I have a 2006 Civic hybrid. I tried plugging my kid's Nintendo car charger into the 2 sockets but neither seem to work. Any tips on how to test the sockets or fix this problem?

 

Check the fuse first off. Your manual should tell you which fuse goes to the 12v sockets. If it's not a fuse, there may be a bad connection somewhere... or you're 12V battery is out, which I doubt, because you would then be posting about a bigger problem.

 

I believe the ignition has to be on. H

 

It's a sign, surfer: Buy the kid a road map and teach him or her how to navigate.

 

Thanks for the tip! How do I determine if the fuse is good or bad?

 

It's too late. She's addicted to the GPS now.

 

The manual will tell you how to see if the fuse is bad, but i'll explain it so you don't have to search through the whole manual. There is a little piece of metal inside of the fuse. If you take the fuse out of the socket, you can see the metal. If the metal is broken, then the fuse is bad. If the metal is in tact, the fuse is good. Here is a picture:


The image is a little blurry. I didn't have a broken fuse to take a pic of and this image was already uploaded to greenhybrid.com. The one on the left is broken, while the one on the right is new.

Let me know if you have any further questions... and let me know if you fix this problem.

-Colby

PS: another way to check the fuse is to get a fuse tester. You put the two prongs on the tester up to two little holes on the fuse. If the light lights up, then it works. If it doesn't, then the fuse is busted. These usually come with a large variety pack of fuses. I had to buy one of these packs, because I kept blowing fuses while installing my dvd player in my old Ford Explorer Sport.

PPS: If the fuse is the problem, there are spare fuses under the fuse box cover of the fuse box under the hood. There is only one of each rating under there, so I would recommend buying a replacement spare if you use the original spare.

 

Thanks for the fuse details! I was looking at my manual and wanted to verify what I need to do:
http://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/p...606O00233A.pdf

1. Get the fuse puller from the underhood fuse box.
2. Pull #28 and #29 from the interior fuse box.
3. Check for the blown wire and replace with spare if needed

 

Yup! That's exactly what you need to do. Also, I was thinking that it may not be a problem with your car, but rather a problem with the charger. Do you have anything else you could try to plug into the sockets?

 

I don't have anything else I can test with. Are replacement fuses found in places like Target or do I need to go to an auto parts store like Kragen or Napa?