Bizarre electrical fault!

Hi all.

I thought I would share a recent fault on my Freelander 2 and see if there is anyone else who has had this occur.

A couple of days ago I pulled out of a junction for the Landy to completely cut out setting all the lights and hazards on, I coasted to a stop to find the dash had HDC fault detected. On looking into this the hill decent control if faulty cut the car out. We tried to get it going but no luck. Today I returned to the Landy with the AA who started to look for the fault, no faults on the diagnostic, volts to battery all good, earth good. We then went through the relays which were all fine too. Then the AA guy checked each fuse to find a 15 amp fuse to the cigarette lighter had blown, we replaced it and she fired up first time!!

Both completely surprised and baffled, how can a cigarette lighter fuse cause the car to cut out like that! Is there anyone else out there who may be able to shed some light to this before I get it booked in for an electrical check ?

Thanks in advance

Which power socket was it? There are 2, one in front of the parking brake, and one behind.

I'd have thought which fuse number was the relevant info.

May have been reading the wrong fuse diagram.

15amp sounds a bit high for a cigarette lighter/aux socket. I'd have thought 10amp more appropriate.

Mind you, I've just Googled it and it does sound like 15amp is used.

I've taken a cursory glance at the wiring diagram. The fuses that supply power to the 3 power sockets, don't seem to power anything else.
All I can think that has occurred, is there's a bad connection to the harness to the CJB, which can get knocked and cause odd faults. I would think that this is what has happened, and the action of replacing an irrelevant fuse, caused enough disturbance to jiggle the wires, making everything work again.