Cigarette Lighter Not Working at Full Capacity

Generally with the cigarette lighter on the dash, I plug in a 3-way USB splitter that powers two phones and charges some AA and AAA batteries.

A couple weeks ago, it suddenly changed and now will only put power to one phone on a slow charge. I've tried a different USB splitter to no avail. I also believe the one in my center console is behaving the same way.

Fuse doesn't seem likely because I still have power, just not as much as before.

Any thoughts?

 

Cigarette lighter.......wait we still have these in our trucks?

 

Did you try a different power cord?

 

Erhm, DC adaptor is what I meant. Just brain farted.

And yes, I tried different cords, so it seems its not cord related, or USB adapter related.

 

Check the voltage coming from it with a multimeter.

 

And here i am sitting in my truck, trying to find it, haha.

 

Wouldn't a significant drop in power output mean a drop in voltage?

I mean I'll give it a try, but what does that information get me?

 

Well, if your getting 12v then the socket is fine. If your getting less than 12v its time to dig in further.

Power drop from the charger could be any number of things. Checking the outlet for 12v is the first step in figuring it out.

12v outlet is giving less power
Charger is bogus
USB cables are junk
Phone charger port it bad
AA charger is faulty


There are many things that can be wrong, so lets not assume anything on them. Start with the list to find your answer.

 

Same here, but I'm sitting at my desk wondering "how did I miss that all these months?".

 

You are probably drawing too many amps for the adapter and it burned out. The new one might not have enough juice too.

how many amps does your adapter put out?

 

Both adapters were the same - and both behave the same despite one not being used. All that said, I suspect this is probably what happened. Havent had a chance to get in there with a multimeter yet though.

 

I just got frustrated and pounded my fist on top of my USB charger while it was plugged in, I was having similar issues now I can only draw slow charging power it's utterly useless. It's not the cord and it's not the USB cigarette lighter chargers. It's the outlet itself is no longer putting out the power.