Weird cigarette lighter problem

[GreenAdam]

Found that my portable GPS wouldn't work over the weekend. Plugged it into the cig lighter, the green glowing light comes on to signify that it was receiving power - still won't start up.

Bought a NEW GPS (assuming the old had died), works great... for about 3 hours until the battery died (even though it was plugged in and the green light was glowing).

Tried my iPod charger - the green LED lit up, but the charging indicator on the iPod did not show up. Tried the actual cigarette lighter - nothing.

I assumed that the cigarette lighter voltage was way low. Just checked it tonight with my Fluke - 12.5 volts! Now what?

Could be the voltage is correct, but it can't supply enough power to actually charge? Hell, iPods hardy take any juice at all to charge - you can charge them off a lowly USB port!

Any ideas?

[chiefwej]

Buy an adapter for the glove compartment flashlight outlet. That outlet is switched with the ignition and it will allow you to hide the cords. I don't know what is up with your cigarette lighter outlet, but I use an adapter and it works great. The adapter is a BMW dealer item and mine cost about $10 at a discount online dealer.

[GreenAdam]

Bump.

I haven't stumped the E39 experts on this one, have I???

[cal45fan]

LOL-E39 experts....

Ok, our cig lighters are way to shallow to take in chargers of today's design. Yes, you see the green light indicating that the chargers are receiving juice but give it a few moments and the tension of the contacts on the side of the charger makes the charger work its way out, essentially, unplugging it.

Try this: Charge your iPod and hold your charger in place, with a little push and hold, while in the cig lighter. See if the indicator on the iPod's screen illuminates. Then, let go of the charger and see if it still charges....

Possible remedy: You must somehow alleviate some of the tension on the side of the chargers you have by pushing in those contacts. They may be spring-loaded but can still be done. You can also clean the inside of the cig lighter with a very light sandpaper (450 grade or more), but make sure that there in no power going to it.

[GreenAdam]

LOL-E39 experts....


Try this: Charge your iPod and hold your charger in place, with a little push and hold, while in the cig lighter. See if the indicator on the iPod's screen illuminates. Then, let go of the charger and see if it still charges....

No luck here - the contact prongs on my chargers all stay well into the receptacle and clearly make contact the whole time - the green power indicator lights stay lit the whole time, but the units plugged in do NOT charge.

Any other ideas???

[orthm]

Have you tried the lighter to see if it actually works?

[DP540]

I have a similar problem. Mine charges the iPod, however when i plug my blackberry in it shows that its charging but it takes FOREVER. Before it would take 10min and charged. I was thinking maybe alternator or battery issue?

[63.Split]

Methinks you need a cig. lighter to power outlet adapter. When you compare them you'll see how much different they are.

[Qsilver7]

One of the e39 experts (Chiefwej) gave you an answer to your situation in the 2nd post in this thread. If you want to run peripheral devices and your cig lighter socket isn't working correctly...then get the power adapter that is designed by BMW to charge electrical devices THRU the outlet in YOUR GLOVE BOX.

Not sure why (or if) you're dismissing a perfectly good solution to your situation? Although the cig lighter is a 12v outlet...it wasn't designed to handle the myriad of modern electronic peripheral devices. You (some) may luck out and your 12v peripheral's plugs may work...or you may run into the situation you're facing and they don't work properly. Thus, you should highly consider investing in the relatively inexpensive BMW aux power adapter that was designed to run these extra devices thru the outlet in the glovebox using the auxilliary power adapter.

You get several benefits using this aux power adapter:

• the electrical outlet is "switched" which means you won't accidentally run the battery down if you leave the device(s) powered up.
• devices can easily be tossed into the glovebox hidden from view of theives when you get to your destination...yet still be plugged in.
• the design of the cord allows you to keep the glovebox closed when it is plugged into the outlet and still you can move the device around to a location that suits your needs.

BMW Part Nbr 82 11 0 004 073

-

[GreenAdam]

Looks like I'll just go with the adapter noted above.

I'm an engineer and have to admit that problems like this (ones I KNOW that I should be able to fix and just can't figure out) really haunt me. It seems like a massive blow to my manhood.

Spent more time on it today - 12.6 volts at the lighter socket with no load, but drops to 9 volts when I plug the charger in (with no iPod connected to it!) and drops to 4.6 volts with the iPod plugged in. Cigarette lighters have to draw WAY more juice than an iPod! And no, the cigarette lighter does not work.

I'll buy the adapter in the meantime, but I'm going to figure this out. Won't be able to sleep if I don't .

[Justin394]

Ok so it seems that the answer to a problem is to ignore the problem and use an adapter to convert another power source for the task at hand. Interesting. If you have power at the cig lighter but nothing seems to work properly it is a BAD GROUND or in some odd cases a bad wire. Our lighter recepticles move and are perfect candidates for a bad ground. I would disassemble it, clean it and its contacts, then put it back together.

[cal45fan]

...massive blow to my manhood.

.

I like that! Oh, Ginger, where are you?

Looks like I'll just go with the adapter noted above.

I'm an engineer and have to admit that problems like this (ones I KNOW that I should be able to fix and just can't figure out really haunt me. It seems like a massive blow to my manhood.

Spent more time on it today - 12.6 volts at the lighter socket with no load, but drops to 9 volts when I plug the charger in (with no iPod connected to it!) and drops to 4.6 volts with the iPod plugged in. Cigarette lighters have to draw WAY more juice than an iPod! And no, the cigarette lighter does not work.

I'll buy the adapter in the meantime, but I'm going to figure this out. Won't be able to sleep if I don't .

If you take the cig lighter out, the terminal on the underside might be burned, hence, causing a lot of resistance. Sandpaper it to clean the terminals.

[GreenAdam]

I did tear it apart and clean everything today and it's still acting funny.

Anyone have a clue what the little circuit board connected in parallel from the ground wire is for? Have never seen this on a cigarette lighter before - it's usually just positive and ground with nothing else. This thing has three wires - one hot, one ground, and one grey wire with a red stripe that connects to the ground wire through a tiny circuit board with a 1k ohm resistor. No idea what this may be for.

[m5hoot]

While I always agree with Q-man, the electronics engineer in me says all the other suggestions are fine...BUT, there is no reason the cig lighter should not charge his appliances without issue. Workarounds don't solve the question of why. I guess the logical thing to do is plug in any of the adaptors that light up indicating they are getting proper power, but rather than plug your chargers into the Ipods or whatever, check the voltage at the device end of the power/charger cords to verify the voltage present there. It does sould like a resistance issue. When even a tiny load pulls the current/voltage down to where it is essentially useless them resistance is the only plausible explaination. you can also take an old cigarette lighter plug that is just a cord and put a tail light bulb to it and see if under load the voltage is still 12.5 or has it dropped to like 3 volts. Enough to light an led, but not enough to charge even a battery. Gotta be resistance..could be further down that at the lighter socket itself, but doubt it.

[Cyrix2k]

you definitely have bad contact somewhere. That little circuit board is for the light iirc. If you need a new cigarette lighter socket, let me know... I have one laying around that has the wires cut. Pay for shipping and its yours assuming I can find it.

[Qsilver7]

Ok so it seems that the answer to a problem is to ignore the problem and use an adapter to convert another power source for the task at hand...

While I always agree with Q-man, the electronics engineer in me says all the other suggestions are fine...BUT, there is no reason the cig lighter should not charge his appliances without issue...

Since two similar comments were made about this...may I make a friendly defense?

I can't speak for Chief...but there's another perspective that may have been missed by some and picked up by others like the Chief and myself. I saw TWO issues, not one...so my suggestions went to the one that seemed more critical to me as I interpreted what appeared to be important to the OP.

The OP first mentions that his new GPS wasn't working when plugged into the cig lighter...then neither was his iPod. He wrote more about these peripheral devices not working due to the issues with the cig lighter. The cig lighter was more of an "ends to a means" rather than the means. So my suggestions was pointing him to an optional "end" that would get him to his "means" (functioning GPS & iPod).

This does not preclude him (the OP) from finding out what is wrong with his cig lighter...he can still deal with that issue...and while figuring it out...use his new GPS and listen to his tunes by using the aux power adapter.

If he only focused on fixing the cig lighter...then in the meantime...the OP would be lost (without directions from his GPS)... and without his favorite tunes until he got juice flowing back to the cig lighter.

Chief and I offered a solution to resolve the issue with the OP's peripheral devices which allows him to listen to his music and not get lost. And unless the OP is a smoker and really requires the use of the cig lighter...the cig lighter was a lesser issue and could be put on the back burner.

It's all about perspective and Chief & I focused on the OP finding a way to use his electronic peripheral devices...and again, he could still work on finding the cause of the issues with his cig lighter...we just didn't have a solution for the cig lighter problem...but we did have one for the GPS & iPod.

If you want to run peripheral devices and your cig lighter socket isn't working correctly...then get the power adapter that is designed by BMW to charge electrical devices THRU the outlet in YOUR GLOVE BOX.

Buy an adapter for the glove compartment flashlight outlet...it will allow you to hide the cords. I don't know what is up with your cigarette lighter outlet, but I use an adapter and it works great

[enzeine]

I bought the glovebox power adapter but it doesn't work. The folks over at BMW tested it in one of the vehicles there and said it was fine and that I may have a bad fuse.

I don't know which fuse is for that particular socket, but I checked them all and they are all good.

Please help.

[rideanddestroy]

have you measure the current through the cig lighter at load? are they on the same curcuit (lighter and flashlight). sometimes a fuse isnt popped but is corroded or just plain uncoperative and doesnt work. i ran into this, i was so frustrated that i just changed all my fuses, one by one. solved my problem ( lack of any power to a rear source). only cost me a few bucks and i kept the old ones as spares anyway, just in case. not saying replace em all, but find out what fuse its on and try and replace that fuse. just my 0.02

[paulrhein]

it is an easy fix there is corosion somewhere in the system. You got the required voltage but not the required amperage.

[enzeine]

So far I have tested the cigarette lighter/power socket and it works fine.

I brought my flashlight indoors and left it on so I can try recharging it later.

I wish the diagram had a listing on there for the flashlight socket, but it doesn't. I haven't tried the voltage test yet.

The flashlight still charges so maybe there is something wrong with the adapter?

[paulrhein]

Do you know how to check the current from your cigarette lighter? It is not the same as checking voltage. DVM has to be between the load and source to check current.

To be honest the easiest fix would be to replace the cigarette lighter recepticle

[safecents]

Many smart phones do not charge on 12 volts. Mine charges on a special 5.5 volt charger, if you try and charge it with 12 volt charger IT WILL NOT WORK>
Took me a while to figure this out. Nearly drove me nuts.
Mark
safecents@aol.com

[JaimeZX]

Holy thread bump, Batman!

[simonkingit]

Hi all

My problem is that my MP3 FM transmitter only works sometimes in my 1997 540i. I plug it in and it sometimes turns on and stays on and sometimes it turns on briefly then turns off. At first I thought it was the device, so I tried it in another car, and voila, it works 100% first time, every time; so not the device!
So I read the comments above and researched the adapter plug. Wow its super expensive here in South Africa, Equivelant of $150-$200, so I didn't buy one.
Instead, I pulled the plug off the flashlight socket and wired in an external 12v cigarette socket. I tested the terminals and I received a solid 12.3v to 12.5v.

Now I plug the MP3 FM transmitter in and I receive the same problem, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And I can assure you, it doesn't require the full 12v. It only requires something like 4.5v to 6v.

What's next? What else can I try?

[BimmerBreaker]

The thread that just wont die...