Almost a Silly Question

[lalessi1]

My cigarette lighter works but I can't charge my iphone or my ipod? Did something change along the way?

[Jeff Norwell]

Lynn.... you may need to buy a charger specific for an Apple product.... I have bought a charger for my iPhone at any place that sells them(corner store,etc,etc....) and they did not work.
With a proper charger for an Apple product.... it should work.

[lalessi1]

I had a Verizon charger with an old style iPod connector and it worked in my other cars. I also have a cigarette lighter to USB connector that I use for my iPhone 6 and it works in my other cars as well. Both have "power-on" leds' but they don't seem to connect to the old lighter. I took the Verizon thing apart and connected it directly to power and hard wired it in the glove box for the iPod, it works. I was wondering if cigarette lighter design changed or if anybody else was seeing the same thing.

[Jeff Norwell]

I just went out and checked.. my phone charged up with a green indictor light on the usb/cig lighter adapter.It worked.

[djfordmanjack]

I've had difficulties with FM transmitters that plug into the cigar lighter socket. they seem to have a problem keeping up the power supply. I think it's due to that modern electronic devices need a steady voltage. Trouble I found is old burned center contacts in the sockets. they may seem to be bare metal, but sometimes the chromed metal is burned to a degree where the resistance is very different from one point to the other. A good solution with those problems is drill/grind out the old center rivet, cleaning all contacts and use a nice little bolt and nut to get everything together again.  all the corroded metal inbetween the layers gets cleaned and resistance eliminated. I also found that resistance increases lots as soon as power current runs over the contact and the contact point warms up. These are old things.... ....and repro elements are often much worse than 60 year old units.

[lalessi1]

I just went out and checked.. my phone charged up with a green indictor light on the usb/cig lighter adapter.It worked.

That answers my question, I will either clean up the one I have or add one that is hidden. Thanks guys.

[Limey57]

Just a word of warning, avoid the chargers you get on EBay or from the gas-station, I had one in the car, keeping my original I-Phone charger with my lap-top.  On a long journey with the phone charging I could smell "hot plastic" and looked at the charger to see it was changing shape!  Damn thing was so hot it was starting to melt, I unplugged it quick & junked it, never again!