So my darling husband was filling my tires up with air this morning in preparation for a roadtrip. He was using one of those air machines that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Somehow when he unplugged the air machine, it blew a fuse (we're guessing). Neither the cigarette lighter in front of the dash OR the one in the boot work. Everything else (lights, USB, all that jazz) works just fine.

Since I had to head out of town on my roadtrip for work, I didn't get to take it into the dealership and won't be able to until Friday. I'm just conserving the battery on all my toys (phone, GPS, etc) cause I can't charge them in the car now :-(.

Just thought I'd ask if anyone else had had their fuse blown by something completely random that probably really shouldn't have blown it.

 

It's very possible to blow a fuse... especially that fuse. It's very easy to fix too, you shouldn't go to the dealer just for that. The fuse panel is in the passenger side foot well, and there's a listing somewhere on NAM as to exactly what fuse you need to replace. You can find replacement fuses at any autoparts store, Wal-mart, or even perhaps at the grocery store or a convenience store. Dirt cheap (as they say) and easy to fix.

 

A Mini Cooper S has to live in a household without an air compressor with tank? I bet she also has one of those $ 0.99 stick pressure gauges.

Somebody please call the department of Mini Protective Services and find this poor sibling a deserving new home.

 

David and I were pretty surprised that fuse would blow so easily. His first inclination was to run down the road to the Advance AutoParts store and replace the fuse himself. It was me that read the owner's manual that said not to try to replace the fuses yourself (granted that's meant for people like me, not folks who actually know what they're doing). Once I get back home we'll tackle it...thanks for providing the feedback!

I'll have you know that Galileo is treated REMARKABLY well. And there are no $0.99 stick presure gauges; Galileo is equipped with a magnificent model in his glove box.

 

Well, a lot depends on the device you plugged into the cig. lighter. I would guess that a cell phone, GPS, or satellite radio wouldn't have caused a fuse to blow. But a portable air compressor will draw more amps than anyone of those, and it more likely to blow a fuse. I don't know if the air compressor has a on/off switch or not, but if it was on when he unplugged the machine, then that action certainly could have caused the fuse to blow.

 

Just as I thought. Not an intrepid explorer but a sedentary astronomer who spent many years under house arrest. No wonder he blew a fuse!

 

Fuse # 42 which is a 20amp standard auto fuse. located in the panel in the passenger footwell on the right side.

 

Speaking of fuse, most of the diagrams on the panel is obvious, but there's one that's quite cryptic. It's fuse #2, or #3 (you'll know which one I mean when you see the diagrams).

 

I've never been good at picture instructions... I missed that day of kindergarten, so they're all cryptic to me.

 

Thanks all for the tips!

I went ahead and took it by the dealer Friday and let them take care of it. It took the tech a little longer than it should have because they changed the diagram; he said they took the cigarette lighter symbol off of it so he had to go look it up. But it was still a pretty quick fix.

Now that I have all this useful information, we can tackle it ourselves if it happens again! Though I've been told that in the future he's just going to plug it into his Honda when we need to add air to my tires (I've gotten a lot of grief because it blew a fuse in the Mini and it hasn't caused a problem with his Honda).

 

Same thing happen to me .... Replaced fuse (#42)... I stopped blowing fuses by first starting car and making sure nothing else is plug into the other outlet then plug in generator and then turned on generator ...

 

Glad I'm not the only one!

 

Hi everyone, this is my first post, EVER =) I just bought a 2006 cooper s convertible last week, it's pretty sweet. Anyway, i'm having problems with the cigerette lighter fuse. My wife tried her car charger and it woulnd't work so I immedietly thought "fuse" and checked it and sure enough it was blown. So I replaced it with the correct amperage and tried a radar dectector and it worked fine. Then I tried the actual cigerette lighter and it went in and immedietley popped out and the phone charger didn't work either, so I checked the fuse and sure enough it was blown again. Any one know what might be going on with my electrical system? I appreciate the help.

Klizity