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What holds the cigarette lighter socket in place?

Posted: Jul 27, 2024 9:00 AM
by HayekFan
I just bought a nice center console with an unbroken cigarette lighter opening and am wondering...what's supposed to hold the metal socket/receptacle in place? As far as I can tell, it's just a light friction fit rather than snapping or twisting positively into place. The fit is loose enough that the socket almost wants to come out along with the lighter when I pull the lighter out. Is this how it's supposed to work?

Re: What holds the cigarette lighter socket in place?

Posted: Aug 08, 2024 10:40 AM
by Shawn D.
The metal sleeve is friction by some bent tabs. The plastic piece it fits into is glued into the console piece.

Re: What holds the cigarette lighter socket in place?

Posted: Aug 08, 2024 7:21 PM
by HayekFan
IMO the bent metal tabs create friction for the lighter in the sleeve, not for the sleeve in the plastic piece.

What holds the sleeve are a couple of nubs molded into the plastic piece that catch on a pair of small rectangular cutouts in the sleeve. You insert the sleeve and rotate it until they catch and then it won't pull out.

I didn't realize the nubs were there until I happened to noticed them in an E30 cigarette lighter mount, which I mentioned in this thread:

https://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=161844

Then I checked my new E28 center console and sure enough it has them too. The thing is, they're tiny and on top of that they're worn down and sort of rounded off to the point where they barely want to catch. However, the other day I slightly flared out the edges of the rectangular cutouts in the sleeve and now they catch more securely.

But I'm so happy with the E30 mount in my existing console that I may just resell this unbroken console.