porschelife

Hey guys, so about 8 months ago I replaced my DME relay when my car was having no start issues. It did the trick until yesterday when I let my car sit for about 2 hours after being completely up to temp. Same issue as before again, so I'm just wondering if it's normal to go through these relays like this or it's something else..

konakat

They do seem to be unreliable. The are often easily repairable, though, so if you have a soldering iron you should check out Clark's Garage.

http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/fuel-05.htm

plumbum

Did you replace the relay with a new one?

Adker

Feel the relay when the car is running, if it is hot than you have a device pulling too much current or you have poor (dirty/corroded) relay contacts which is damaging the relay.

william_b_noble

the stock DME relay will actually NEVER fail if you just repair it right once. I've posted the method, others have too - resolder the bad connection and add a short wire so there is no electrical path through the particular solder connection and it will never fail again - I've used the same relay since new in my 85.5, it required this repair once. it is a design error, but not a serious one.

max_boost951

I have had same problem. Thinking that 25 year old electronics should be replaced, I replaced my DME relay with new. 2 months later, cold no start. There's two relays in there and the relay to power the ECM was faulty. I soldered a cracked joint it's been 2 years since any problems.

william_b_noble

ok, let me try again - resoldering will work, but the problem is a design problem and it will crack again. solder a wire to the relay body directly, file a small notch in the circuit board where it doesn't matter, and run that wire to the place where the body of the relay is soldered and then solder the wire to an electrically equivalent place so that when the solder joint fails again, which it will, the wire will take over. This is how you make a permanent fix.