LMAO!! Also ask me how I know as well.. one of my Audi vehicles was doing that, so I searched and searched for days what the heck was going on, low and behold, it was a stupid fuse!!!
Over the past 3 years the wife and I have done one "big" camping trip per year. This past year it was down to Lake Powell, then North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then Las Vegas, Death Valley, Yosemite and finally Kings Canyon/Sequoia national parks.
Anyway, our big trip started in July and I had the trailer hooked up, everything ready to go, parked in the driveway and ready to leave. Since we had had problems on previous trips not having enough 12v outlets to run my GPS and the fridge and also charging up our phones, I pulled an old, cheap 12v splitter out of the garage to use it.
So we were all packed up, dog was in the kennel, I went to get in, and as an afterthought, plugged in the splitter. Then I noticed I had no power to the GPS, which was plugged into the cigarette lighter outlet. I thought "what's wrong with this darn thing?" Pulled it out and without thinking, plugged it into the circuit for the 12v aux power, which was where my fridge was plugged in. Heard a "pop" and thought "Oh, Crap!" Because my fridge was plugged into that and it was packed with food, and I had now blown both circuits.
So immediately, I figured the splitter must have been the culprit, pulled it out and threw it in the trash (that was the only smart thing I did.) Told the wife I had to fix something and hurriedly pulled off the fuse panel. First I located the fuse for the cigarette lighter and pulled it - sure enough, it was blown. Then I looked at the fuse panel, I saw what was marked as "aux" and pulled the fuse out - only to find that it was a good fuse! This was a problem because while the cigarette lighter fuse could be replaced, my cigarette lighter is only powered when the ignition is on. The only circuit I have that is powered when the ignition is OFF is the aux power, and that fuse appears to be good.
Now I was really panicked because I was thinking "if the fuse is good, then that must mean the 12v power port itself is fried!" I frantically pulled up the center console and looked at the underside of the 12v outlets to see if there were any obviously burned wires and my mind raced trying to figure out what I was going to do to try and keep food cold (one thing about having a fridge, you get spoiled and start bringing a lot of stuff that
HAS to stay cold: Cheese, meat, etc.)
Finally after several minutes, I thought "maybe I got the wrong fuse?" Went back and looked, a little more calmly, at the fuse panel and realized that the "aux" fuse I saw was for something else, not used on my 4runner (probably for heated seats or something that my 4runner doesn't have.) I then pulled the manual out and looked at where the 12v auxiliary
POWER was, and sure enough, that fuse was blown. I was immensely relieved, replaced both the fuse for the aux power and for the cigarette lighter, and we were on our way with full power.
Fortunately we were only delayed about a half hour but I have to say, I was sweating pretty hard! :bounce:
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