My brother has a '98 4Runner and I guess on a recent road trip he was using an inverter to power a DVD player or something, but the outlet went dead. He checked the fuse and it's good. I haven't checked out the car, but he fixed my computer so I have to fix his outlet. He's dropping the car off this weekend, any ideas? Do you think the relay could have gone bad?

 

put a autozone 12V in there lol

 

What I might do is just rewire his stock outlet and have it coming directly from the battery with an inline fuse and ground the negative. Any reasons not to do that for a simple fix?

 

Cig lighter has a fusible link. It's probably blown. Happened on a 96 I use to own. I just soldered it back together. Been working fine for 5 years now.

 

Where would that be?

Thanks for the help

 

There is no fusible link for your power outlet. You have a 15 amp PWR outlet fuse. If you lost a main fuse or fusibale link you would have lost more than just your power outlet. Check the fuse with a volt meter on each side. If it's ok then check the outlet to see what you've lost (pwr or gnd). It's only 2 wires so it should be fairly easy for you to diagnose.

 

Thanks for the help

 

You sure about that buddy?


Take the cigarette lighter assembly out of the dash. Look at the back of the unit. You will see a little brown "wire" hooked to it. That's your fusible link. It's probably burnt up and not making a connection. This was the problem with my 96 4Runner. I simply removed the link, and soldered a new piece of wire on.

 

if you can't figure it out, search for a few other threads, I swear I have seen this problem come up more than once in the last month. It was the same thing, fusible link (not a fuse) on the back of the socket, replace or repair. After of course you check fuses, pretty sure cig lighter and aux sockets (if you have them) are on separate circuits...

 

Well unless the Toyota wiring diagram is wrong..... Then yes I am sure that a 98 4runner does not have a fusible link for the pwr outlet.

 

There is one detail thats not clear. Are you talking about the pwr outlet in the dash (cig lighter) of the power outlet by the rear door. Important to know.

 

So you've taken it apart? A fusible link in this case is not a plastic replaceable fuse as you probably think, it is just a small wire meant to fail if needed (or at random). It is meant to be replaced as a whole unit (the socket). As explained in another thread covering this same topic, it is a slow-blow link designed to protect your vehicle from cig lighter being left in, since it wouldn't (most likely) blow the main fuse. It's not going to show it on a wiring diagram

Search Google for "cigarette lighter fusible link" and see how much this topic is covered in so many forums

 

Cig lighter. Thanks for all the help thus far guys, I'll let you know what I find!

 

Just replace the outlet. It probably burned up?

If the fuse is good then the outlet is bad.