On my '87 the fresh air blower is on the same circuit as the lighter. That makes it pretty easy to identify whether it's the circuit or the lighter unit thats letting you down.

If it's the lighter itself, I'd get into the back of it to check for power and contact. Our host sells a replacement unit if you need to swap it out.

If you just want the lighter for cell phone, etc. you might want to hook up a separate 12v power unit for that purpose, as others have suggested. The oversize stock unit is a bit of a pain for charger jacks anyway.

Good luck.

I was thinking of hooking up a sep one.

Anyone have any pictures of where they hooked it up and located it?

I dont want it look tacked on, but more like it shoudl be there.

On my 71 all I had to do to replace my lighter was go in through the speaker hole in the dash. An easy 15 minute job. :D :D

No speaker in my dash. :-(

Calspeed
How do you like the Blaupunkt Heidelberg CD51? I almost bought one last week, but I read in my son's Crutchfield catalog that it does not play CDR or CDRW's. How do you like the deck? I don't burn a lot of CD's, so I think it would be fine for me.

I have the Miami Beach (looks like the Tampa Bay unit) and its similiar to the Heidelberg in look. Very happy with it, but it might be a bit more contemporary than what you like. Bought from Crutchfield with teh thumber remote which is GREAT!

I have the Heidelberg CD51. I think it's a great unit. Not much "bling bling," so it goes well with the Spartan interior of the Carrera. I burn CDs all the time, and it plays them just fine. I haven't tried a CD-RW yet, however. I also have the thumber remote, and it's great. All things considered, I'm very happy with the unit.

scottb
Thanks for the info. The only ones we burn are CD-R's, so I guess I got some bad info from Crutchfield. I like the look of the deck, and agree it fits the styling of the car well. What is this "thumb remote" you've mentioned?

Mike: Take a look at this.

Scott

Scott: does that bother your hands on the wheel when turning? Which one do you have? I see two listed on the page.

I have the RC09. It doesn't bother me at all, but I don't do real agressive track driving. My car is a weekend toy that I use for the hills, the beach, etc. So, for basic driving, it's fine and doesn't get in the way. Mine is mounted at about the 4:00 position on my steering wheel.

Thats what I have guys. Scott's link. You can take it off if you want for the track.

zoom in and u can see mine

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/thumber.jpg

I am sorry for the very delayed responce. I like the unit. It works well and it was also a decent price. I burn CD's and have no problem playing them either. I can recommend it.

Michael

I guess Calspeed's response certainly falls into the category of "better late than never!"

:D

HA! In the time since the question was posted, I bought the deck and sold the car!

Thought I would resurrect this thread just to give a big shout out to all the knowledgeable Pelicans out there (and particularly "Purrybonker" in post #15) for sharing with the rest of us newbies.

Have been putting off diagnosing my cigar lighter issues since I purchased the car almost 2 years ago, having heard all the stories about what a nightmare it is to access the part.

So yesterday I mustered up the balls to tackle it, and did a search. Holy smokes, using the Search button actually works!!!! After removing some of the venting parts (not too bad), I found a loose power wire...that's it. Hooked it up and now I have a functional lighter.

Now all I need is a cigar...(No Monica Lewinsky jokes, please.) ;)

I tightened mine today from reading posts back in 2003. (It was loose..)

Great to resurrect old (helpful) threads.

10 years later and this is still the best thread anywhere online for this repair. Thanks to all who have contributed over the years. I used this to reattach the lead that had snapped off and the unit unscrewed after lots of years of vibrations (read: tight corners). On the ‘81 it’s definitely a pain to get to the back. I used the “gloved finger” approach from the OP and eventually got it.

Thanks again all!