Almost torched my Buick last night

DeeVeeEight

Fast Pedalphile
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
2,284
Location
Southern New Jersey, USA
I took the Buick out for a cruise last night. Earlier in the day I had pulled the dash out to repair the shift indicator, the tachometer, the heater controls and to replace some light bulbs. While driving I pushed the lighter in to see if it was still properly connected, all worked as it should, so I put it back in the dash. About 20 minutes later I am driving behind another car when I start smelling what I think is brake pads or a clutch burning so I figure the guy must be driving with his parking brake on. Well the guy hangs a left turn and now no one is in front of me and I can still smell the burning odor and I think to myself, well if he turned off and no one else is around, it must be me! At that moment I see a wisp of smoke coming out of the dash vents and realize that the lighter must be stuck in the receptacle so I pull it out - but it's too hot to hold, the fucker is glowing cherry red and the handle is way too hot. I think about dropping it on the floor but then think that it will either melt the carpet or start another fire. My next thought is to throw it out the window but it's a 40 year old lighter and hard to find so I end up playing hot potato with it as I am still driving down the road. I finally get home, now holding the lighter between my thumb and forefinger trying to let it cool off and drop it on top of the enamel covered steel cabinet in the garage.

WHEW! :twitch:

It seems that the lighter is not on a fused circuit and that it just draws enough amps to keep on heating up, and heating up and heating up until....


I posted this on the V8Buick forum and it seems that quite a few of the members have had the same problem. It might be advisable to unplug the cigarette lighter in our 'Vette's to avoid a similar problem.
 
Yeh, that all brings back a vague bell memory, I suspect it's not just Buick, but all of them, I always tossed the lighters so never had the issue....

funny that what with all the anti smoking shit these daze the car makers dont come up with a universal accessory socket for all the aftermarket shit, those clumsy plugs are just stupid anymore....

:surrender::hissyfit:
 
You dodged a bullet there!

I wonder if you can add an inline fuse?

From what I am able to discover, the lighter draws too many amps for a fuse to handle. Supposedly the feed wire was connected to a slow burn fusible link at the back of the lighter housing, the links would melt and the wire would fall off, after that the P.O's would simply reattach the wire to the back of the lighter - direct wired. A fusible link is advised, someone recommended a 14 ga. wire on the Buick forum, maybe Bird or someone else will chime in and give their opinion....
 
It's the lighter itself that's the problem, not the wiring. The pop-out mechanism is worn out.
The handles of most all of them unscrew and you can put the original handle back onto a new heating coil unit. I've done it a number of times. Just go buy a new lighter at the parts store and swap out the handle. If the threads don't match, well, you can figure that out--a bit of JB Weld, a drill & tap, whatever. You might even have to cut the handle off, drill it out & re-tap it. But the heater element itself is an item that wears out over time & does need to be replaced.
 
Last edited:
It's the lighter itself that's the problem, not the wiring. The pop-out mechanism is worn out.
The handles of most all of them unscrew and you can put the original handle back onto a new heating coil unit. I've done it a number of times. Just go buy a new lighter at the parts store and swap out the handle. If the threads don't match, well, you can figure that out--a bit of JB Weld, a drill & tap, whatever. You might even have to cut the handle off, drill it out & re-tap it. But the heater element itself is an item that wears out over time & does need to be replaced.

That is exactly what happened, the lighter seated itself and stayed seated instead of popping out. I am going to replace both the socket and the lighter and bypass the original feed wire as I no longer trust it. I also have a fusible link that I can install in-line with the feed circuit, hopefully that will give me some level of protection. With any luck the old knob will screw right in to the new element housing. Thanks for the JB Weld tip!
 
I don't think a fuse will help--the heating element will only draw what it does, it's a controlled short using the element to trigger the pop-out and open the circuit. A fuse too small will only burn out immediately, if it's big enough to not burn out, the element will continue to draw current until it pops out.
It was probably the overheated socket that caused the smoke you saw, not the the wiring.
 
I don't think a fuse will help--the heating element will only draw what it does, it's a controlled short using the element to trigger the pop-out and open the circuit. A fuse too small will only burn out immediately, if it's big enough to not burn out, the element will continue to draw current until it pops out.
It was probably the overheated socket that caused the smoke you saw, not the the wiring.

I was going to say that, but with no direct knowledge, I backed off.....

:smash::thumbs:
 
Cadillac of the same era had lighters @ each door ashtray, & used a type of fuse attached to the butt of the socket where the connector fastens. They were shaped like small pucks. You might wanna try one for yours. I used to replace alot of 'em.
 
Top