Is250 '08 Cigarette Lighter Problems

[spanzl]

I’ve been having a problem concerning the cigarette lighter in my IS250. The problem started about 6 months ago I use to charge my phone and my GPS in the cigarette lighter located just under the radio and ac controls. I did that for about a year then the fuse blown. When I took it in for regular service the guy told me that the cell phone charger and the GPS are too high of volts for the cigarette lighter to handle and I’ll blow the fuse every time I use it. He then told me I have to use the 12 volt outlet that’s located in the center console. Now this gets annoying for two reasons, one I have an IPhone and the cell phone charger is so big that I can’t close the center console, and second when I charge my GPS I have cords hanging everywhere. Now I'm writing this because I valet park for a local mall and I drive a lot of Lexuses and I see a lot of people using the cigarette lighter to charge everything. Is the guy right will I blow the fuse every time and it’s just a matter of time till the other peoples car will blow a fuse or is there something else that could of cause the fuse to blown? And is it safe than to use the cigarette lighter to charge my stuff again?

Thanks Stephen

[1990LS400]

How are you plugging two devices into one outlet? If you are using an 2-into-1 adapter, maybe it's defective. And some chargers are not very friendly to lighter sockets. And chargers can go bad ... the wife's Blackberry eats cheap off-brand chargers. You could try connecting a charging socket to another circuit ... e.g. my phone charges directly from the ignition switch with an in-line fuse to protect the circuit.

Did the fuse blow just once? If so, just try it again - maybe the problem was an aberration.

[Teh Stig]

The thing is a POS.  I've gone through over a dozen 15A fuses.  The design is faulty and the socket eventually just wiggled itself loose from using just a basic USB cigarette lighter adapter.

[1990LS400]

8 hours ago, the Stig said:

The thing is a POS.  I've gone through over a dozen 15A fuses.  The design is faulty and the socket eventually just wiggled itself loose from using just a basic USB cigarette lighter adapter.

It looks like the part number for the cigarette lighter assembly including the lighter itself is 85500-30520 if you want to replace it.  

I've read about lighter sockets - especially as cars age - wearing out from using chargers on numerous makes and models.  They were designed for use with cigarette lighters and not with chargers.  The sockets on newer vehicles really are designed for use with chargers.  Few vehicles these days come with cigarette lighters.

After you replace your cigarette lighter assembly you might consider plugging in a charger that you never  remove.  For example, we have twin USB charging adapters plugged into charging sockets of our current vehicles and I don't think we've removed them since we bought the vehicles new seven and five years ago.

I had a butte-load of 12V devices to power in the 2000 Lexus LS400 that I sold in 2014.  I didn't power any of them from the cigarette lighter socket under the radio or from the charging socket in the center console.  I bought a corded single charging socket at Target, chopped off its plug and spliced the wires into the car's accessory electrical circuit.  Into the corded single charging socket, I plugged in an "octopus" charging contraption that I also bought at Target.  The octopus device had two USB ports and two charging sockets.  I hid most of the octopus and the corded single charging socket inside the car's center stack and underneath the center console and routed the cords from the devices I was charging through crevices where interior panels met the center stack.  I thought it was an elegant solution since the many charging cables were mostly hidden.