lucifer_666

Hi guys!

Got a Fairmont EFII 96 whose climate control system reports an E2 error, baffle door not moving, thus not hot air from the heater.

As it's going to cost quite a bit to fix, I figured I'd pick up a little 12 volt heater for in car use in the mean time.

Headed down to Jaycar and picked up the 12V CERAMIC HEATER complete with lighter socket connection.

Stated up the car, plugged it in, and it worked fine. Blowing hot air. I gave the car a quick rev, and the heater stopped working. Thinking it was a dodgey unit, I unplugged it, plugged in the lighter, and now that's not working. Neither is the phone charger.

So I figured it would be the fuse. Turned on the radio, and was surprised to see it worked, as the manual indicates the radio and the ciggie lighter socket both use the same 30 amp fuse. Pulled out the fuse and it's still intact.

Any ideas on any places or points I can check where the circuit may have failed?

Thanks everyone :)

outback_ute

Start at the cig lighter and follow the wire back, test each connection you come to whether it has 12v. Not familiar to know if there are any common spots on the wire that blow.

lucifer_666

Yeah, it looks like I'll have to deduce the problem that way.

It also looks like, after two years of procrastinating, I'm finally going to be pulling the cover off and having a look under the dash... about time too... i've only got about four dead bulbs, a faulty 'multifunction unit,' whatever that is, faulty E2 baffle door, some mystery coolant loss, and now a faulty lighter socket to fix :)

It's going to be an interesting weekend. I reckon if I can just get the lighter socket going again, I'll be wrapped. No, replace 'wrapped' with 'sane.' Sigh :)

roofi

Is the Ciggy lighter and radio on same fuse? Seems like big fuse to be running on a radio.

Did you rotate the socket? It's quite possible to wire either slipped or broke off at the rear of the socket.

You could also try hooking a couple of wires direct from battery to heater "just in case" your heater, lighter and charger all went faulty togerther :-)

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lucifer_666

They were on the same fuse.

I took your advice and installed an extra wire, which worked well.

The lighter socket had a little tiny fuse wire on the back of it, and the wire had failed about half way through. All good now :) Thanks guys.