Refreshing the '02 Flasher Relay

I did this almost 2 years ago - never an issue with the flasher during that time. Thank you for the article Mike. Made my life very easy.

Nice write-up, Mike - thanks!  Any pics to go along with this?

Scott

here are some pics... almost three years later.

I messed with mine today, since it had begun intermittently not working.

The problem with mine was dirt between contact surfaces.

The back of a piece of paper wiped them clean and problem-solved.

No bending needed.

EDIT:  turns out that was a temporary fix.  Still having trouble with it.

How does the flasher relay "unclip" from under the dash?  Difficult to see what is holding to the inside fender wall.  We are talking about the relay just above the hood release right?  Thank You. 

UPDATE: John's solution just wiggle the relay while lifting straight up toward instrument cluster, a small 10mm tang will release it.

Just did mine. I fixed the replacement used Hella unit that was "mysteriously" included with the car. It's the above design, the stock BMW unit (or whoever made them originally) has different switches. I did need to clean up the front turn signal screws/grounds after bending the brass upright holding one end of the spring. 

On 7/28/2018 at 11:44 AM, '76mintgrün'02 said:

here are some pics... almost three years later.

I messed with mine today, since it had begun intermittently not working.

The problem with mine was dirt between contact surfaces.

The back of a piece of paper wiped them clean and problem-solved.

No bending needed.

 

EDIT:  turns out that was a temporary fix.  Still having trouble with it.

I’m going through my original relay, looks like this, how the heck do I remove the metal cover?

great post btw

Mine had/has a plastic cover.  I'm guessing yours is crimped at the bottom and you'd need to work your way around bending the aluminum with a pair of pliers or something.

That post was from back when I first took that flasher apart and tried to fix it.  As I edited into that post, the fix was a temporary one. 

I tried fixing it again, but in the end, I bought a NAPA EL13 flasher and am very happy with it.  I tried a cheaper NAPA flasher before that, but it blinked too fast and I couldn't hear it.  The EL13 makes a nice audible clicking sound.

John76 posted wiring instructions for the EL13.  I'll post them here, in case you decide to go that route.

Check if your wiring harness has these 4 wires:

(1) Green/Violet is +12V. 

(2) Green/Yellow for the bulbs (load).

(3) Brown is ground.  

(4) Black/White for the instrument panel indicator light.

A nice upgrade is an electronic flasher. I used a NAPA EL-13 (cheap!) with only 3 terminals (X, P &L).The brown ground wire is not used.

I connected the "X" terminal to the green/violet wire for +12V.

The "P" terminal is connected to the black/white wire to the instrument panel.

The "L" terminal is connected to the green/yellow wire for the outside lights (load)

The remaining brown ground wire is not used.

Here is the thread where John posted the information.

Tom