I have a 98 civic sedan dx. The problem is that one day out of nowhere I hear a loud bang and a visible flash come out under the dash. When I noticed my accessory sock (cigarette socket) had stopped working. I checked the fuse and tried plugging in something to the socket. It immediately blew out my new fuse. I have had people tell me it could be a short cricuit, that the cable might be making contact with metal somewhere. I have tried to track down the cable but it is a mess of cables.

I looked around and found this:



That is from a 2000 civic wire diagram. I think it shouldn't change much, as the wire it says is yellow/green. And thats the color my wire is. It says it connects to C501 connecter.

My question is does anyone have a solution for this? Or a suggestion to track down the whole wire and replace it?

Edit:

After looking some more I found this:



I took the Yellow/Green wire, cut it and threw a wire from the C501 harness to the connector at the socket.



Still blew out my 10A fuse, replaced it with a 20A fuse and same results. So I guess it isn't the cable? What could the problem be now?

 

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Ok.... I am thinking you need to take the lighter socket out of the equation, take the dash where it is mounted off and unplug the lighter socket, tape the ends of the connectors with electrical tape to keep them from touching and touching ground. put a new fuse in and start the car, if the fuse blows you have a wiring issue, if it doesnt you probably have bad insulators on the connectors or a bad socket.

I would not up the fuse too much, the wire is designed to run 10A and there is a factor of safety there but would not keep putting higher amp fuses in there.

 

Thank you very much! Ill try this as soon as I can and report my results !

 

Based on what you've already done, it sounds like the ACC socket itself may have an internal short to ground. Post multiple different views of the socket. You can also use a multimeter to pinpoint the short. And as mentioned, never install a higher amp rated fuse as you create a fire risk.