Cigarette Lighter/Ashtray removal?

[Roger L in SF]

Hello all, looking for a little help.
After smoking two cell phone cig adapters in day, I decided to pull out my multimeter to see what's going on with my cigarette lighter. The Fluke shows 12v @ the outside ring & ground in the center. Obviously the wiring is backwards.
The cigarette lighter works fine because it's just a coil.
Anyone have any tricks/insight on removing the cigarette lighter so I can fix the wiring behind it? Or does the whole center console has to come out?
The car is my 93 M5...maybe that piece was wired together by hand?
Thanks in advance!
-Roger

[Jeff N.]

Hi Roger, if I recall correctly, it's wired something like this:

- the ashtray itself is a piece that fits into a plastic unit
- this plastic unit slides in/out via a guide thats bolted into the console
- the plastic unit house the wiring, flip up holder, etc for the cig lighter

To get to wiring, I think you'll need to remove the ashtray then figure out how to release the plastic slider unit. I can't recall if it has clips on the side or not. Be careful not to push/pull too hard lest you fubar the guide in the console. The bolts that hold it to the console can tear out causing the guide to flop a bit. When this happens the slider unit get's jammed.

See if this helps. If not, maybe I can post an ETK picture later.

Jeff



Hello all, looking for a little help.
After smoking two cell phone cig adapters in day, I decided to pull out my multimeter to see what's going on with my cigarette lighter. The Fluke shows 12v @ the outside ring & ground in the center. Obviously the wiring is backwards.
The cigarette lighter works fine because it's just a coil.
Anyone have any tricks/insight on removing the cigarette lighter so I can fix the wiring behind it? Or does the whole center console has to come out?
The car is my 93 M5...maybe that piece was wired together by hand?
Thanks in advance!
-Roger