My 2007 500 which I have had since new, has recently had an electrical problem with the cigarette lighter outlet on the console. I had inserted a plug in for my GPS into the outlet, when it wouldn't insert fully. When I pulled it out, the power plug center(with fuse) had unscrewed and fallen out, and was in the outlet. I carefully fished it out, but got a spark in the outlet. When I inserted the plug again, the outlet was dead. I have tried other plugs with different accessories, and it is dead. I pulled the fuse in the fuse panel, and replaced it with a new fuse, even though it looked OK. No power. Has anyone had a similar problem. The car owners guide shows that it also powers some type of electronic car item.

 

There are generally two fuse panels to check. One is usually under the hood and the other is usually in the vehicle. It might be a good idea to check both and it might be one of the Maxi fuses under the hood.
The owner's manual should tell you which fuse is in the lighter circuit.

 

I have checked the maxi fuse panel under the hood. It powers the outlet in the console compartment. I have power to that outlet. I suggested to my wife that I could make a snake to connect to my dash gps and radar detector, but she indicated that that was not acceptable. Any other ideas?

 

Look in the BJB at both postion 14 and 16 (16 is listed as the console) 14 is second to the left of 16. The fuse in the SJB (9) is for the cig/power point and data link connector..

 

On my vehicle, 14 in the BJB is not used. I haven't checked the data link connector to see if it is still powered. Will check it out. I have an extended warranty on the car. Will take it in for maintenance. Noticed in the Consumer's Report that the 500 is rated badly for electrical problems. Have had "fast clicking" occasionally on the right rear turn signal which goes away, and the brake light switch(which has been adjusted) occasionally activates the brake lights and turns off the cruise. I simply lift the pedal to stop the problem. Luckily it doesn't happen when the car is resting overnight.

 

I finally went under the dash to the BJS with my voltmeter, and found that I was checking the wrong fuse. The fuse I was checking was OK, but when I checked the correct fuse, it was blown. I replaced it, and voila, power was back on to the outlet. My bad! Gets harder and harder at my age and with trifocals to see under there.

 

For what it's worth,
Anytime you are looking for a blown fuse, especially if you don't know which one it could be, it's very simple to check them all. Just move the positive probe down every fuse . There are openings on the top to do this. When doing this you will have voltage on the one side of just about all in the row. As you go down the row just check the other side of the fuses and when you find one that gives no reading on one side , it's usually defective. When you come to one that has no reading on either side , you may need to turn the key on as some circuits are controlled from the ignition switch. Saves a lot of time and searching around for the possible circuit.