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What happens when the front relay box is upside down or sideways
Hey guys -
My project car sat for some time with the front relay box unbolted and the box hanging upside-down by the wiring. Yesterday I was troubleshooting some problems, namely why the airpump didn't work and the headlights didn't pop up.
Well, this is the reason . Water runs into the relay box and into the relays, pooling inside and rusting them out. The relays are (obviously) not sealed.
Some people mount the relay box sideways - this is also a bad idea. It really needs to be right side up to let any water drain properly and to keep the relays high and dry.
Needless to say, I was surprised when I popped the cover off the relay. I was thinking maybe the contacts had some surface rust or something. As you can see, it was junk.
I have been able to find some relays at the junkyard off other Mazdas, but some are either RX-7 specific or I just haven't found another Mazda with similar relays.
I've seen this happen also when I cut my long relay box out completely and moved the essential 3 relays that I needed. I ended up making a bracket to hold them vertical and sealed them up.
I never knew turning the relay box upside down could be such a problem until the vmount. I had flippy headlights whenever it rains or after car wash. From other threads i realized a lot of people started having similar headlight problem after installing a IC kit and reloacating the relay box or moved it from its origintal position. causing water and/or moisture to get, rusting up in there.
Did anyone ever come up with a solution for the relays getting wet? I currently have the front relay box installed upside down inside the front bumper because of my Greddy V Mount kit like in the picture below. Still, thanks to this Florida weather I am experiencing, my relay box keeps getting wet; thus, the TNS relay keeps getting wet, causing my lights to remain on and drain my battery and the flip up function not to work. When I got my car back from the shop, they forgot to install the relay cover, and they swear that it came in like that, but I couldn't prove otherwise, but anyways I have that working against me. I've gone through 4 TNS relays.
The instructions for the V-mount kit say to use caulking to seal around where the wires go into the relay box. You also REALLY need the lid, that does a LOT of the work. You should be able to track down a good used one.
There's a huge thread on the Greddy V-mount with a lot of tips and tricks, I'd suggest reading through that and see what others have done with the relay box.
With many intercooler setups the box gets relocated and it tends to collect water, causing all sorts of electrical gremlins. I drill a few holes in the cover so it can drain and pop apart the backing and seal with silicone as well as where the wires come in.
I have the greddy v mount and I had problems with my TNS relay collecting water. Ended up extending the wiring and relocating the entire relay box into the airbox area.
02-11-08, 12:51 PM
. Water runs into the relay box and into the relays, pooling inside and rusting them out. The relays are (obviously) not sealed.
