Ford Escape cigarette lighter problem.

Factual Questions
1

I just spent my lunch hour trying to figure out, without getting my clothers dirty and leaving his dash in pieces, why my friend’s cell phone charger won’t work in his Ford Escape.

He’s unemployed right now, and this sort of thing, if it’s just a fuse or connector, won’t be covered under his warranty, so I’d like to try to help him out without incurring a $75 diagnostic charge for a 3 dollar fix, if possible.

Here are the symptoms: The power outlets on the dash do not work. Neither the cigarette lighter or the 12 volt power outlet (located slightly below the cig lighter), will power anything (or get the cigar lighter hot). The one in the back (by the hatch) works just fine.

We checked the low-power fuses under the dash panel, and they look good (for the record, the cig lighter fuse is listed as a 20amp fuse, but it’s not immediately clear which one it is, so I checked all the 20amp fuses and they were all fine). I tend to doubt it’s one of those fuses, as there is only a single fuse listed for the cig lighters, but 1 out of 3 of them is functional.

All of his other stuff, radio, instruments, etc are working, so it’s not one of the high-power fuses under the hood.

Is there a common fuse for the two up-front cig lighters that I could get to and replace? On older cars, I know there was often a fuse built into the cig lighter assembly itself, and you could blow it out and have to remove the lighter, etc. I am not sure if this would be the case for newer ones.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

2

A model year would be helpful.

3

2002, sorry. Wasn’t aware that escape had been around long enough to warrant differnt models yet.

4

Maybe it hasn’t. It’s just that I don’t have an easy way of knowing if the wiring is the same for all model years - sometimes little things are changed at times. The first thing I need to know in looking up info, either in my printed manuals or my online reference, is model year. Otherwise I have to look at each year and compare, which is way too much work for someone as lazy as I.

My diagram shows the front lighter powered through Fuse 14 (20A), the front power point through Fuse 16 (15), and the rear power point through Fuse 18 (15A). The front power point and lighter use the same ground point, behind the center of the dash.

For your purposes a test light would really help. First test the center terminal inside the lighter and power point (don’t let the test light probe touch the rim of the socket, or it will blow the fuse). If they both have power, there’s probably a ground problem, which you can verify by touching the probe to a known good power source and the test light’s ground clip to the rims of the sockets.

If any don’t have power, test the appropriate fuses with the test light (a visual inspection isn’t always reliable). If the fuses are good, it’s probably a connector problem. If there’s no power to at least one side of each fuse, there’s a problem further upstream (but not a main fuse if the rear power point works).

5

Thanks Gary, so what you are telling me is that it is almost certainly an electrical problem that is not fuse related. I will check continuity on the fuses you mentioned (14, 16, 18) and see what turns up.

Thanks again!

6

Update…

I just pulled every single fuse in that vehicle and could NOT get the rear power point to shut off. Also, fuse 16 was 10 amps and fuse 18 was 5 amps.

I don’t have a test light, but I had a multi-meter which I figured I could use to measure voltage. Of course, it decided to stop working today.

7

[QUOTE=Gary T]
Otherwise I have to look at each year and compare, which is way too much work for someone as lazy as I.

It’s not just you :stuck_out_tongue:

8

Well, I messed up a bit. The vehicle has two fuse boxes, and I didn’t catch that when I was looking earlier. Apparently, you didn’t get every fuse in the vehicle. :slight_smile:

The front cigarette lighter is powered through Fuse #14 (20A) of the Central Junction Box (below left end of dash.)

The front power point is powered through Fuse #16 (15A) of the Battery Junction Box (left front corner of engine compartment).

The rear power point is powered through Fuse # 18 (15A) of the Battery Junction Box.

Fuse #16 (10A) of the Central Junction Box powers the Daytime Running Lamps Module, General Electric Module, Instrument Cluster, Brake Shift Interlock, and Brake Shift Interlock Relay. Fuse #18 (5A) in the CJB powers the Instrument Cluster.

Sorry about that :o :smack:

9

No problem, Gary. I knew the power points and such were also powered by the high-load fuse box per the owner’s manual, but I quickly eliminated them because his instrument cluster, radio, etc were fine. If one of thoese fuses were out, large portions of his electrical system would be compromised.

10

Is it possible that the ground wire has come off? This is a (usually black) wire that slips on a little piece of metal on the back of the lighter socket.

It is an absolute bitch to get to!:mad: And an even bigger bitch to slip back onto the back of the power socket!:mad::mad:

But if it comes off the lighter/power outlets will not work. This happened to me and I went crazy trying to find out why my lighter wouldn’t work before I found out why.
The fuses all look ok. Everything else powered up. The actual electrical wire was on the back of the socket. But the ground wire had popped off the back of the socket.

This can happen from putting cords in and out of the socket over time. The movement allows the wire to eventuall slide off.

11

I don’t know about the Escape, but on some cars the lighter/power plugs will only work if the key is turned on. Is this a possiblity?

12

My diagrams for this vehicle showed the power points to be always hot, the lighter to be hot in “run” or “acc” position.

13

Here’s a dumb question, then…what would be the result of trying to run something out of the cig lighter slot instead of the power point? They look similar (but not identical) inside, would it be bad to do this?

For the record, I did not test the cig lighter inthe run or acc position.

14

You may find that the lighter works after all, but only when the vehicle is turned on (or to the accessory position).

Assuming the lighter socket is working, the result of using it would be that whatever you were running would be turned off when the car was turned off.

Lighters and lighter sockets are fairly standard, to the point where when accessory manufacturers got the bright idea to power various things through these sockets, the plugs they came up fit virtually all vehicles. Originally only lighter sockets were available, and often only one per car, and usable for these accessories only at the expense of not being able to use the lighter. Then the car manufacturers got the bright idea to add the power point sockets. (Now some newer cars have one or more power points but no lighter - and no ashtray.) A power point socket might not work for a lighter, because (I believe) a lighter is pretty fussy about a precise socket diameter. But the accessory plugs were originally designed to work in lighter sockets, and other than the issue of when the circuit has power, it shouldn’t matter which socket is used.