Been having an intermittent issue with the rear wiper not working, even though the washer was spraying. Initially, a wiggle of the relay cured it for a while, so I thought it may be some corrosion on the terminals and cleaned them up. This lasted a while but once again, it went dead.
With that, I took the relay out and removed the cover so that I could see inside. Many years ago (12 in fact), when I got the coupe, the windows would intermittently stop working, which was a real pain... I was working at a firm that did a lot of electrics and also like old stereos, so thought I'd have a look at the circuit board and check the soldering and connections and sure enough, there was a cracked joint. After re-flowing it all, it's worked faultlessly for the last 12 years!
So, with that in mind, I had a really good look at the relay for the rear wiper and sure enough, where one of the main pins goes directly in to the board, it had fractured. I didn't see it the first time as it was really small, so had dived on ebay and grabbed another 239 relay but after another look under some strong light, I noticed it and I also realised that the pin wobbled (top tip for the future!). Reflowed it all and it's working away (and I have a spare!).
So, the moral of the story is that if a relay stops working, have a look inside and run a soldering iron over the joints (it's all old skool stuff, so very little surface mount), as you just might save yourself some £!
With that, I took the relay out and removed the cover so that I could see inside. Many years ago (12 in fact), when I got the coupe, the windows would intermittently stop working, which was a real pain... I was working at a firm that did a lot of electrics and also like old stereos, so thought I'd have a look at the circuit board and check the soldering and connections and sure enough, there was a cracked joint. After re-flowing it all, it's worked faultlessly for the last 12 years!
So, with that in mind, I had a really good look at the relay for the rear wiper and sure enough, where one of the main pins goes directly in to the board, it had fractured. I didn't see it the first time as it was really small, so had dived on ebay and grabbed another 239 relay but after another look under some strong light, I noticed it and I also realised that the pin wobbled (top tip for the future!). Reflowed it all and it's working away (and I have a spare!).
So, the moral of the story is that if a relay stops working, have a look inside and run a soldering iron over the joints (it's all old skool stuff, so very little surface mount), as you just might save yourself some £!
Great timing was just about to try tracing my fault, where is the relay
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