12v Charger fuse keeps blowing

[kwill22]

Long story short, got an XM radio from a coworker and installed it in the car. Worked fine for about a week then the fuse in the power plug blew. Every fuse I replaced it with after that blew as soon as I would plug it into the cigarette lighter rather it was plugged to the xm reciever or not.

Got a new power cord and plugged it in and it worked also for about a week and then blew and same thing happened when replacing the fuse. They blow instantly. Cigarette light has 12v. (12.4 to be exact) its getting annoying so any input on the issue. I figure it could be a voltage spike or somthing related that blows the fuse everytime something that messes up the electronics inside the power plug.

Also tried new cig lighter socket and same thing

[StereoInstaller1]

Wow, new socket and still blew? Download the ETM for your car and look at all the stuff that fuse runs, I bet you find something useful there.

LMK how it works out

Luke

[kwill22]

I'll check tomorrow when I get off but yea with the new socket it lasted a week and blew also. I'll check the wires tomorrow while I'm at it.

O yea, I should mention that my cell phone charger works fine in either socket without any issues also. Idk the amperage of the fuse inside of it but I cant imagine it being much different than the one for the XM receiver. I'm at a complete loss right now.

[ELVA164]

I wonder if it's something like a loose connection or two bare wires close to each other; maybe they touch sometimes and not others? Or perhaps it's a partial short and a heavier load puts it over the top.

[kwill22]

Everything's leading to a short or problem with the wires. Guess in the morning ill be checking the wires. I'm assuming they run from the cig lighter and are bundled with all the cables behind the radio,under kick panel, ect. Still don't understand why it only does that with the xm power cord and not any others.

[ELVA164]

I wonder if there's something in that cord that draws extra at certain moments? Electricals are by no means my strong suit, but it sounds like there could be a problem with the XM unit itself. A short is a short, regardless of which side of the plug it's on. :-?

[kwill22]

True. I took the power cord apart to the XM radio and the solder look dull. I don't know if that's an issue but I've always seen solder look shiny and reflective.

[kwill22]

Ended up being the XM power cord. Tried it in 2 different cars and it blew the fuse again. Im still gonna keep an eye on everything though.