Trouble with cigarette lighter front socket tray help!

[RS6]

Last night i had my TomTom attached in the car as usual got to my destination no problems, and then on my return leg it lost power being the battery is no good on the tomtom it needs power, for some reason the cigarette lighter socket refused to work i tried and tried rotating the power socket everything pulling it in and out reseating it nothing... i managed to make it home using the cars built in sat nav luckly the area was mapped this time but i was not best pleased tbh! plus it was pouring with rain!

Made it home ok put the car on the driveway, before i switched off the engine i closed the cover again and tried it one last time, now its working fine for the tomtom, i then plugged in a snooper device with a power cable and it worked again! thought maybe a fuse had blown but no

Does closing the cover reset the power to the socket on and off?, peering into the socket it looks rusty, how can i clean it up, disconnect the battery? or can i remove the whole tray out, my last attempt it started sparking when i tried to clean up the connections and i was doing it very gingerly meh!