Surge protection

[Waxenwane]

Hi all,
Recently I bought and fitted an 8" touch screen monitor into the Rangie, it runs on a laptop with GPS receiver. Great the system works fantastically. Problems with the monitor showed up on a trip over the Chrissy break, anyway to cut a long story short. After returning the monitor for warranty repair/replace, which has resulted in it being replaced. The company told me that the problem was probably caused by a voltage spike. And I should make sure that the power supply is 12 volts dc. Then preferably use the original vehicle socket as it is surge protected.
My query about all this is;
There is no mention of this in the manual.
Shouldn't surge protection be in the cigarette plug of the monitor?
Old cars like mine only have a fuse for protection.
What cars have surge protection in the lighter circuit?
Needless to say, I don't want this to happen again so I have been looking at Surge protectors from Redarc.
I think that the line from the supplier is crap and its purpose is to shift the blame. But I may be wrong, I have been running another monitor, camera, Ipod, all sorts of items without problems in the past.
Anybody been down this road before? Or have any useful input?

[slug_burner]

If there is any surge protection it will be in the monitor's plug. No one would rely on surge protection in a vehicle cigarette lighter outlet.

see if you can find something like this

http://support.radioshack.com/support_auto/doc71/71514.pdf

[Waxenwane]

I was thinking along the lines of this
http://www.redarc.com.au/images/vs2.jpg
SURGE PROTECTOR
Prevent inductive surges from damaging sensitive electronic equipment such as
Computer controlled engine management systems and electronic ignitions
Transceivers and other electronic items in motor vehicles and boats
Available in both 12 volt (VP12) and 24 volt (VP24)
Clips spikes where connected
From Redarc and installing inline on the power feed from 2nd battery

[incisor]

common problem i believe...

everytime you start the car or shut it down or switch a device there is a spike on the lines directly connected to the item being switched eg starter motor, wiper motor etc, mostly very small, sometimes major.

auto on car computers (i dont mean engine management computers etc) normally employ a delay timer that will turn the computer on once the engine has been started and running for a few seconds

if you power your device directly on it's own circuit from a second battery then it shouldnt get anywhere near the spikes you get in normal use.

i always use a delay timer these days as i found i was having too many problems with out it.

i usually now use a m2-atx power supply from mini-box.com where i can as it can be jumpered to suit most setups.

they also do the jumpered delay timer on it's own i believe.