Loose Cigarette Lighter? Old Car Weirdness

[dogmuddybuddy]

When I plug GPS or cell phone or Ipod into my cigarette lighter it seems to be a loose-ish fit. This makes road trips a pain in the ass when your ipod or phone runs out of juice and with the GPS charging and you don't know where you are going. What a PITA!

IT does not short out but does not make snug contact so it doesn't mantain a constant charge and I usually have to turn and fiddle with it....constantly.

HAs anyone experienced this? I have tried to bend portions of the lighter receiver out so that it might make it more snug but I am afraid that I will destroy the metal.

Do cigarette lighter plugs stretch out and get looser with age like everything else in this world??

TIA KEvin

[John_in_VA]

When I got my Escort radar detector back in ~1984 it came with a plastic insert to allow the detector plug to fit snugly.

[eurotrash]

wrap a little electrical tape around the plug head so its held tight at the opening.

[SteveJ]

Sometimes the outer spring tab can be bent outwards to provide a bit more tension.

There are differences in cig lighter diameters. When I ran a detector in my M3, I just ran a dedicated wire to the unit and put on a new barrel power connector.

[Scott Sislane]

I've found that some of the new plugs are about 1/8" narrower than the conventional plugs, but the metal tabs stick out far enough just to touch. I bought a splitter at WallyWorld (1 to 2) and the female inserts seems to accomodate the smaller plug better, so maybe they made the inserts 1/16" narrower to accomodate both. Have no idea why the industry decided to make some of the plugs smaller, just plain dumb.

oh ya, and don't use the insert as a bottle opener.

[dogmuddybuddy]

I think I will try that ...Apparently Porsche Guys have this problem too...they suggest the splitters aparently its a euro thing too...my concerns is that it might create a spark and/or short the cluster gauge

the electrical tapew thing might work too but I don't drive the 1600 every days

thanks

All

[Mike Self]

new(er) and we were younger. Most US accessories meant to plug into cigarette lighters didn't fit 2002 sockets properly as the sockets were just a little bit larger. As was pointed out, Escorts came with a little plastic sleeve to allow a snug fit; finding a thin piece of plastic shouldn't be too difficult, just be sure and allow for the metal plug to contact the side of the socket somewhere so that it'll ground.

cheers from Nicaragua

mike

[eastsidebimmer]

The contacts usually fit fine, just wrap electrical tape around it, that's what I do for my Garmin, just a dab will do.