Cigarette lighter fuse..

Hi all.

I have an 04 Malibu and the fuse for the cigarette lighter keeps blowing. The fuse if fine so long as you don't touch the actual lighter. The INSTANT I even jiggle it, the fuse blows.

Do I need to change the entire lighter assembly and is this hard to do?

Thanks.

RJ

Yes it sounds like the lighter itself is bad. Don't know how tough to change, never did it, but usually the worst part is getting the panel its in out, the actual lighter is no sweat once you get to it. Verify it though, don't just through parts at it, take the fuse out so it can't get power while you test it, and probe it with a multimeter to see if the + and - are shorting to each other. The ground is the whole outside part of the lighter, the + is the pin right in the center of the plug, they should not have continuity, ever, jiggling or anything... If they do something is up, pull the panel and inspect, make sure the wires are fine, then inspect the plug. Chances are if it is shorting to itself, you can fix it, the plugs are not complex. Are you sure its not the accessories though? Try plugging different things into it and make sure.

The lighter recepticle in '04 Malibus is suspect. Last year, using my Garmin nav unit, the recepticle "ate" the end of the Garmin's power cord plug. Which not only required an expensive replacement from Garmin, but a new lighter assembly from the Chevy dealer. I then found out that many '04 Malibus and Maxxes have bad recepticles. Think you probably need a new one yourself.

I had never used the recepticle before I got the Garmin.....