A4 Avant rear 12v socket fuse

[Tanuki]

Since buying the car I've never plugged anything into the 12v socket in the boot section. Anyway, I havr a few devices like chargers and coolers that would plug into it, so I decided to give them a go. Turns out that nothing works.
I checked the 30amp fuse and it was blown.

I replace it with a spare, and CRACK , blue spark and that one is fused immediately. Tried one more and got the same. Short is somewhere but where do I start looking?

Nothing was plugged into the socket by the way.

[JohnnyBee]

I'm not all that clued up on A4's Tanuki, so I'll have to assume that in the absence of any indication to the contrary, the fuse for the rear auxiliary plug is in the usual place at the side of the dash endcap.
This makes it very awkward to trace the short, as it could be anywhere between the fuseboard and the rear plug socket.
Not only that, it's also wrapped up in the main section of the rear wiring loom, which would involve a big strip-out of seats, carpets and all the other junk that they put in the way, just to get anywhere near it.
The first thing I'd do is to check the socket itself; it could be a simple displaced connector inside the socket or a wire that's pulled out of the lucar - sillier things have happened!
If it does seem, after checking that, that the fault is in the wiring harness, and you still feel the need to use the rear socket, then the sensible thing to do is to run a 'jury rig' from a constant live on the fuseboard, inline fuse it at the front and run it back underneath the sill covers and into the load bay under the wheel arch finisher covers.
It's a ball-ache to do, but the only way it can be done without an interior strip and rebuild.
JB.

[Sky]

If you have young children check for tinfoil sweety wrapper fragmants hovering at the bottom with a thin stick, been had with that one on a Renault. Also lost the end of a phone charger which also shorted the socket out, but it looked like it should be there from the inside out, felt like a complete **** when I eventually twigged. Doh.

[RickT]

what i would do in this issue... is remove the rear 12v socket,,, check for power on the wire its self...

if power is there... its a faulty 12v socket...

then you have 2 options to confirm this...

1- quickly remove the socket from the front of the car and just connect into the rear and test... then you have a outcome..

2 - just buy a new one and hope it fixes the issue..

RicKT

[Tanuki]

Thanks guys. Just have to work out how to remove the socket. Thankfully I have a workshop manual so I'll look that over.