I went to put air in the tires using one of those small compressors that plugs into the cig lighter. It drove me crazy until I started the car. Neither it nor the one in the trunk work with the engine off or even with the key in but the engine not on.

Is there a way to reprogram this? That's pretty lame.

 

I think the power stays on to them for something like 15 minutes after the car is turned off. I believe similar issues have been discussed in the electical modification section of the forum.

EDIT: According to page 72 of the manual, to use the lighter, the engine must be running or the the ignition switched on. However, I still think it does remain powered for 15 minutes after the Mini is turned off.

 

Thanks Simon! I'll check out that forum.

Just went there - 2 pages and I scoured them twice. Nothing.

 

Mine go out the minute the power goes truly off.

 

Not lame. Lame would be calling AAA with a dead battery because you left your portable widget plugged in to the cigar lighter.

 

I believe this is a safety issue in case an appliance or equipment of some type was left plugged in and drains the battery. Just remember dead battery = no door opening, even with the mechanical key, as the side windows slide under the moldings and prevent the door from opening. Not a very happy situation.

 

Just encountered this last weekend. Rigged up my Alpha Elite Rally computer to a cig. lighter adapter. Tried it in my BMW Z3 because Stuart was flying high on the lift and as much as I used to enjoy garage acrobatics, I'm getting too old to repeat that numerous times in a day. So I get in the BMW, key out, plug in rally 'puter and BAM, we have fire. So naturally, that'll work for power in Stuart, right? I finish fishing the wheel sender lead through the firewall, lower the lift, and plug in cig. lighter adapter. Nada. So I figure, the rear lighter's gonna be my savior, since anyone back there shouldn't be operating things with the car on anyway, right. ARERRRRTT. Wrong answer. So now I'm left ditching the idea of using either. Rally computer needs to stay on the whole event or I lose Time of Day among other things. My experience this weekend did not reflect any 15 minute delay, though I'll have to check again after reading this.

 

It appears as if the cig. lighter does not have the delay, but other circuits do. Some people have hardwired Radar Detectors etc into the electrical system. They retain the power for a time after shutting off the engine. If you are trying to hardwire something you should select one of those lines/fuses versus the cig lighter.

 

Check the elctrical board in the Mods section. The first sticky has the info on which circuits are instant or 5 min or 15 min delay shutdown. Use an Add-A-Circuit, those things are a great idea.

 

If you hit the start/stop button without you foot on the brake - it starts up the aux plug without starting the car

 

Indeed. I thought my car was broken till I discovered this in the book. Put the fob in place, tap the start without the clutch in, and voila: power to the outlets. Inconvenient, but I guess it's better than inadvertently killing the battery.

 

In my car with the comfort access you need to tap the start button two times to get the "switch" to the aux postion where there is power supplied to the cig. lighter outlet. The first tap will get you the radio but now power to the cig. lighter.

 

how did we survive this long without this "feature"

I'll be doing the mod to "fix" it for sure, or my ipod battery will die when it's cold out

 

My Bonneville had a two positions in the for the outlet fuse in the fuse box where you could decide whether to use switched or unswitched power for the outlet. I changed it, and actually went back when I killed the battery once.