Car with no Cigarette Lighter?
PLEASE HELP ME! iv just brough a sat nav for my car and just realised that my car doesnt have a cigarette lighter to charge it up and my sat nav only last 3 hours fully charged! my car doesnt seem to have been made with because there are no wires to suggest thet there ever was one so i cant just pop to halford and buy a cigarette lighter and pop it in myself so! my car is a 1.1 P Reg ford fiesta! what can i do????? PLEASE HELP
Do any new cars still come with cigarette lighters?
Vehicles are now equipped with what are called 12VDC power outlets. These are located in the same places that car lighters were, they are designed in the same manner as car lighters and they accept devices which formerly used the car’s lighter to receive power. For all intents and purposes they are simply relabeled “lighters.”However, since they no longer come with lighter units, these have to be purchased separately, usually online. The major problem is that since the demand for these is low and the vehicle manufacturers rarely make them, the majority sold are aftermarket affairs. While some of these aren’t “bad”, overall they are of poor quality and they should probably not be left plugged in when the driver is not in the vehicle.
My car doesn't have a cigarette lighter..?
cigarette lighter/accessory socket. most vehicles have a place for these if their not present. depending on your vehicle, there could be a knock-out somewhere, either in the center dash area, or in the center console area. it's a circular plug about 2" in diameter. if there is a hole present, then installing a socket wouldn't be hard, but if there is no area designated for this, you will have to find a convient, safe location to drill a hole. it is best to wire this socket into an accessory/ignition switch controled circuit to avoid draining the battery should you forget to remove the accessory your using.
Why do all cars have a cigarette lighter?
Historically, to light cigarettes with, using the little electric lighter element.The socket quickly emerged as a de facto standard power socket for accessories, such as phone chargers, GPS systems etc. The power capacity of the socket is reasonably high. Unfortunately the socket itself isn't particularly good as a power connector- it was, after all, designed for a cigarette lighter. The plugs tend to flop around inside the socket and fall out with the car's vibration.Aside from USB (which is only suitable for low-powered devices) a competing standard hasn't really emerged. So the 'legacy' cigarette lighter socket continues to be installed, despite the decline in smoking in cars.
How do you use a car cigarette lighter as a charger?
Most modern vehicles have the cigarette lighter socket only live when the ignition is on. It is very simple to change this to a constant fused feed, but make sure that no children could put a cigarette lighter in the socket and start a fire or burn themselves, as this was the primary reason that cigarette lighters in cars were changed to the accessory circuit quite a few years ago. A lot of cars have a ‘power’ socket which is compatible with the same plugs and these are often live all the time as they are great for inspection lamps, vacuum cleaners etc. . To use this method to charge the car battery is simply a matter of wiring your battery charger of whatever type to a cigarette lighter plug, but if your charging source is a high capacity (high current) source such as another car battery or high capacity charger it is essential that you have a fuse in the circuit of no more than 10 amps.Bear in mind that the tip of the plug on your charging lead is now at 12v+ and you would short your charging circuit if you grounded it anywhere, including to the outer part of the socket - so only activate the charging side AFTER the plug is connected.You can’t use this method for an immediate ‘jump start’, but 20 minutes of charge from a good source should enable enough charge to start a car if the battery was low. If you simply want a method of connecting a trickle charger, either mains or solar, there are OBD2 charging connectors available which go into the diagnostic port and in which case you don’t need to modify any wiring.
Do all cars have a cigarette lighter socket/phone charger?
All except for the cheapest ie the TATA from India and perhaps the entry level Proton from Malaysia or the Scoda from Russia. IF the car cost at least USD $15,000 when new it will have a lighter plug. But not necessarily an ash trey or an actual lighter stick. The lighters are gone in most all American and European cars since the introduction of Ipods and cell phones. Also some countries that have a cultural bias against smoking may have a ban in place on the lighter plug. But I kinda doubt this because California is really the only state with enough market power and govt. regulation to have any real significant impact on automobile manufacturers.
I have change stuck in the cigarette lighter in my car?
yes, but remove the fuse first
Why do cars nowadays don't have a cigaretter lighter in the battery charger anymore?
Business and manufacturing follow pretty simple rules, typically what can save them money and what can make them money. They’ll do anything as long as the market responds.Marking that socket “Power” rather than “Cigarette Lighter” shows two things:The manufacturer is following the upward trend of internet connectivity and device usage and the downward trend of smoking being cool.Even if that heating element in the cigarette lighter is cheap, multiply that times many hundreds of thousands and you’ve saved quite a bit of manufacturing costs.
When did automakers in the U.S. discontinue cigarette lighters as a feature and why?
When the “War on Smokers” started in the late 90’s. It’s still a feature, it’s just that now it’s called the “smokers package”, it’s offered by just about every car manufacturer, and it’s an option you have to pay extra for (although usually it’s between $40 and $80, no big deal).
Why don’t new cars have ashtrays?
Simply put, the demand is lower. The most recent survey from the Centers for Disease Control show that only about 12 percent of adults in America are full-time smokers. Automakers realized that the space could be used for extra storage, bigger drink holders (now what buyers are demanding) and so forth. So they did.What most people don’t know is that an ashtray insert and cigarette lighter for the 12-volt plug is available as an option on nearly every car being sold by most major manufacturers. You just have to ask. And pay a little more.What always cracks me up, as a journalist, is how often people assume things instead of just simply Googling for a credible answer. The answers here are full of assumptions that are based purely on the person’s expectation of reality (“the big evil corp is screwing us”) instead of the actual.Another fun fact: many European imports, especially German luxury makes, will have ashtrays and lighters built-in as standard. I see this a lot, especially with BMW and German large sedan imports.