srhplover

I have just taken delivery of my HTC battery charger. It cost £9.09, came from Amazon and I assume it is genuine.

It works perfectly in my Nissan X-trail. However it does not work in my wife's Renault Clio (2003/4 reg).

Is there any form of adaptor I can get or do I just have to go down the route of trying the numerous chargers out there (a significant number of which are not to European safety standard, apparently) until I find one that works.

Or is anyone out there happily charging the Desire in their Clio in which case what are you using? I would prefer to find one such as the HTC where data connection is not enabled hence allowing rapid charging, very important with the sat nav running.

Or do I have to buy a new car?....which seems a tad extreme nevermind how much I like the phone!!

Thanks.

Proudest_Monkey

Buy a new car!

Stucky

You have checked the socket is working?

If it's a standard 12v cigarette lighter type I can't see why the charger shouldn't work.

man00va

Check the fuse of the cigarette lighter, if it is close to the end of its life then it will not work well when a larger demand is put on it, such as charging a device.

srhplover

Thanks for that.
The lighter is indeed working.
It seems that some French manufactured cars of this vintage have different sized sockets to the UK standard; whatever the HTC charger does not charge.
A trip to Halfords to buy a UK spec socket is on the cards methinks, a bit cheaper than a new car!!...Although ? new lighter socket or Porsche 911 GT3?..Hmmmmmmmmm.

Crafty

yeah check the socket is working, could be a blown fuse.

speedycolzalez

Amazingly they do come in different sizes;

Cigarette lighter receptacle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well, you learn something new everyday.

Have you tried easing the connectors out a little on the charger?

Stucky

Another good reason not to buy French cars.

srhplover

Thank you.

After an hour of experimentation I can get the charger to work in the socket when it is in some positions although I doubt the connection would be stable if I was driving. I will try to ease the connectors a tad to see if that helps.

I also noticed that on the ring round the outside of the lighter socket there are some pencil marks. When I line the charger up with those marks I get the connection I mentioned above. It looks like I may not be the first person to have had the problem in the Clio.

wuthton

My charger fits a treat in the car but it just falls out of the socket in my tractor, genuine HTC car charger are on the small side.

DCFC79

i thought the 12 volt sockets and the connectors were of the same size

billy1561

Interestingly i have the same issue with my car (mondeo). Time to upgrade to a genuine charger i think instead of the bargain i got on ebay.

mouldt

I bought a genuine HTC car charger and had the same issue in my renault laguna. Upon further investigation is seems that the charger does not go fully into the socket. Hence you needing to ram it in to get the 'HTC' to light up.

The solution is to get a file and just file away some of the tip of the charging plug. This makes it just that bit narrower so that it can be pushed further into the socket.

Once you do this it should work reliable and not required pushing around to find a 'magic' position.

Tappers

Hi there,

By filing away the tip, do you mean the metal or plastic?
I have the same problem as you with my Megane.....

Thanks
Ben

fletchem

Wasn't there a historical issue with Renaults having reversed polarity in the cigarette lighter socket at some stage. I am not a sparky, but I am also guessing that with DC this does not make a problem.

SiHa

Umm, that would be quite a large problem actually, unless the charger is built with a bridge rectifier in it to cope with accidental polarity reversal.

The plastic, I should think.

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aberj6

I've a 53 plate Clio and just use a charger I got from Amazon for a couple of quid. Works fine