1. Home
  2. Car Maintenance
  3. Renault 19 Cigarette/Cigar Lighter woes

Renault 19 Cigarette/Cigar Lighter woes

Hi All,

Its cold and my heater matrix is clogged so much it needs replacing, too uneconomical for my 1994 Renault 19. For about nine months I've been a little warmer with a cigarette lighter powered fan car heater.

The plastic of the lighter recently melted/discoloured/became brittle/congealed, possibly after a long journey with it on. Fan replaced, I started to test the hotting up of the plug. Low and behold a minutes worth of heater on time and the metal contact was too hot to touch. The heater never really worked unless it was plugged in at an angle (where the contact of the cigar lighter did not meet the high 'nipple' point of the socket of the cigar lighter, but a metal contact just below it), so I assumed the cigar lighter socket itself must be dodgy somehow. I tried to take the cigar lighter out to replace it with a bog standard one. Following the haynes instructions I got to step 3 'push the cigarette lighter out of its socket' no matter how much pulling and pushing, looking/feeling for clips I did, it didn't budge.

So...

Does anyone know how to remove the cigarette lighter out of a Renault 19?

The 'standard' lighter didn't have the same electrical fittings as the current one, so I'll probably try and get a new one - good idea?

Does anyone think it isn't the cigarette lighter but an electrical fault? Sometimes when I plug the heater in the lighter 'light' comes on fully but no power is sent to the fan, when twiddling with the lighter plug's position in the socket and the fan turns on, the lighter 'light' dims. The actual cigar lighter itself works fine.

As a side note it may be of relevance that my full beam switch (with main lights on) stopped working recently too. I'm assuming these are unrelated incidents.

Help! I'm cold!

Thanks,

- Adam.

Reply to
Adam Del-Monte
Loading thread data ...

The message from "Adam Del-Monte" contains these words:

Why? disconnect the hoses and flush it backwards and forwards with a hosepipe. f you're really keen, bung in some detergent, but keep doing it till it runs clear. The faster the flow the better.

You'll be amazed at how much hotter it'll get.

Reply to
Guy King

Thanks for the tip but I've already done that, with perhaps a few percent improvement, nothing significant.

Reply to
Adam Del-Monte

Are you sure the hot air diverter flap is working in the heater box??? most new-ish cars have the heater matrix plumbed into the collant circuit permanantly, i.e with no valve, and the hot air is mexed with cold vie a flap infront of the matrix to produce hot, warm or cold air.

the cable could have snapped, be stuck/sticking, the flap broken off it's hinges on one side, or if the matrix has a water valve, the valve could be stuck half closed,

you have beld all of the air out of the matrix when you put the system back together?

On my vehicle any air in the system goes to the heater matrix, and causes the heater to run cold, hence why there's an air bleeded plug on most vehicles near the matrix,

i had a van once that had a water leak, i knew when the water was too low as the heater would stop working

Reply to
Hairy Arse

Hi,

I'm pretty sure the hot air diverter flap is working - when I turn the hot air control from cold to hot the rate of air flow changes as well as the sound. Also the temperature goes from cold to a ever so slightly warm. If I put the fan on full blast the air cools down - I assumed this was the heater matrix was being cooled down by the air rushing past it, and being too blocked it couldn't heat up quick enough. If you still think the flap's broken do say! I have properly removed the air from the cooling system.

Does anyone have any ideas about the cigar lighter problem?

Cheers,

Mark.

Reply to
Adam Del-Monte

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.