Forum Discussion

gotsmart's avatar
gotsmart
Explorer
May 13, 2013

Majestic owners - check your cigarette lighter

This is a pic of my 2004 E450. It did not come with a cigarette lighter and the socket for it was not working. That was fine with me. I plugged my phone into the power port just above it.

Last Thursday I had all 10 spark plugs replaced (the OE plugs only had 112,000 miles on them). When the job was finished the Check Engine light came on (it was a poorly seated coil pack). The tech plugged in a OBD scanner into the OBD port and got nothing.

It turns out that the fuse for the cigarette lighter (which is also used for the OBD port) was missing. The tech installed a fuse and the OBD port worked fine.

I can't speak for CA but my guess is that they like to deactivate the cigarette lighter socket because it does not shut off with the ignition and leaving something (like a GPS) plugged into it could draw down the chassis battery over time to the point of not being able to start the truck.

I will be looking to buy a cigarette lighter dummy plug to protect the socket.
Class C

6 Replies

  • Harvey51's avatar
    Harvey51
    Explorer
    May 20, 2013
    I have the same cab, same year. Thanks very much for the fuse tip. We use the cig lighter a lot for iPhone charging - nice to have two sockets.

    I have been worrying about changing the spark plugs since reading about the Triton engine. My thinking was to try it very carefully myself since patience seems to be required. But I don't even know what a coil pack is. And "what a hassle" sounds scary.

    I intend to change the brake fluid sometime but I'm only at 90k km on the 2004 Ford and should do my 1992 GM van with 250k first.
  • mikebreeze's avatar
    mikebreeze
    Explorer
    May 14, 2013
    I also have a former CA rig. Both of the power port jacks on my dash work fine. They also work when the engine is off so I have to remember to remove the plugs or risk running the battery down.
  • gotsmart's avatar
    gotsmart
    Explorer
    May 14, 2013
    path1 wrote:
    Thanks for the heads up on fuse. I also changed my plugs today. What a hassle, if I still have it the next 70,000 miles I'm paying to have it done. Book calls for 2.90 hours but sometimes they break a few plugs depending on what year you have. Both my "power port" and cig lighter work. Maybe I lucked out on mine. I changed the rear end grease and it was almost new but still put in new. Still over $100.00 bill doing it myself. Royal purple 75w-140 is 20.00 a quart! Clue to the newer diff oil was newer gasket stuff and a brand new shiny axle tube. And noticed the rubber bushing for the sway bar was not put back on after axle tube replacement. And something I have been putting off is a coolant change and I understand that is real important for the triton type design engines. That will be next.

    Check the condition of your brake fluid. Your MH may have seen some very hard driving. I had all of the fluids replaced at the same time - coolant, brake, lube oil filter, transmission fluid and filter, fuel filter, differential (it was black sludge), and genset oil and filter change.

    You said
    I will be looking to buy a cigarette lighter dummy plug to protect the socket.
    I have found a new use for mine. I saw a cheap (under $10.00) a gadget that plugs into lighter socket and gives a reading if alternator is charging and condition of chassis battery, just little LED lights and sticks out about 2 inches but what a perfect knob to hang the litter bag on.http://www.harborfreight.com/12-volt-battery-alternator-tester-66842.html Read the reviews, seems pretty good for price.
    Thanks again

    That looks nice. I wish it had an ON/OFF switch so that I could leave it permanently in the socket without it drawing power when I'm not using it. Now that I have a live, exposed socket I want to put a dummy plug in it as insurance against a liquid spill while driving. Getting a cigarette lighter would probably be the easiest route, but I don't smoke and am not keen on the idea.
  • gotsmart's avatar
    gotsmart
    Explorer
    May 14, 2013
    Mocoondo,
    I agree that it is a very good business decision to disable the cigarette lighter socket. I'm just glad that I found out about it before I go on a long trip and have a breakdown and the tech/mechanic is befuddled as to why they can't get a port scan to work.

    I would submit for consideration that when a CA unit is retired from the rental fleet and put up for sale that a 1-page insert be included in the P&S that informs the buyer that OBD port and cigarette lighter socket share the same fuse and that in the event that the cigarette lighter socket has no power then it's fuse may be missing or may need to be replaced for the OBD port to function.

    If it's too much for CA techs to re-enable the cigarette lighter on the motorhomes being sold then CA could tape a new fuse to that insert and let the buyer choose to inspect/replace the fuse at their pleasure.

    I think that giving the buyer a heads-up about the OBD port at the time of purchase would be a good thing.
  • Mocoondo's avatar
    Mocoondo
    Explorer II
    May 13, 2013
    gotsmart wrote:

    It turns out that the fuse for the cigarette lighter (which is also used for the OBD port) was missing. The tech installed a fuse and the OBD port worked fine.


    Not uncommon. Due to a charge for genset use, many renters try to subvert that fee by bringing an inverter and then plugging everything they own into the vehicle via the cigarette lighter port. Sometimes people get real creative and install a much larger fuse so it will not blow. It is very easy to overload the circuit via this method. I've actually seen heat damage as well as had reports of smoke from behind the dash. As a result, many times the fuses are removed since smoking is not permitted in the vehicles, and technically, the cigarette lighter port is not the power port.
  • path1's avatar
    path1
    Explorer
    May 13, 2013
    Thanks for the heads up on fuse. I also changed my plugs today. What a hassle, if I still have it the next 70,000 miles I'm paying to have it done. Book calls for 2.90 hours but sometimes they break a few plugs depending on what year you have. Both my "power port" and cig lighter work. Maybe I lucked out on mine. I changed the rear end grease and it was almost new but still put in new. Still over $100.00 bill doing it myself. Royal purple 75w-140 is 20.00 a quart! Clue to the newer diff oil was newer gasket stuff and a brand new shiny axle tube. And noticed the rubber bushing for the sway bar was not put back on after axle tube replacement. And something I have been putting off is a coolant change and I understand that is real important for the triton type design engines. That will be next.

    You said
    I will be looking to buy a cigarette lighter dummy plug to protect the socket.
    I have found a new use for mine. I saw a cheap (under $10.00) a gadget that plugs into lighter socket and gives a reading if alternator is charging and condition of chassis battery, just little LED lights and sticks out about 2 inches but what a perfect knob to hang the litter bag on.http://www.harborfreight.com/12-volt-battery-alternator-tester-66842.html Read the reviews, seems pretty good for price.
    Thanks again

About Motorhome Group

38,738 PostsLatest Activity: Jul 26, 2025