This evening i was checking the air pressure of the tires and i removed the lighter and inserted the tire pressure monitor, at first it was not working and then it started to work, so inorder to see whether its working or not i inserted the lighter and it came out with the tip red , thats fine and i did it again and this time the lighter tip was red with a burnt smell and there was a layer of plastic burning inside. I removed the burnt plastic and after it cooled down i tried the lighter again and it worked fine

Do i need to be concerned. Since i dont use the lighter , can i keep it away from the car , what do you guys do ?

 

concerned about what?? i keep mine in the car since i dont like to stare at an empty hole

 

The 03/04 is different than an 05, the 05 has no visible 12v sockets (with cig tray closed and arm rest down).

You can leave it off, I left mine out because I use to have the radar detector hooked in through there and never put it back when I went to a hard wire set-up.

 

steal a blank cover for it off of a rental car or I bet you could even ask a rental car company to give you a cover for the hole for free. they use them all the time because their vehicles are non-smoking. I would either keep the lighter in it or cover the whole, or even disconnect the power to the outlet because you don't want random stuff falling in there.

 

Sounds like you left a piece of plastic in there somehow from inserting the pressure monitor.
Look inside and make sure there's nothing left in there and you should be fine.
C.