12v accessory plug 07 contessa not working

[Randy Connell]

The 12v accessory (cigarette lighter) plug by drivers seat floor quit working. I checked all the fuses I could find. By driverside front tire, bathroom panel. Rear passenger compartment. Only fuse not checked is fuse#88  by driverside front panel did not pull it as not sure how to test it. Any suggestions?

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Randy,
Not sure yours is like this but I've seen some 12v accessory plugs have an internal fuse.
Steve

[Mike Humble]

Randy,                                                                                                                                                                                              On our 08 Contessa it did not come with 12v accessory plug and one was installed later.  if yours was the same then it would not have a fuse in the panel.
Mike

[Randy Connell]

This is the factory installed plug. It has 2 wall 120v, a telephone line and the 12v acc plug. it is by the gas pedal. Which I alwas thought was a bad place. But it is the only one I see in the motorhome. I plug my tire traker into it. I did not see a fuse behind the plate. The 2 white wire run up through the dash and I assume out to the drivers side outside panel. but all the fuses are good? Could it be a relay?

[Joel Ashley]

Check for loose wires along the hot breaker buss in the chassis electric bay (forward of street side front tire).  Then check the ground busses.  I'm not seeing a breaker that lists the lighter outlet - on a car it's usually with other devices on a circuit, but I can't tell from diagrams or legend where the lighter taps its power from.  

That said, I would expect then to find an in-line fuse somewhere along the center lead's run.  You may have to follow it through some bundles before coming across the fuse holder.  If the wire is white and labeled, that will help a little.  Opening any velcroed down top dash access panel may "shed some light";  if you're lucky, the wire and fuse holder may run up near it.

But first things first, I'd remove the outlet or gain access through a floor drawer or something, turn the ignition to ON or RUN, and check the center lead on the lighter for voltage.  Then note if the other wire has good continuity to chassis ground.  Many device plugs I've encountered are pretty iffy as to their ability to make solid contact within cigarette lighter outlets;  knowing for certain that there isn't power at the outlet will rule out a bad device plug, as will trying another device.

I could be mistaken, but I wouldn't think a simple lighter would be off a relay, and none of mine list a lighter on their circuit.

Joel

[Edward Buker]

Because the lighter plug handles up to 20 amps or so it is most likely has its wire feed does not tap off another wire at the dash level. Most likely it gets tied into the drivers bay electrical panel. Most are powered on all the time and if yours was that way, that would eliminate the wire being tied into the ignition activated buss.

I think a call to Monaco or BCS may help find this source. As Joel said there may be a fuse inline but it still needs a power source. If you do not find a fuse in the wiring under the dash then that also leads you down to the bay. You may get lucky by color matching the wire but many times that gets switched out along the way.

One thought would be to use a tone generator and tracer, something like this if you just cannot sort this out any other way.

http://www.amazon.com/Fluke-Networks-PRO3000-Tone-Probe/dp/B000FTADX0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1376148645&sr=8-4&keywords=electrical+circuit+tracer

Later Ed

[Don and Kathy DuCharme]

Randy,  check fuse F67 (brown firewall harness) in front electrical bay. This is the 20amp fuse for the front power outlet in our 07 Contessa.
Hope this helps.
Don

[Joel Ashley]

Good idea Ed.  I thought one of the buss connections had a the lighter listed on my legend, but on close examination it doesn't show up on iether the hot or ground bars.  The fact that the outlet has a cover rather than an actual lighter should have clued me to the notion it was always hot and not dependent on the ignition.  

I use a Sperry lan tracker I got at either Lowe's or HDepot, similar to this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Sperry-Instruments-ET64220-Tracker-Tracer/dp/B00279JLBQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376188643&sr=8-1&keywords=Sperry+electrical+circuit+tracer

Randy, if you find the power source, let us know;  I've been going to tap it on mine to install an auxilliary outlet near the copilot's chair for her 12v warming blanket while on the road, so I don't trip on its cord going in and out of the coach at a stop.

Joel

[Randy Connell]

Thanks for all the great suggestions.  I will focus on the wire going to the front panel.  Post when I find where Hot wire comes from.  I did test the outlet with volt meter, No Power on middle wire.
Thanks,
Randy

[Joel Ashley]

Don't know how I missed it the first time through, but on recheck I see that in my chassis electrical bay, circuit breaker 9 on the hot buss is labeled "Power Port".  The bay lights run off of it too.  I was looking for cig lighter or lighter, but would bet Power Port is what we want.  Don't know if someone with an '07 Contessa has their electrical bay legend, but if so it would be helpful to Randy, or at least tell him which circuit breaker on it, if any, says Power Port, Bay Lts.

Joel

[Randy Connell]

Hi: Thanks for all the suggestions. I found the problem. The wire was labeled VCJ2 when I traced the wire to to panel in the front driverside bay by front wheel and followed the circuit on the board it led to fuse #67. Which read power port.Don't know how I missed checking that fuse but I did. Thanks for the help all. And safe travels.