adrian_jaye

ok,

MOT test time, and came across my old enemy, the dodgy hazoord flasher.

The symptoms is that when hazzords are on, only one side lights up, both the alarm and indicators both sides work fine.

now, did some playing around and testing with Makis's car.

stripped out where the switch itself is and thats seems ok. The relay is weird, when I put my original relay in Makis's car it works. his relay worked initially in mine with no problem. My relay does look different and looks a cheaper generic one.

However, we then found out that both now his relay and my orginal one is a bit flaky (BUT ONLY ON MY CAR), you can get it to work by pressing down or wiggling either relay.

the plug has been sprayed with wd, but I think the contacts are actually a bit loose. we ran some solder over the relay leads to give it a bit more width and that seemed to help.

however on driving home, it stopped working, bumped bonnet, pressed relay and bosh all working.

now.... heres the tricky bit

1> the plate (where all the relays fit) from PET prices look about £500 !

2> I'm going to take out the plate to see if I can tighten up the contacts.

3> I also noticed that the DME relay contacts appear to have the same "looseness", so I'm thinking if my past problems are down to this bloody plate !

4> are the contacts on the plate or on a plug underneath ? can I tighten up the connectors ???

%> I might try and jerry rig something just for the MOT, but a long term solution is obviously needed,

help !

Ade

adrian_jaye

(bump)

???

IceShark

I've never pulled that relay/fuse assembly apart but I am pretty sure all the individual relay bases can be unlocked and removed. Then you can stick a pin puller tool or thin metal strip in the side of the terminals and release them from the base. Now you have the terminals exposed and you can either replace them or bend a little tighter. Be careful bending them as it is easy yo go overboard and make the terminal useless.

Only problem with this approach is you have a rat's nest of wires going to the bottom of the board and they are stiff as hell making it difficult to move the board around to get enough space to work in. It helps to heat the wire harnesses up with a heat gun or hair drier to get the insulation a bit softer.

Given all that work I'd go out and buy a new flasher and some thin copper sheet. Cut copper strips and solder them onto the legs. You have to solder quick, fast and careful and then cool off with an ice cube or wet rag. Otherwise the heat soak may damage some of the components.

Oh, and make sure you get an electronic flasher relay, not a thermal one.

Chris_924s

Try a stiff brush type contact cleaner (looks like a bottle brush, but designed to clean off electrical contacts) about 6 bucks. use a TV tuner type contact cleraner for stubborn areas - let dry completely as this stuff may be flammable.

This should cure oxidation woes on the mating contact surfaces. It's a choice bit of labor but well worth it- your interior lights will be brighter as well. As long as we are talking contact cleaning, it's a good time to clean and remount the ground bundles (I do this every year at the onset of fall- cheap insurance for driving in colder and wetter weather) cold plus moisture will add resistance to less than perfect grounds.

adrian_jaye

hi Chris/Iceshark,

cheers for the reply, well lets start from "It goes from bad to worse"

I pulled the board out as far as I could. saw said rat's nest but didnt relate to the relays at all. however the plate looked like it could be split. so I tried that instead mistake number 1
it looked fairly difficult, so I continued mistake number 2, removed all fuses and relays carried on mistake number 3.

spoke to a mate of mine, who said the board is like a maze, so clipped it all back together, albeit VERY dificulty ! now so far this is what has happened.

1) the hazzords work fine
2) the indicators on the RHS dont work, LHS do.
3) alarm does all the indicators
4) also now the blower switch and recyly swicth dont work although the rotary blower swicth does.

looks like I'm going to have to source a second hand fuse board. my mate said he'll fit it for me

soo a weee bit peeed off.

will have another look later after some lunch !

cheers

Ade

Rich Sandor

Hazard

One Z, no O's.



(sorry, I'm a spelling ****.)

adrian_jaye

cheers rich, me spelinks is nottt bad, IIIIs just types faaasts

adrian_jaye

ice/chris,

story so far

1> its not a good idea to try and prise apart the fuse panel !
2> blower switch/recyler switch, not working
3> rotary switch for heater is !
4> hazzords now bloody well work !
5> alarm does only flash on one side RHS
6> LHS indicators dont work

I've double checked the board and connectors all seems ok

however, now, if you press really hard down on the relay, then the indicator LHS works !

so I'm going to try and jerry rig something to get me through the MOT, maybe some spade conectors or something to get deep into the contacts out to the relay ?

I'll take the car out tommorow to make sure everything else works,

so I think I'll need to source a second hand or cheap new fuse panel. Think I have a problem with this anyway (other electrical gremlins I've had), poss get a new relay and switch as well as a standby

cheers all

a very unhappy ade
much all your help is MUCH MUCH appreciated

adrian_jaye

update:
I made some spade fly leads and attached them to the board and to the relay, even with wiggling it made no difference.

Fitting the Relay back into the board and pressing, makes it work, release pressure and it stops.
THEN: I pressed the 4 or 5 fuses next to the hazard flasher, guess what ! it works

problem is now as I had split the fuse panel, I've probably compunded the problem. This is possibly also what is stopping the window booster switch from working as well. Its a bit of a maze and I should not have tried to open it up !

Tomorrow, I'm going to have another look at squeezing/checking the fuse panel and the connectors.

if I'm still stuck I'll try and jerry rig a piece of wood, to press down on the fuse's when the lid is down, to get through the MOT.

I'm prob. going to need to change out this bloody panel, so will make some calls tomorrow.
My concern is to get her running for the MOT

laters

Ade