Cigarette lighter not giving consistent power

Stokesy

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone has any knowledge on what I would define as inconsistent power in my cigarette lighter. When using either side indicator or the wipers, the power drops to my bluetooth transmitter in the cigarette lighter. It’s especially noticeable in the rain when both my headlights and wipers are on. Swapped fuse and cleaned inside of cigarette lighter already

Major Ledfoot

Stokesy It’s especially noticeable in the rain when both my headlights and wipers are on.

A classic sign of tarnished or high resistance electrical connections.

Suggest you check your lighter ground connection, the spade terminal connectors to the lighter socket, the spade connections at the fuse box for the lighter, and the fuse and terminals for the lighter / radio / accessories itself.

The cigar lighter power feed is usually a heavy gauge cable since it draws quite a few amps when it's used as a lighter.

ramrod

Could be a bad wire or ground connection

Is the alternator charging properly?

I would double check fuses and fuse terminals

Service the fusebox anyway as it helps other things work properly and it never gets done

Stokesy

Had the alternator replaced less than a year ago but will double check it when I get the chance. Will get back to you when fuses and terminals etc have been checked as well

Stokesy

Update:

After work today, I pulled the cigarette lighter from the dash and cleaned the male connections while replacing the female connections completely. This has significantly improved the situation where the other devices in the car are no longer interfering with the power to the cigarette lighter although it is still up and down. I’m assuming this will be at the other end of the ground so any help for where that is located would be appreciated. I’ve heard the driveshaft tunnel, as well as something else behind the dash as an option

jamesinc

I forget exactly where it grounds, but I think pretty much everything in that part of the dash grounds to one of the screws that holds the front panel chassis to the dash frame. Most of the grounds are on the top right (i.e. driver's side) screw, and a few are down the bottom where it mounts to the transmission tunnel.

I would go through the dash screws and just check they're all tight/nip them up. Once you pull the plastic front panel forwards, and remove the two plastic side covers, you have access to pretty much everything you need access to in order to check all the ground points. You should also check the screws that hold the various bits of the dash together, these are accessed by removing the two felt covers on the underside of the dash (then look up from below).