battery.

 

[blackhawk 10+ year member]

Kae, that's a good idea, but I think I'll find out if there's a short before going to those lengths. Also, I think if I did that I would find a professional to do that, I don't have the money to replace anything if I screwed it up. The fuse is a 20A in the engine fuse block, and the fuse was pushed down as far as possible, which is also at the same level as the rest of the fuses. The fuse we used as a replacement is a Buss brand.

 

[thejoker989 10+ year member]

I blew this fuse in the exact same car, but it was because of my blind screw driver poking //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif.

 

[volonau 10+ year member]

My 2001 blows all the time.

Shitty socket.