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[talktoconrad]

I've just tried to fit a 12v lighter socket in my cooper. Bloke at the shop said the easiest way to do it is to marry it in with the live and neutral that goes into the back of the radio. Did that and it worked once but now the lighter socket and radio are dead.

I saw that the fuse had blown so swapped that out but still dead. Took out the lighter socket to try and make the radio work to prove that there's juice but nothing Have I burned the wires out?

It was supposed to be a gift for my wife now that we have a sat nav so that she can plug it in but all i've ended up doing is scuppering the radio.

Any advice???

[dklawson]

At this point you must trace the wiring back to see where another fuse may be in the system. The radio probably has its own fuse and the circuit you tapped into probably has a fuse in the Mini's fuse box also. A multimeter can be very helpful at this point.

The problem is that the combined power draw of the lighter and the stereo obviously exceeded at least one if not multiple fuses. Were this me, I see many situations where I would want the lighter socket unswitched. That is to say, live even when the key is not in the ignition switch. Therefore, I would put a fuse in the hot (live) wire of the lighter and connect it to one of the brown wires. This may require pulling a new wire through the bulkhead directly to the starter solenoid.