I can't believe I'm posting this... How do you work the cigarette lighter in a 1985 Mondial Qv cab? I'm not a smoker but last night I was looking at it and it doesn't look like any cigarette lighter I've seen before. The element is INSIDE down in the bottom?!! I pulled up on the ring to see if it could pop out of the console and the next thing I smell smoke! I'm thinking I shorted some wiring by tugging on the lighter base so I jump out and kill the battery switch. I look down inside the lighter and there's an element down there. Who invented this thing? Looks to me like you stand the cigarette up in the "basket" and let it contact the element in the bottom. How do you turn it on and off? And is there supposed to be a cap or something? I apologize for wasting valuable bandwidth with this question, but... can someone enlighten me?
you are right. the design in stupid, almost as stupid as smoking! I had an '83 Mondial. I changed the lighter out for a standard design so I would have a power point. Took a little shimming and an adaper made from an o-ring but worked fine. good luck. rick 308GTB #28133
I took a quick look at the parts book to see if it had anything to tell. Seems that it lists the "element down inside with the basket" type lighter with the note "...to exhaustion". It then supercedes to another number with the note "... from exhaustion". The new number is for the typical generic "removable knob with element" type lighter we all know. Seems even Ferrari changed their minds on this piece of engineering marvel. But back to my dumb question - How do you work it and is there a cap? (the parts book doesn't show one). I just don't want to accidentally activate the element with one of my kids Lego's down inside. I'd like to know how to turn it off in such an emergency! (besides running in a panic to shut off the battery switch like I did).
Weird. My 308 has a regular type lighter, I wonder if the previous owner had changed it out. Since you don't smoke, I'd just go to the fuse box and pull out the fuse to it. Kids, Legos and that particular lighter does sound like a recipe for disaster. Sounds like you can't use it for any 12V accessories anyway.
Just drop your cigarette in and push down on the ring. When it goes Ding, you have a lit cigarette. Nothing else to grab, try and get back into the hole, no worry about dropping a burning hot item on your carpets, etc. Without getting into a discussion of the pros and cons of smoking, that lighter design is much smarter than the current ones. When I bought my first decent car in 1969, it was an Alfa 1750 GTV. With that lighter I could light my cigarette without having a hot lighter element waving in front of my face at 90+MPH. But, you have a point on the power outlet. I mounted a 'standard' lighter socket under my dash to power phone charger or my Garmin on longer trips. Gerrit
Gerritv is right. My friend had the same questions on his '88 Mondial, because we were trying to figure out how to plug-in his radar detector. It's just for lighting a cigarette. You can remove the cigarette frame and use it to light a cigar too. But be careful. It gets very hot, very quickly. And whatever you do, DON'T STICK YOUR FINGER IN THERE! ..ask me how I know!
Yeah, Lego and lighter is not the kind of "aromatherapy" I'd like in my Mondial. I much prefer the smell of that fine new Connolly leather. Ahhhhh.... Thanks for the condensed "operators manual". Now I have that burning question (pardon the pun) on whether to keep the lighter in-place as an original item or to change it out for a more practical conventional style. At least I could have a 12V power socket as a result. But is it worth the hassle of a retrofit (take apart console, buy new lighter socket, adapt wiring...etc.)? Charge my cell maybe? I dunno. Who would take off in a Mondial without a fully charged cell phone anyway? Decisions, decisions... Maybe I'll revisit that question if I ever have the need to take the console apart for a later project or repair. Thanks for the input.
Daviddriver- Too funny! I found out about that removable cigarette basket thing when I originally thought it was part of a broken lighter element. You make a good point. ...Which begs the riddle: Who lights up first in a Mondial - the cigar or the cigarette smoker? You apparently learned the answer to that one! Did the end of your finger get a nice "brand" mark? Usually riders brand their horses - not the other way around!
Yeah, it's still a little rough on the tip. It happened back in March or April. My friend doesn't smoke. But he says, "Every time someone pushes down on that damned ring, I can smell a little bit of YOU!". I guess I'm just a stinky guy!
I took a different tack for the power point. The 308s have a socket (under the dash to the left of the steering column) for the emergency light that was in the original kit with the car. I got an extra light on eBay (~$35-50), took off the plug and put it on a regular cigarette 1 to 2 adaptor from Radio Shack. Now everything is still original, I didn't have to screw around with the console and I have two cigarette lighter type sockets so the radar detector and cell phone charger can both be on. Regards, Kerry
I swapped out the trouble light socket for a standard one...because I didn't see this thread first: http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42105&highlight=308+lighter+plug admittedly, the thread, and fchat as you know it, didn't exist at the time
