I have a 96 auto. 3.8 Camaro and my wiring to my cigarette lighter must be bad. I went to change the fuse and as soon a I put the fuse in it blew. Does anyone know if that wiring also powers the light that is down by the shifter that tells you at night what gear your in? because I tried changing out that bulb and it still doesn't work. How hard is the cigarette lighter wiring to replace? What else could possibly be the problem if it's not bad wiring? The thing I don't understand is how does my center cousel light work? Or does that run off a totally separate fuse?

 

This may sound obvious, but haveyou looked inside the lighter socket to see if something small and metallic may have gotten down in there to cause a short? Even a small piece of foil gum wrapper can cause a short.

 

from what i can see it doesn't appear to have anything in it but i guess something like a coin or gum wrapper could have been in it before i got the car and the previous owner may have just removed it because it hasn't worked since i bought the car. i'll just bring it up to a chevrolet dealer and have them see whats up with it.

 

WTF????? dealer???? nooooo lol unless its free of course, just pop out the switch look in back and figure it out

 

i like that idea better then spending $100 just for them to look at it. i'll post what the problem is once i got it all figured out.

 

I have a similar problem to that. My cigarette lighter hasn't worked since I bought the car a few months ago. Just recently, I noticed that everytime I mess with it, it sparks and somehow blows the fuse for my overhead dome lights inside. I replace the fuse, and the lights work again, until I forget about it and mess with the cigarette lighter again [sm=smiley9.gif]

I thought it was just the dome lights, but I tore out the headliner, checked the wiring, and it appears to be fine. Still have yet to take out the cigarette lighter.

 

Most likely the fuse wont blow if there is nothing plug into the socket. Ifit blows after plugging something in (including just having the lighter making contact), then the lighter socket is bad. A new one from a dealer for my 87 Iroc was $20 & autopart storesrun about $6.