[Anonymous]

Anonymous on 11th April 2016 at 2:42 pm

I need some technical advice please as I have now encountered electrical connection problems with an a.m. Waeco cooler box and my Jeep Wrangler.

After one year without any problems the power outlets of the Jeep (each max 160 Watt and 13 Amp) have now deformed due to overheating 3 plugs of the cooler box and burned the plug fuses.

The fuses in the car are all okay. The 2 power outlets in question are also connected directly to the car’s battery (not via the ignition). The last 12 V plug was gone after 30 minutes and the box stopped working. The box has a power rating of 47 Watt and as said before worked in this car more than a year without any problem.

Does anybody have any idea what is going wrong here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on 14th May 2016 at 10:29 am

If you are using cigarette lighter type plugs, you might have problem of connections not being as clean as they should be and if the loading is moderate and doesnt have good connection it could heat the connection and melt off terminals on back of socket.
Secondly if you connect your cooler box directly to battery (outside vehicle) use an amp meter (usually an option on multimeter with amp rating not milliamps) If your cooler box works as it should you should see a maximum of about 5-7 amps reading, if so then its fine, It can only can be a bad connection in socket as the spring connections could get weaker.
Lastly remove socket and check that nothing has melted on the back as to where are made, if there is no power on the back of the socket you need to check fuses as sometimes they have hairline cracks and thus dont work. Lastly if these solutions draw a blank. Trace wring behind panels you might have another plug somewhere behind a panel that might be the culprit. Good Luck