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Cars DC plug doesn't work

kyzen

Golden Member
I bought a used car back in December. It was my first time buying a car, and the dealer did a great job covering up some of the issues surrounding the car.

Today, I finally dug my old cell phone car charger out of a box, and tried it in my car. Didn't work. OK, I figure, maybe the charger is dead. Take it to my girlfriends car, and it works like a charm. Try out her FM Transmitter in mine - still nothing.

So, I tried looking at the wiring, with absolutely no luck.

At some point in the cars history, somebody had added a switch and a knob to a little control panel at about knee level on the drivers side. My few friends with any car knowledge at all speculate it was either for a bass in the trunk, or neon lights somewhere on the car. Presently, it doesn't seem to do anything.

I wonder if whatever was done with that used the power going to the DC outlet, or if the outlet is just flat out dead.

Anybody know how/if I could fix this myself? I'd rather not pay some shop stupid amounts of money to do it for me, especially just for the convenience of charging my phone.

The car, for the record, is a 2003 Ford Focus. I can take + post pics in a few hours after work if that would help.
 
Check the fuse, and then take a DMM to the leads that go to the outlet. If there's current, your outlet itself is probably fuxxored.
 
It was a fuse. I actually couldn't find any diagram of the fuse box at first, so I went through, one by one, checking them all. Ended up replacing 2, 1 of which fixed my DC plug. No idea what the other one did yet, but whatever.

Thanks for the help 🙂
 
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