Help Please w/Car Charger Question

[Seabrook]

Hi there,

I'm not very mechanically inclined w/car stuff (kind of a guy thing?), so could someone help me with a car question.

My car has a hole in the dashboard that looks like a cigarette lighter holder, but I'm not sure what it is. It has a rubber cap over it that is removeable, and on the cap it says 12v-20a. Can anyone tell me if that is just a regular cigarette lighter thingy? I just don't want to stick a PV car charger in there and fry it if it is for something else.

Please and thank you.
Seabrook

p.s. -- I wasn't sure where to post this, so if this is the wrong place, my apologies.

 

[JoeChemo]

You found it. That's where you plug in your 12v adapter. Rarely do you find an actual lighter in the hole these days. If you're a smoker and buy a newer car, you order the optional "smoker's package" if you want a lighter and an ashtray.

 

[Seabrook]

I inherited the van from my late father and am driving it since it had lower mileage than my Nissan.

Now that I think of it, though, even if I never smoked or vaped, I would still want the smoker's pkg. A cubbyhole for parking meter change, keys, misc. would be better than a solid dash board. Also, you could plug about anything into the power source, I imagine. Now I know I can safely use it. Saves me the trouble from driving into a car repair to ask. Thanks much for the reply, JoeChemo.

 

[irwink]

There's so much stuff now that uses the standard cigarette lighter plug configuration that some vehicles have more than one. Between gps's and other devices and device chargers these ports are starting to get more common than ever. You can even buy so called pigtails to turn one power port into two. And lo and behold - you can still buy and plug a cigarette lighter into one if you so desire!

 

[Seabrook]

When I smoked in my Nissan, I went through 4 cigarette lighters. I had to keep going into Kragen to buy the lighter part. Don't know what was up with that, as I've never had that happen in any other vehicle I've owned.

 

[JoeChemo]

In my younger years I remember riding in the back seat of a car that had cigarette lighters in the rear doors. Thanks to smokers, people today have a place to plug in their GPS or MP3 player. The old 12v cigarette lighter outlet finally comes of age.