Headlight relay issues
08-24-2016, 02:02 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Headlight relay issues
Finally tracked down an intermittent problem with the headlights that started a few years ago.
First time happened while leaving a 928 gathering in St. Charles at night...lights popped up but did not turn on. By the time I opened the hood, they came back to life and were fine for a year. Since then it happened two more times but I could never troubleshoot as they'd come back on within 10 to 20 seconds yet I knew the day was coming when they'd screw me over. That was tonight and fortunately it happened in my driveway.
Bad relay. Opened it up and the points were perfect. Applied voltage to each coil and it turns out the rear coil windings are open.
For now I removed the faulty coil, soldered in wires and ran them outside the housing to an external 40 amp relay. Odd looking setup but the headlights work beautifully now.
I want to pick up a new relay. Mine is the metal 928-618-107-00. I see that it's been superseded at least twice and the latest is the 005 black plastic version. These are by Wittrin, plentiful and dirt cheap at $70.00. I also hear they are complete junk and often DOA.
Anyone know if the plastic versions have been improved or would I be better off buying a used original metal relay?
First time happened while leaving a 928 gathering in St. Charles at night...lights popped up but did not turn on. By the time I opened the hood, they came back to life and were fine for a year. Since then it happened two more times but I could never troubleshoot as they'd come back on within 10 to 20 seconds yet I knew the day was coming when they'd screw me over. That was tonight and fortunately it happened in my driveway.
Bad relay. Opened it up and the points were perfect. Applied voltage to each coil and it turns out the rear coil windings are open.
For now I removed the faulty coil, soldered in wires and ran them outside the housing to an external 40 amp relay. Odd looking setup but the headlights work beautifully now.
I want to pick up a new relay. Mine is the metal 928-618-107-00. I see that it's been superseded at least twice and the latest is the 005 black plastic version. These are by Wittrin, plentiful and dirt cheap at $70.00. I also hear they are complete junk and often DOA.
Anyone know if the plastic versions have been improved or would I be better off buying a used original metal relay?
08-24-2016, 02:15 AM
#2
Rennlist Member
Used is generally the best bet unfortunately. I wish Porsche actually made a decent replacement for the headlights.
They might soon though considering their interest in Porsche Classic's price gouging with replacement parts.
They might soon though considering their interest in Porsche Classic's price gouging with replacement parts.
08-24-2016, 02:29 PM
#3
I had only minor issues with my 30 year old headlight relay. The PRNDL selection led would occasionally completely dim instead of partially dim when the headlights were on. I decided to preemptively replace the old relay with the 05. Only issue I had with the first replacement was that I ansentmindedly failed to disconnect battery when I plugged the relay in during a test. That caused a partial failure. I purchased another replacement and no issues. The 30 year old original is in the glove box just in case.
In other words, I understand wittrin had gotten past a few reliability issues.
In other words, I understand wittrin had gotten past a few reliability issues.