Cigarette lighter complaint...

[Dr Butcher]

Why the hell do they cut power to it when the ignition is turned off? I didn\'t even realize this until today. I tried to charge my cell phone which died during the night but when I went out to check on it, it was still dead. I finally realized that it only charges when you turn on the ignition! What\'s the benefit of having it set up this way? My car charger is pretty much useless now because I have to have the car running for it to work... Arrgh!

[wtom]

It is to prevent the car battery from being accidentally drained over night. Basically, do you prefer a dead cell phone in the morning or a dead car battery (and assuming no other car nearby to jump start with). :)

[PiCASSO]

Originally posted by wtom

It is to prevent the car battery from being accidentally drained over night. Basically, do you prefer a dead cell phone in the morning or a dead car battery (and assuming no other car nearby to jump start with). :)

Valid point, but in the last 5-years I haven\'t used my cigarette lighter for anything but charging my phone. My understanding is that when the phone reaches a point when the (phone) battery is full, it stops draining energy from the charger. Therefore, I wouldn\'t see a big deal leaving the phone in the charge overnight and having it charged.

But perhaps most people use it to heat/cool their coolers? Or Perhaps they also use it to light their campsites with artificial light? But realistically speaking that rarely happens.

For the record, my old 2002 Honda Civic Si coupe had the same power/ignition cut-off, but my dad\'s 1998/2002 Buick Regal GS/LS had the cigarette lighter working with the car off.

Cheers,

PiCASSO

[Melenium]

If you really want a source of power when the car is off its not a hard mod at all. Just pop open the fuse box and find something that always has power (like the dome light or similar), and just run a cable into there. Just make sure that if you\'re jumpering over a fuse that you change the fuse value AND use a fuse in line with whatever you\'re using (because you\'re running two fuses in parallel I *think* it affects their value). Once I get the the 3 I\'ll look into it and crunch the fuse numbers if people are that interested in it :p

[Newlook]

As far as I remember, my 1995 Mercury Villager and 96 Nissan Altima, along with the 2004 Buick Century and Chev Impala.... when the engine is off, the lighter has no power unless you have the key in the accessory mode.

[Dr Butcher]

Remember guys, I\'m old school. Some of my cars were born before some of you. :p

I can see how they wouldn\'t want anything to drain the battery but most phone chargers shut off when they\'re finished. I didn\'t even think about the camping cooler issue.... Damn!

Were there that many issues having it constantly powered that they needed to change it? Meh, whatever, I\'m over it now. I just need to make sure my phone has juice before I leave the house or bite the bullet and \'accessory\' the ignition when I need to talk. :sarc