I've had a 2002 A4 Avant 1.9TDI for a few months now alongside my Fabia and I absolutely love it. It's got a few small things that need doing but generally been looked after really well by previous owners.

 

One issue is that I can't charge my phone from the cigarette lighter socket in the front. The socket lights up when I turn the headlights on, but when I put the car charger in the socket it doesn't work. I've done some googling and aside from the obvious point that the fuse may have gone, one or two people have said that the socket on this model is shallower than usual and so the side contacts on the charger don't sit at the right point inside the socket or something to that effect?

 

Just wondered if anyone's got experience of this being the case, and whether there's anything I can do to sort this out? It's not been a problem thus far as most of my journeys have been a couple of hours at most but I may have a 5 hour drive using my phone as Sat Nav coming up and I could do with still having some charge when I arrive.

 

Cheers

Have you tried a different charger, or the charger in a different car?

Does the actual cigarette lighter work in it?

Charger's fine in other cars and even in the socket in the boot. Haven't tested the cig lighter; I'll do that. Cheers

What you need is either --

Meter to confirm presence/absence of 12v at socket

OR

Lighter plug with low powered lamp ( numberplate lamp) and a high powered one ( stop lamp) .

Meter will prove socket live or otherwise ,as will the low powered lamp. What the higher powered lamp will show up any dirty connections.

Ideally, a meter across both low & high powered lamp ,to prove that if socket live, then contacts not dirty .

IF the socket has been used for a lighter, often the contacts get dirty, and dirty contacts drop volts. ( Simple OHMS law . )

I'm sure the 'lighter' in the socket on my MkII was a dummy - probably the socket as well.

Problem solved, thanks all. Changed the fuse - its a 15A rather than the 20A stated in most places online. Interestingly, the fuse I replaced was the only non-original fuse in the fusebox, so looks like it's not the first time this has been an issue.

 

Thanks for the help