'75 280Z Headlight Relay Upgrade

[tamo3]

Tamo, It's yours if you want it. I'll send it to you if you would like.

 

I'm not going to use it now that I've got my headlight relays mounted using a different scheme.

 

Thanks Captain for your kindness of your offer. I really appreciate it!

Currently, I will stick with my box. I'm pretty sure other audience might want it from you :-)

 

I just order Open Barrel Terminal Female socket on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140962830904?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[EuroDat]

Actually two fuses would be enough for safety reasons. I was thinking one group of Fuse + two relays for the left side and Fuse + two relays for the right side.

Of course if you don't use it at or very rarely then one fuse would be enough.

 

I don't drive at night much at all, but some countries in Europe are demanding lights during the daytime. Won't be long before The Netherlands joins the band wagon. Then it will be an issue for me.

Chas

[tamo3]

Ok, revised :-)

[Captain Obvious]

Tamo, Glad to help. And on a related note, I was at a junkyard today and snapped some pics of the Corolla relay box in it's natural environment:

 

 

 

The one I saw today was a 98 Corolla but I'm sure the used the same box on all years of that generation:

 

[Captain Obvious]

I just order Open Barrel Terminal Female socket on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140962830904?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

Tamo, I'm not sure how the terminals are retained into the box you have, but most of the ones I've investigated use a little clip that catches on material between the two rounded bent over "wings" on the spade terminal.

 

The reason I bring it up is if you try to use a terminal with too wide of a gap between the two sides, it won't catch the retaining tab. I've had a little trouble sourcing open barrel female spade contacts that have an appropriate spacing.

 

So I don't know if your box even uses the same retaining feature, but I hope your contacts work properly. If not, I can dig up the info on what I purchased.

 

PS - If you've got an extra relay in your box, I would suggest using it as a starter relay. Put it between the ignition switch and the starter solenoid instead of having the ignition switch drive the starter solenoid directly. The current to drive the starter solenoid eventually burns up the contacts inside the ignition switch and putting a relay between the two will prevent that from happening.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Captain Obvious

[tamo3]

I was looking for the open barrel female socket and that I could've find close to the original size for regular size auto relay. If you have source info, please let me know!

By the way, thanks for the photos of Corolla relay box. I notice it uses unique size of relays.

Is it easy to find replacement relay?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tamo3]

I already build Ignition relay :-)

 

 

Do you I should have additional relay as you described?

 

[Captain Obvious]

Tamo,

 

Three of the four relays in that Corolla box are very common and are almost as ubiquitous as the Bosch style relays that you are using. Here's an ebay auction for the three common ones. This one happens to say Toyota on the side, but there are lots of manufacturers for this one:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOYOTA-Fog-Light-Relay-Fuse-DENSO-12v-OEM-Factory-90084-98031-/111438776950?fits=Model%3ACorolla&hash=item19f244ca76&vxp=mtr I'm not sure about the fourth relay. It might be easy to find as well, but I've not looked into it. So yes, I can guarantee that three of the relays are very easy to find replacements, but I've bot looked into the fourth.

 

About the open barrel contacts, Do you know how the retaining feature works on your relay block? There are a couple different retention schemes used, and each one has a different feature on the contact that is important. Some use a little bent metal tang on the back of the contact, while others use the plastic tab that catches between the two rounded portions of the contact. Without knowing how your contacts are retained, I'm not sure I can help with a source.

 

And as for a starter relay, it's different than the ignition relay. It's an additional relay upgrade (like the headlight relays) to add a relay where there didn't originally exist one. I searched around thinking I would be able to find a schematic that someone already drew up, but couldn't find one. I'll draw something up when I get a chance, or maybe someone else knows where to find a sketch and can point you to it.

 

Essentially, there is a black/yellow wire that comes off the back of the ignition key switch and goes to the starter. Problem is that the starter draws more current from that wire than the switch likes, and eventually the switch stops making contact. The solution is to add a new relay between the switch and the starter.

[Captain Obvious]

Tamo, I whipped up a quick sketch for the starter relay. Original design is on the left, upgraded version with the new relay is on the right. Basically you are reducing the loading current on the starter switch so you don't burn up the contacts inside:
 

[TomoHawk]

Before I finished up my relay upgrade, I was also looking for a pre-existing box to house the relays and some fuses.

 

Here's the best one I could come up with.  It's a pretty adaptable relay/fuse box from (I think) the later model of Corolla. I like it because not only does it have room for four relays,

 

 

It looks like that 4th relay was a different layout?

Edited June 3, 2015 by TomoHawk

[TomoHawk]

 I was also looking for a pre-existing box to house the relays and some fuses.  Here's the best one I could come up with.  It's a pretty adaptable relay/fuse box from (I think) the later model of Corolla. I like it because not only does it have room for four relays, but it also has four of the mini blade fuses. This is the only pic I have handy right now:

 

I'll try to snap a couple better pics of the box with the lid.

I typed in 99 corolla fuse relay  box on ebay, and I saw some photos of the same thing.  The auction says it was for a 1998 - 2002 Corolla.  The cover was even labeled for 10A headlamp fuses!  So we know which car and where to look for it.  Happy hunting!  Remember to bring the GOOD wire cutters.

Edited June 3, 2015 by TomoHawk

[Captain Obvious]

Yes, the fourth relay is different than the other three. That's why I was saying that three out of four of them are very easy to find (eg they are the same ones used in the Honda relay block I used), but I wasn't sure about the fourth. It might be a very common one as well, but I don't know. I stopped investigation when I went with the Honda block instead.