So, I do not smoke and usually keep a phone charger in the lighter socket while the lighter itself lives in a box with other forlorn MINI parts. I had removed the charger to take with me on a trip in another car.

Like many MINI owners, I also keep change in the ashtray which is right next to the lighter, convenient for smokers I guess but as it turns out not so convenient for me. One day, as I was pulling away from the drive thru window I went to put some change in and I dropped a dime in the lighter socket. Interestingly enough, a dime fits in there real nice, touching the bottom as well as the sides and I could not get too it before I start seeing some sparks.

So, I pull into off the parking lot and was able to remove the dime with a small pocketknife, but the lighter was dead. I replaced the fuse with the spare and the lighter would not work still. I double checked the fuse and the new one looks fine. I even switched with a known good fuse and still it will not work.

Is there some fusible link in the lighter circuit somewhere that also needs replacing?

 

got a meter? check the voltage at the socket . if present , i'd think the socket is just well...toast . if no voltage then link or wire may have fried .

 

That would be the way to check^^^

One possible problem could be that when the dime was arcing around in there before the fuse blew it charred the center contact making it hard for your charger to get a good connection. Seems a little silly but it doesnt take much carbon to mess up a connection.

Otherwise one of the wires may have been damaged before the fuse blew. Either way you should start with a volt meter an go from there.

 

OK, I checked and got voltage there, but it was a little low. When I wiggled the plug I got the light that is on the charger to go on and off, so I pulled it out (I was installing an iPod interface so the whole console was coming out anyway) and looked inside and the center contact was pretty nasty. Mostly just general oxidation (it appeared to be raw copper), but there was a little carbon on there as well. A couple of minutes with a pencil eraser cleaned the contact right up.

Thanks.