Car Charger for Cell Phone

Yes, sell the piece of shit.

Yes.

Ignore the other replies to your post....they're jealous of you, having a Highlander. I think you'll find that the cigarette lighter (or rather its socket) is probably disabled when the ignition is turned off....and this is probably to prevent kiddies from playing with the lighter while their adoring mamas are shopping and have left them in the car unsupervised. You could leave the ignition on, but you'd also be draining the battery as you charge the cellphone. And you might find that if you forgot and left it on overnight, you'd find 1. the battery dead or 2. your car stolen.

Best to just charge the phone while you drive. It's not that much of an inconvenience....unless you talk on the phone while you drive, which is not a great idea anyway. hope this helps.

There is also a relay under the hood that you can pull out and push two contacts together. I did it on my Tundra, but I can't tell you which relay or pins for your vehicle.

Ask your dealer about this. On my Dodge Caravan, Dodge sold an accessory relay that plugged into a fuse block in place of the OEM relay, and this allowed the cigarette lighter socket to be live with the ignition switch on or off. Morton

Wise words. Having electrical accesories live without the ignition can certainly pose problems. How can Ford get away with it? They can't. Just note the millions of vehicles they're recalling due to the cruise controls catching fire while parked in their owners' garages.

Point of information Viperkiller. American cars have, almost without exception, had the power to their cigarette lighters unswitch since they have had cigarette lighters (they used to be called cigar lighters). However they now are 12vdc power ports. They lack the bimetallic latch that holds the lighter in until it gets hot.

Ford (as well as GM and Chrysler) cruse controls are powered through the ignition switch. They always have been. I can't ever remember reading of a car's cruise control catching fire while parked in a garage. While running, yes, but not while parked. Can you site article(s) to document your claim?

Jack

Ford has some vehicles were there constant power to a circuit that includes a brake fluid pressure switch is a last ditch safety device that will disable the cruise control if you press on the brake. Some of these switches were defective and leaked slowly. Because of the contamination of the contacts with brake fluid the contact resistances builds up to the point that the temperature is high enough to ignite the brake fluid. The small brake fluid fire then ignites other flammable material and a significant fire ensues. Fires from this failure almost always occur when the vehicle is unoccupied. When the problem was first discovered it applied to a relatively limited range of F150s and Expeditions. There were very few reports of fire and they were all within well defined group. Ford initiated a recall of the affected vehicles. However, after word of the problem got out, all sorts of Ford, some with completely different style switches and circuit, started bursting into flame. Once bottom feeding trial lawyer got into the act Ford was screwed. They first widened the recall to all F150s and Expeditions with the type of circuit associated with the original problem. Now they have expanded the recall to cover pretty much any Ford that uses the brake pressure switch.

I've owned two Ford with the "dangerous" switch. I never worried about either. In fact, the switch was overkill. It was itself an over reaction to lawsuits that claimed cruise control went wild causing cars to go out of control.

But the bottom line is - there are definitely fires that Ford has admitted were caused by cruise control deactivation switches while the vehicle was parked and not running. In fact, this was the usual failure mode. See:

My Nissan Frontier has multiple outlets. One is always live, the other two are live only with the ignition is on. Some Buicks include the option of changing the outlet from live with the ignition on to always live merely by changing a jumper in the fuse box. There are lots of "always live" circuits in all cars (clock, radio, pcm, interior lights, keyless entry, brake lights, power door locks, etc., etc.). The power point doesn't seem to be an especially dangerous item to keep live.

Ed

Wow, what was I thniking when I hit send before reading the original post.... I've tried to fix the bad grammar below. Sorry.

Ford built (and still builds I think) vehicles were there was constant power to a circuit that included a brake fluid pressure switch. This switch is a last ditch safety device that will disable the cruise control if you press on the brake. Some of these switches were defective and leaked slowly. Because of the contamination of the contacts the contact resistance built up to the point that even a minor current flow generated a temperature high enough to ignite brake fluid. The small brake fluid fire that broke out would sometimes ignite other flammable material and a significant fire sometimes ensued. Fires from this failure almost always occurred when the vehicle was unoccupied. When the problem was first discovered it was assumed to apply to a relatively limited range of F150s and Expeditions. There were very few reports of fires and they were all within a well defined group. Ford initiated a recall of the affected vehicles. However, after word of the problem got out, all sorts of Fords, some with completely different style switches and circuits, started bursting into flame. Once bottom feeding trial lawyer got into the act, Ford was screwed. Ford first widened the recall to all F150s and Expeditions with the type of circuit associated with the original problem. Now they have expanded the recall to cover pretty much any Ford that uses the brake pressure switch.

I've owned two Ford with the "dangerous" switch. I never worried about either. In fact, the switch was overkill. It was itself an over reaction to lawsuits that claimed cruise control systems went wild causing cars to go out of control.

The bottom line is - there are definitely fires that Ford has admitted were caused by cruise control deactivation switches while the vehicle was parked and not running. In fact, this was the usual failure mode. See:

How would purchasing another charger solve this problem, if it also needs to be plugged into the cigarette lighter?

snip

I stand corrected. Makes sense to have a circuit to kill the cruse control always live. That would make sure that the cruse control didn't over-rev the engine while it was turned off and parked.

Ford used to use, and maybe still does use, a pressure switch on the brake master cylinder that controlled the brake lights. It was always powered, maybe that's what you're thinking of.

Jack

You're certainly correct that there are accessories that are powered without the ignition such as headlights, brakelights, and even the interior lights. These are developed and researched thoroughly by the manufacturer. I would just be cautious of an "aftermarket" conversion. Besides, wouldn't purchasing another cell phone charger be easier and cheaper?

I meant a home/office charger as opposed to a car charger.

You will void the cars warranty if you change anything.

Hasn't anyone invented a solar powered cellphone charger yet?

The entire vehicle warranty is not voided if the customer makes modifications. Only problems caused by the modification would be excluded from warranty coverage.