Ford: Ford Windstar (96) and Ford Escort (99) lighther/cigar not working for charging

Well, seems my Windstar and my son's Escort have the same problem -
the lighter.

My Windstar lighter went belly up on me on Saturday. All fuses have
been checked and are good. I use a plug in CD player which won't work
now because the lighter does not work, in all three places: Dashboard,
floor lighter between driver and passanger seats, and bench lighter.

Any ideas?

As a side note, I had the car in for new tires just Saturday. I
returned to find the lighter (and by default, the CD player
(discovering this a few hours later) was not working. The lighter/CD
player had been working up to that point. I can't imagine that
anything was done that could have affected that. The second note I
make is that I also had to relatch my car hood as it had been opened
and not completely closed, an oddity, considering there's no need to
open the hood to change tires. I'm just noting all the strangeness,
possibly to keep you amused.

As for my son's car, it's a 'new' used 99 Escort with all fuses in
place but no working ligther for CD player.

Again, any ideas?

NOTE: The lighter will work to light a cigarette, if I were a smoking
person. Just doesn't light my CD player (or cell phone charger) any
longer.

Thanks,

pas

On my 1985 Escort the lighter fuse is not in the fuse panel. It's in
a separate fuseholder next to it. I have no idea why, but it was very
confusing when I went looking for it. Are you sure you checked the
right fuse?