Melted lights relay in 80 series
Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004 at 12:05
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Justin
About 18mnths ago I drove into a town at night and dimmed my lights and blew the relay for the headlights in the fuse box under the bonnet. I replaced that and 2wks ago I was driving along the barkley, stopped, turned the spotlights down (3 night stalkers), kept the hand-held light force going then went to turn the night stalkers back on and the lights went out - posssibly as I was firing up 3 spotties with 1 already on? So I turned all the lights off and then back on and all OK. Then we arrived in one of the towns, dimmed my lights and blew, actually melted the relay so no lights (except parkers). I had to night drive and couldn't get hold of a relay so I hard wired the terminals where the relay was. One connection with 4mm wire and the other where the melting occured with 4mm wire and a 15amp fuse. After 4hrs the lights were out again and the fuse holder was melted. What is happening??????
Reply By: Utemad - Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004 at 12:13
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004 at 12:13
Perhaps you have an intermittent dead short somewhere?
I would have thought the fuse would blow before stuff melted. Is the fuse of the correct rating?
In my Rodeo I have had the 20amp fuse for my heater fan melt before it blew. Happened a few times. Has 'loosened' the insulation on the wire but nothing serious. This was due to an obstruction in the fan blades so it was drawing more current. This increased as the obstruction got worse (leaves) before it finally blew the fuse. Happens when I park it outside for extended periods.
Could have been arcing contacts in the relay but if you removed that possiblity and something else melted it probably wasn't.
So melting before blowing is possible.
Utemad
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Foss - Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004 at 19:51
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004 at 19:51
when you say 4mm what do you mean, 4mm across the wire or 4mm squared. if you mean 4mm squared it's to small by a long way for the current you are running through it.
relays shouldn't melt, melting indicates a real problem. you should probably be using a 40amp relay(Hella or Narva, whichever you like the look of) . Your spotties are running 100wat globes(probably), maybe a couple of relays, like(teeenage vanacular), one for each light in the worst case. one bad joint will up your power consumption by lots(technical term). So, solder and heat shrink all your connections. sounds like a lot of work but it's lots better for the volts & amps mate.
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72075