Technical Accidentally put DVD power plug into car lighter outlet. Now nothing works :(

[PeterPolak]

Hi everyone,

yesterday I installed a new portable DVD player for my daughter into my Idea. We took a ride and I plugged the power plug into the cigarette lighter outlet (which, as I was told, was a very wrong thing to do). During the ride all systems stopped, one by one: ABS, some other things, also power steering. I managed to get to my parking slot.

Today I charged the battery using starter cables and another car. I was able to start the engine, and it kept running for a while - but the ABS and EBD warning lights were on all the time. After a while, the engine stopped and the battery was completely drained again.

I tried to charge it and run the engine, but it ends up the same every time.

Does anyone have any idea about what could go wrong? Thanks for help.

 

[a1ant]

Hi mate,

I would be VERY surprised if plugging a portable dvd player into the cigertte lighter would cause the problems you are encountering. The cigerette lighter circuit is protected by a 15am fuse. Should you plug in an ittem that drains more current than that, it will simply blow the fuse to protect the wiring.

It sounds more to me like a BATTERY or ALTERNATOR problem. Is the battery charging fault light ON when the engine is running? The light will be red and looks like a car battery. it shoudl be OFF when the engine is running.

IF the alternator is NOT charging the battery, then as the engine is running, the voltage will gradually drop, causing you to lose electrical systems one by one, untill eventually there is not enough voltage to even power the ecu/injectors etc and the egnine will cut out.

If you have a multimeter, put it across the terminals of the battery (set to DC volts) with the engine running. You should see a reading of between 13.5v and 14.5 volts. Anything less and yoiur alternator is not charging your battery sufficiently.

Hope that helps,
Alan

 

[VAGstew]

Unless of course someone has previously bypassed the fuse (unlikely but I've seen it done many times over the years!) in which case something could have shorted.

But, as already said, very unlikely, especially as a portable DVD player would only draw mA to max of about 2 amps...

 

[PeterPolak]

Hi folks, the problem is solved: the alternator broke, nothing to do with the DVD player.

Thanx for help!