Cigarette lighter help

[hoonigane]

So i was replacing my cigarette lighter. New one i bought had different connections and when i searched up on internet they said that center pin is positive and sides are negative although it was connected differently on original (smaller connector was on center pin). So i connected positive to center and put everything back. When i tried pushing in the actual cigarette lighter in, it started smoking (could be dust burning off i dunno) and heating up really quickly and the fuse was instantly blown. Does it sound like backward connection or what?

 

[JPenny]

Sorry man I'm not sure if its correct but I know for sure in my 97 gst that the ground lead went on the metal body and the positive lead went on center pin..worked with no problems although I only used for a phone charger not an actual heating element. Do you have access to a multimeter?

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

The center is ALWAYS the positive guys. All your accessories would run backwards if plugged in . Outside is always ground.
Trust me on this.
Your lighter element didn't care so it was probably old and dirty. Might still be good.

 

[techboy]

You have it wired backwards as already stated, but that doesn't have anything to do with why the fuse blew or it got hot really quick. That can only be a current draw that's too high. You'll have to figure out why ...

 

[Macgyver'sDSM]

Center is always positive as stated above. Problem is some cigarette lighters are not compatible with some accessory outlets. Or the cigarette lighter is no longer functional as in creating a short. The cigarett lighter works because it has resistance. The power flows through it at a certain rate. Fast enough to create heat but slow enough to not melt wires and blow fuses. If the 2 are not compatible it can cause a problem where it lets positive and negative touch directly bypassing the resitive coil.

 

[hoonigane]

Changed the fuse. Now cigarette lighter works normally although phone charger doesnt. Its weird. Also just out of curiosity would cigarette lighter heat up if connections are wired backward? Or it doesnt care about positive and negative sides.

 

[Macgyver'sDSM]

A cigarette lighter would work either way.

 

[hoonigane]

Nevermind, my cord wasnt working. Changed cord and tried charging my phone. As i just touched phones charger connection phone immediately shut off and didnt turn on for few minutes. Something is really wrong here