I replaced the fuel pump relay in my '88 240 a year ago. Yesterday I had an intermittent no-start (started - drove 30 sec. to neighbor's house - turned off for 1 min - can't restart - 1 hour later started. BTW it was about 20 deg. out).

It sounds like a possible fuel pump relay to me. I had used the cheap $18 relay from FCP Groton. Are these cheaper relays known to be unreliable?

Thanks!

As is usually the case Bosch has the quality needed to keep em running. There is no reason not to use used ones with newer date codes you find in the bone yard. You keep a spare in the glove box anyway.

The next time it won't start jumper the left side of fuses 4 and 6, it the engine starts the relay is bad. Make sure those fuses are in the holders tight and clean.
Dan

I never saw an LH2.2/2.4 fuel relay made by Bosch. My current level of understanding says Stribel made them for a while, then KAE, as original suppliers to the production line.

Trivial Volvo relay puzzle
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Children in the back seats of cars cause accidents, but accidents in the back seats of cars cause children.

You are correct, all I can say is total brain fart.
Dan

There was nothing wrong with what you said - Bosch does indeed bring quality to the mix in my opinion. I was just picturing vvic running around like Diogenes insisting on a Bosch relay.

PS, I always wondered why you had "bad luck" resoldering these relays. I've only caught one example where the trouble was in the coil winding and not cracks in the circuit board solder. Maybe you got the other example?

--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Before I got married, I had six theories about bringing up children.
Now I have six children and no theories. (John Wilmot)

I wonder why Bosch didn't make them?

Soldering, I don't know it's not that I don't know how but for some reason I just can't make them work?

I rationalize that a 25 year old relay has already served a long and useful life so why not give it a rest?
Dan

I rationalize that a 25 year old relay has already served a long and useful life so why not give it a rest?

You're right Dan. I take an attitude that most defects in electrical things, with virtually no wear items, were built in when they were made. The solder cracks are a manufacturing process failure - the heat of the waveline is compromised by the thick, heavy heat sink that is the relay frame. I think if Bosch made these "enhanced relay modules" they would have been done more carefully, but carmaking is a competitive business less dependent on longevity than, say, satellite building.

The problem is the defects are not age defined. So a replacement relay made with the same process has no better chance of outlasting a repair to the original. And in the case of the circuit board relays, the repair corrects the original process failure!

Here's an example, where the aftermarket supplier made a part, and to be competitive, made a decision to cut out a reliability step. It used to be the connections to a commutator were made by soldering the windings. The soldering process would burn away the thin enamel insulation. Someone decided this step could be eliminated because crimping would crush away that enamel insulation. Big labor saving. But the crushing wasn't controlled. Testing didn't find the defects.

If we could only unpeel the housing on these pumps and solder up the commutator-winding joints, we could accomplish the same thing we do resoldering relays - make up for the labor saving process defect. The difference is the relay covers come off and go on much easier than the can that holds the pumps together.





--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Don't find fault, find a remedy. (Henry Ford)

So would the Stribel be the best replacement? IPD has that, plus the cheaper ones from APA/Uro. FCP Groton has one from KAE. I did see one from Bosch at IPD, but it's only for '82-'84.

If I answer you according to what I have just said, your original relay resoldered would be the best. I can't recommend what I wouldn't do or haven't actually done, and that is purchasing a new relay. I'll leave that to those who have done it.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Advice for the day: If you have a lot of tension and you get a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle: "Take two aspirin" and "Keep away from children."
(Author Unknown)

Never saw a Bosch one either. if they had made them they would still be working and prone to failure.

OK, I know people are going to throw tomatoes at me for suggesting this but I just had a no start problem in [by coincidence] our 88 245, have never replaced the relay so as far as I know it is original. My car always starts instantly in a temperate climate but didn't start in 20-ish temp after a 400 mile drive to the mtns. It was suggested that it could be moisture that froze in the fuel line. Turns out the problem was moisture in the fuel; after adding 12 oz of HEET aka "dry gas" [pure isopropol alcohol I learned ] and bouncing car to mix it w/fuel, and the temp warmed up to 40, it started. Next morning at 6:45am it was 15 degrees and it started right up. Only change was the HEET so my conclusion was moisture had frozen. It started perfectly on the 400 mile return trip back to a SoCal after stopping for gas, etc. Not a common problem for those of us in San Diego so I had never heard of dry gas, for which I was made fun of. Oh well... at least I learned something, I'll accept the ribbing.
--
1988 245A. Past: 1979 245A; 1987 244 M47; 1971 164E

I was surprised to learn Heet and other gas line dryers were still being sold since it seems like 30 years now it is hard to find gasoline that's not at least 10% alcohol already. Must be a parochial viewpoint that gives me that idea. Regional differences perhaps.

For the OP - it is not the moving parts that are affected by cold, but those that shouldn't move, but do when cold causes them to contract. A cracked solder joint in a fuel relay is a good example of that. The part that fails isn't supposed to move.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Being right is highly overrated. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

How do you no its the relay? Cold weather should not effect the relay at all as they fail in all temps if they are bad.

I don't really know if it's the relay. I just know that sometimes these relays do cause intermittent no-starts. And cold weather can affect anything with moving parts.

Not many moving parts in that relay!!! Next time it happens pop the cover off the relay and see if the contacts are energizing if not push then together manually and see if car starts?

Yes, and sometimes just the movement from doing all that is enough to do the trick. I had one once in my other 240 where I took out the relay, banged it against the dash, and put it back in, and it started.

Now that's if it is the relay!

Ok so run it with cover off then!!!