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[SJKOO01]

Hello all.

Just recently bought my Facelift model, and had a few problems which need sorting. Nice that everybody is willing to help each out on this forum.

Anyhow, just reading my owners manual, and it advises that you shouldn't plug any charging devices into the cigarette lighter ports, as it could effect the cars electronics ?  .

Has anyone else used their mobile phone chargers, or SatNav chargers in their Cig lighters and had problems with electrics or messing up the cars running in any way ?  :-/ .

Would be interested to hear if anyone knows this to be a problem, and how they have gotten around the problem ?.  :-?

M

[TheBoy]

most handheld portable equip will be fine

I regularly charge phones, satnavs, bluetooth receivers etc in my prefacelifts

[Dodger]

Have charged my mobile phone, sat nav (tomtom, always plugged in when I use it) as well as my laptop, and the kids use a portable DVD player, (twin screens) plugged into rear ciggy lighter at various times, and never had a problem with any of them, though again, mine is a pre-facelift. (maybe a bit less 'electrickery? in them)

Must admit, have never used a compressor, or a '1,000,000 candlewatt' light from them (thankfully!)

[iainb]

I belive they mean dont plug a battery charger into the lighter (there use to be a type of trickle charger the went into it)
I belive there is a type of solar powerd  charger that you can plug in, the problem is they may stop the car from shutting down when locked

[CaptainZok]

Cig lighters in my facelift have been used to run phone/pda chargers, bluetooth GPS, dvd player, portable fridge, compressor, laptop and xbox invertor and screen at various times over the past almost two years of ownership without issue.

[Dave DND]

Not all lighter sockets are live with the keys out of the ignition, so the chargers etc may not actuallly do anything when ignition switched off as they would effectively be disconnected. Switching on the ignition in this instance would probably draw more current than the charger would give.

Also, the lighter sockets have some fairly feeble wiring and are often protected by a fairly small fuse, most cars are 10A or 15A. This is enough to power most small accessories, laptop chargers, Phone kits, GPS etc etc, but be wary of some of the larger items such as compressors as they may draw a lot more current than the car can provide. The Hong Kong / Chinese el-cheapo stuff is often the worst culprits for this as they are not often produced with energy efficiency in mind.

Adding a second socket with some heavier duty wiring and a decent fuse from the battery is very very easy to do, and would overcome the problem.

I`m led to beleive that there is a good power source in the boot of the Omega, used for towing / charging, but I`m not sure of its limitations power wise - maybe someone can advise further?

[SJKOO01]

Hi.

Thanks to everyone who's answered.

I'm not big on electronic stuff, so just wanted to make sure that if I was to plug in my mobile phone charger, or an independent SatNav, such as a tomtom device, that it wouldn't send the electronics into an issy fit !!  .

Thanks.