relay question...

[Robert Kyle]

Sorry, but yet another noob question and tried to do a search, but what are the relays in the engine compartment near the batter?

 

I think this person's car, has an extra FOURTH square relay towards the rear of the car (closest to the master cylinder reservoir) that mine does not have:

[Robert Kyle]

curious because i have no hazard or turn signals and maybe I can start with the relays there?  Or is the hazard/turn relays under the dash?

 

Already checked the fuses.

[Son of Marty]

The 3 from the factory are horn, hi beam, and low beam in no particular order that I can figure, the 4th was added by a P.O. might be for driving lights if fitted or anything else a P.O. felt was needed you'll just have to trace it. Blinker relay is under the dash on the left side.

Edited December 12, 2019 by Son of Marty

[Conserv]

1 hour ago, Robert Kyle said:

Sorry, but yet another noob question and tried to do a search, but what are the relays in the engine compartment near the batter?

 

I think this person's car, has an extra FOURTH square relay towards the rear of the car (closest to the master cylinder reservoir) that mine does not have:

The photo is of my ‘76. The fourth relay is for foglights. A fifth relay, installed below the relay rack, is for the driving lights. BMW provided, on square taillights only, one extra slot for auxiliary lighting relays. But sometimes one extra was not enough!

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by Conserv

[Mike Self]

Robert, the turn signal relay is under the dash, clipped to the driver's side cowl, near the hood release.  It's the smaller of two relays there; the other is the wiper and wash/wipe relay.  

 

Lotsa stuff in the archives on troubleshooting turn signals; also I did a column on the subject.  PM me if you'd like a copy.  And both the hazard lights and turn signals use the same flasher relay, and the turn signals' power feed goes through the hazard switch--kinda convoluted circuitry.  Just went through that on a friend's '73 and learned a lot on how the hazard switch works.

 

mike

Edited December 13, 2019 by mike

[Conserv]

13 hours ago, Son of Marty said:

The 3 from the factory are horn, hi beam, and low beam in no particular order that I can figure...

 

The order of the three factory relays came up in a thread earlier this year. Surprisingly, there appeared to be a sufficient number of cars using a similar relay order... XYZ to convince me that there might have actually been a factory order. Of course, many cars, such as my ‘76 — perhaps the relay order was accidentally switched when my ‘76 had its Big Re-Paint (2015-18) — don’t subscribe to that order, so it might be impossible to confirm that the factory applied order XYZ to all square taillight cars. But there is evidence that they may have tried.

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by Conserv