Tony Green

My 1980 euro keeps melting the relay for the hazard/blinker im on my 3rd one .It wont blow a fuse. Only the right side blinker when activated for more than 15 sec.
you can feel the relay getting hot fast. left side is very dim. right side works fine. i suspecting the blinker switch. i need to figer out a way to test the switch before i buy a part i dont need..any help would be wonderful

wpgshark

If it's not blowing the fuse then you may have a bad contact. Small electrical current area with even minimal amperage can result in excess heat.

Clean all of the contacts in the relay socket, treat the relay and the socket with some deoxit and see if it improves.

Have some one turn on the blinker while you have your hand on the relay, it might give you an idea of where the heat starts.

Tony Green

yes it heats up on the uper left side of the relay...you can fell the plastic getting soft there first

wpgshark

Problem is likely in the socket clean and deoxit the socket terminals as well as the terminals on the new relay.

You can also insert a small flat screwdriver, about the same size as the terminals on the relay, into each socket terminal, if they feel loose you may have to tighten some or all of them up. Loseness can cause the same lack of contact area as corrosion.

dr bob

Tony--

Probelms like this require a pretty careful and systematic approach to troubleshooting. Current flow big enough to melt a relay is way more than enough to melt wire insulation. I recommend that you use a multimeter for continuity checks to ground on the various connections and harness sections, with each section under test isolated. Check for continuity through each conductore and continuity to chassis ground. It's tedious work but the only non-destructive way to isolate your wiring fault.

The factory wiring diagrams are an absolute must for this kind of work. Get the set on CD from Roger at 928srus (ROG100 here on Rennlist) and study them. Patience and diligence on this will be your salvation.


Peering at the 1980 wiring diagram for the hazard and turn signal flasher, (Group 97, sheets IV and V) tells me that the individual lamps are fused only after the flasher itself and all the wiring through the turn signal and hazard switches. FYI: fuse 30 is LF, 31 LR, 32 is RF, 33 is RR. All 8 amp fuses, BTW. Pull all of those before you get too far along, and use your Ohm meter to verify that there are only bulbs between the load-side of each fuse and chassis ground.

Disconnect the battery ground strap before proceeding.

If there is a reading less than 1 Ohm in any of them, start working out from the CE panel towards the bulb socket to find where there's a short to ground in the wiring. But if the fault was in a bulb circuit, it should have blown the fuse.

All of the connections for the turn signal and hazard switches meet the CE panel in connector E. Release the connector latch mechanism amd pull connector E from the bottom of the CE panel. In the connector you removed, test pins E4, E5 an E6 to chassis ground wih your Ohm meter. They should all be infinite (no connection) or pretty high numbers (indicator bulb in the cluster). If they go way low, especially with the turn signal switch not centered, then you get to do more sleuthing with the meter. Test and report back what you find.


Maybe before you dig in... Are you sure you have the correct flasher unit plugged in?

James Bailey

be sure you are using the fuse chart for a Euro and the correct year....sometimes the model year is off by a year....Cars built in November 1980 for example are 1981 models but when imported often were titled as 1980...can be confusing.