I drove my car all day today. No problem. Shut the car off and went to restart. No starter, just abit of a noise from the fuse panel upon trying a restart. Oh yeah, a little smoke and stink!
Please help.

 

Relay Relay Relay ...

 

hope so- hope so -hope so.
thanks

 

why would it have shorted?

 

Mike the new law in WA state (aka the iron curtain state) is .. u gotta stay 25 feet from that fue panel nd if your car is running you have to be 25 feet away too ....

 

Mike.............relays go South from time to time................no real reason and in your case it sounds like its stuck switched closed. Don't know about the 'Chuck but its -13C here today. Be careful, find it quick, easy to ID it s the real hot one, disconnect the batt and replace the relay.

If you need one desperately let me know, my car isn't going anywhere!!!

 

Thanks fella's. I went back to the car, smelled the relay first as it's dark where the car died. It stunk. Took the cover off the relay and plugged it back in the panel and suffered third degree burns to my fingers.
Yup, that's the ticket! Any other relays temporarily interchangeable?

 

Hi what relay is the hot one???? Stan

 

-XIV-starter relay

 

Ouch, that sucks! Also, what part of the relay got hot? If it was the contacts it could be pointing to a bigger problem...

 

Sharkskin, it seems to be the contacts. They have a silver type of burnt residue -any ideas. Can it be bridged-how?

 

XII, the horn relay interchanges with the starter. A lot of other relays interchange too ... but they mostly prevent the car from running ...

 

If your having a problem with the starter relay, i would jack up the car use jack stands, with the battery disconnected and look under engine where the starter is bolted , look for the wire harness where it is just under the oil pan and the starter solenoid, make shure the wires are not touching any part of the oil pan also make shure the wire harness is not in any way touching the roll bar as this bar moves when the car is driven,also check for tightness at the solenoid connectors and check the starter bolts for tightness and check the ground strap on the passenger side of the engine to the frame( near the right side exhaust manifold), and lastly clean both of the battery contacts and the ground strap in the rear hatch area, also check all of the relays on your board for corosion, most likly is water dripping down from the blower box you can see the bottom of the blower box by closing the wood panel that covers the fuse panel and look up you will see a plastic grate this is the fresh air flapwater will leak around the edge of the plastic grating to fix you must remove the blower assy from the top and get some 3M strip caulk and apply it to the sealing area and reinstall, Stan

 

Michael .... so ... there's little smoke coming from under that wood false floor that they didn't check last time you went through US customs eh .... curiousssss .....

 

Good advice there from Mr Merlin...