Today I decided to clean out my car. When I was cleaning the little ashtray in the console, I noticed that a few screws had fallen down into my cigarette lighter (I pulled some 10mm screws from the junkyard and stashed them in there). I couldn't fit my finger down in the cigarette light enough to grab hold of the screws so I went and got a pair of tweezers out of the house to grab them (big mistake).

I got them out, but while I was trying to remove them, a few sparks flew out of the cig. lighter. Thankfully I didn't shock myself or anything, but after checking to see if everything was ok I noticed that neither my interior lights or CD player were working (no power whatsoever). Also, I checked the headlights by flipping the switch once or twice and I started to smell something burning like plastic, then smoke started coming out of the switch itself!!

I know that was a bonehead move of me to do something like this, but I'd appreciate it if anyone could give me a clue on how to fix what I've done. I disconnected the battery for 10 minutes and checked all the fuses (seemed to be alright). What else could be wrong?

 

The horn is no longer working, either.

 

Should be one of the accessory fuses in the interior fuse panel.

I know you said you checked them, but hey you're the guy who stashes metal objects in an electrical connector and uses metal tools to fetch them... Go check 'em again, carefully.

 

Well, I didn't "stash" them inside the cigarette lighter, per se. I just used the little area surrounding it and they fell in when one of my friends needed to use the lighter.

But I'll go check them again tomorrow just to be sure. Thanks for the help.

 

Look for the blown fuse again. Radio, courtesy light, horn and lighter all use the same fuse.

 

Turns out I did just miss a broken fuse. Lights, horn and radio are all working now.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

Your car has homotrons. Gay electrons that go around blowing fuses.