Fried radio/cigarette lighter 1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ


I started to notice whenever I pushed in the cigarette lighter, the radio would cut off for a second. I pushed the lighter in again later and some smoke start coming out of the dash vents and naturally the fuse blew in the driver's side box. After some time, I put in a new fuse to see if I could find where the short was that was melting the radio/lighter wires; the fuse blew and the plastic fuse casing melted.

I was able to identify where the wires were that melted, cut them and replaced them. However, the fuse still blows. Could the circuit that holds the fuse be clogged/fried from the plastic the melted off the fuse or something else? Can I move the radio/lighter to an empty/different circuit or somehow bypass the fuse box and run some type of constant power?

Thanks you guys

sorry to say this, but it sounds like you still have a short. look around and make sure none of the hot wires are grounding out somewhere, that was the problem with my wallyworld bajas. but the fact that the fuse melted the holder makesme think that someone may have put in a bigger fuse than it originally came with, look around on here and you can find a layout of the fuses somwhere. hope this helps

i would just start by pulling hte radio and lighter and then plug the fuse and see if it blows again. if its an after market radio then maybe the wires got pinched and are worn through now?

so may things that it could be

take a pic of your fuse box because if might be to melted to be safe. you don't want to run a constant unfused wire or it might cacth fire next time

Thanks for your help xj_maniac_newb and superj.

This problem happened a few months back at the start of Spring and I haven't fooled with it since it happened; testing wires, replacing wires, testing fuses, etc. Fuses kept on blowing, so I gave up on it.

So, cut to now and writing the post....popped in a 15A fuse again to see what would happen expecting it to blow like last time without plugging anything back in (cd player deck or cigarette lighter) and the fuse somehow didn't blow. Plugged the cd player deck back in, still didn't blow. Plugged the car lighter back in, still didn't blow. Too weird.

Maybe whatever it was (I'm thinking there was something funky stuck in the fuse slot after the holder melted) made its way out with the heat/temp changes or some road bumps. Don't know. But either way all is back to working again.

Thanks again fellas.

dont mention it, thats what us at CF are here for