Accessory Outlet Problems
 

My wife was recently pulling her car charger out of the accessory outlet in her 2005 Mitsubishi outlander when the charger fell apart inside of the outlet. She removed the parts from the outlet but the outlet no longer works. I decided to try and fix it myself. I removed the panel that holds the accessory handle in place and made sure everything is still connected correctly and it is. I then used a multimeter to test the two wires connecting to the outlet to check for resistance (short the wires together using the multimeter). There was no resistance. I then figured it must be the fuse, so I located the fuse box and found the cigarette lighter fuse. I pulled out the fuse and checked it with a multimeter for resistance. The multimeter showed the fuse had resistance meaning the fuse was not blown.

Anyone have any idea what else might be causing the problem?

---------- Post added at 06:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:12 PM ----------

Both the front outlet and the rear outlet do not work. I have checked all fuses and they are all fine. Somewhere the circuit is broken but I don't know where.

I noticed on the fuse box there are little black boxes plugged into the fuse box that don't appear to be fuses. These are larger (maybe a half inch squared) and are on the left side of the fuse box panel. What are these?

Sometimes the turn signal blinker is on the fuse box. Possibly its that.

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Username: greatfalls
password: public library

instead of testing the wires, test at the outlet. put one lead of the multimeter into the little round metal part in the center, and the other lead on the outer metal tube of the outlet. I bet you won't have a connection there, because when the plug fell apart in there, it probably shorted it out.

And check for voltage, not resistance.

I have done that also without getting a circuit. I will have to check and see if any voltage is coming through.

Right now my guess is the power relay for the outlets is burned out but I don't know which relay is the one i'm looking for nor how to test a power relay with a multimeter.

---------- Post added at 03:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:41 PM ----------

Thanks for the link but the login and password doesn't seem to work :(

They must have changed it. Check your own public library. Chances are your library card gets you access.

The little black boxes are relays. You can look up what each pin is and test it out. There are typically 4 pins. When voltage at a low current is supplied across 2 of them, an electromagnetic switch is closed (typically) allowing high current to flow between the other two. So you would just need to ensure that supplying 12V to the proper two pins brings the resistance between the other 2 pins from infinite to nearly zero.

I would double check your fuses first though. Resistance across a fuse should be very low when it is not blown.

I am having the exact same issue and I can't figure out where the problem is. I've checked all the fuses and they are all fine. None of the outlets work. :shakehead:

Have you had success getting yours to work yet?