The most annoying thing about the car charger for my cell phone is that the wire is just a little too short and the junction between the piece that fits into the phone and the rest of the wire always gets stressed at an acute angle. So it started working less and less well, and finally stopped charging altogether. I figured the wire must have broken inside the plastic piece. I am not normally a fixit type gal, but we had been given some Sugru and I thought I had an idea of how to use it to fix the charger.

Step 1: Cut Open Charger Wire

Used a single-edge razor blade to cut the thing open and find the broken wires.

Step 2: Peel Back Wires and Splice Together Again

I made sure they were a bit separated from eachother so they wouldn't touch and short out. I was lucky that there was just enough wire peeking out of the broken plastic end to do this.

I know, I know, this is SO basic- but if you've always thrown stuff out when it broke, the first time you fix something it's a thrill :-)

Step 3: Add Sugru!

This stuff is great. It's rubber that hardens over night after you shape it the way you want it. Comes in little foil packets and in different colors. I chose black for obvious aesthetic reasons. Just squooshed it around the bare wires, making sure again that they don't touch, and smoothed it out into what I thought might be a stronger shape to take the abuse in the car with the short wire. I know, I should have spliced in MORE wire, but heck I did not think of it at the time. The results were great, though. The car charger is going strong, with no signs of deterioration now that the end is fixed with Sugru.