I'm unable to use the cigarette lighter. After plugging in my portable phone a
number of times I can no longer open it.

I push it but it seems to be stuck. I tried with a little clip to see if there
is a little switch that I could access to no avail.

It looks like this will be a dealer visit. They will probably have to take off
the entire console to fix this.

Would appreciate any bright ideas!

Steve

99.5 1.8qtms APR'd 19000 miles

Me too. Three weeks old, stuck locked week one! The dealer has it for unrelated warranty work (minor) on Tuesday, and said they'd have to pull the entire center console. Suggestion: if you don't need the lighter, put it away somewhere; sounds like we've got a design defect!

Jack

Seems to me that a few months ago, when I discovered this site, there was a discussion on this that mentioned a less than "remove the entire console" solution. The reported cause of this problem was complete insertion (settle down, Beavis) of the lighter followed by immediate closure of the cover. The lighter heats up (common result of complete insertion), pops out, and binds the closed cover. I could have this all wrong, but I, too, am too lazy to check the archives.

Guilty as charged....
RPF

Use your drivers license or something firm but flimsy enough so it won't break. A business card is too soft, and a credit card is too hard and will break, so use something in between.

How? As far as you can, stick the corner tip of your license into the rear slot (the direction to where the cigarette lighter got stuck) and "press" up. If you do it right, you will press the cigarrette lighter back in and cause it to pop back up.

This has happened to me twice now, and the first time the dealer told me they would have to remove the center console to get it fixed. No, I've fixed it twice using my drivers license!

This happened on my 99.5 A4 as well -- when I took it in for my 5k service last week (another sad story), they told me that there is a problem with the outer ring of the lighter. If you push the lighter portion back in from the top, and not the side rings, and try to close the cover, it will get stuck again. You just have to be careful when replacing the actual lighter portion -- I use my jack for a cell phone too and tend to just leave the lighter in the glove box.