I need some help. When my 94 FZJ is cold (not the engine, the whole vehicle) there is a relay clicking, almost buzzing at times, in the driver kick panel. Nothing is obviously affected. Tried it in park, neutral, while rolling, while stopped. It tapers off quite a bit once the temp inside comes up. It doesn’t stop completely, but it’s noticeably less. Anybody have any ideas?
Relay clicking (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Drune
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
I had a short in my rear tail light wiring and that was operating the relay (my mechanic told me) until it wore out. Go check if your tail lights or marker lights are flickering.
LC4LIFE
Supporting Vendor
Weird......I have had the same thing happen twice over the last two years. Both times, it happened shortly after starting and driving, but it ends so quickly I could do nothing to trouble shoot. Drive-ability seems unchanged when the relay is going crazy. I had actually forgot about this since its been so long, but I am very curious to see what come of the discussion.
Take off the driver kick panel and listen and feel what relay is clicking, then look up what it controls
the clicking means intermittent voltage drop or loose wiring. When a relay operates normally it will click when the mechanism inside is excited by the current to move from open to closed and actuate a door lock or window for example. Though relays seem to be all over cars if it is in the door it might be one of the two. Any after-market wiring going on in the rig? Typically factory connections are super robust.
30+ years ago, I awoke in my home, about 4:00 AM, to LOTS of light shining in my windows.
I quietly went to the front windows and looked out and ALL my roll bar lights were on on my truck in the driveway.
I figured some kid got in my truck and turned on all the lights just to kill my battery and be a dick.
When I went out, my doors were still locked (can only lock the doors with a key) and all windows intact.
All switches were still in the OFF position.
I flipped all the switches ON and back OFF and the lights went out and stayed out.
I locked the truck and went back to bed.
It was -10°F outside.
The bimetal strip in these old relays basically flipped the opposite direction, and once connected, stayed there until I put power to them to heat them back up.
I quietly went to the front windows and looked out and ALL my roll bar lights were on on my truck in the driveway.
I figured some kid got in my truck and turned on all the lights just to kill my battery and be a dick.
When I went out, my doors were still locked (can only lock the doors with a key) and all windows intact.
All switches were still in the OFF position.
I flipped all the switches ON and back OFF and the lights went out and stayed out.
I locked the truck and went back to bed.
It was -10°F outside.
The bimetal strip in these old relays basically flipped the opposite direction, and once connected, stayed there until I put power to them to heat them back up.
- Thread starter
- #7
Thanks for all of the input! I haven’t had much of a chance to troubleshoot yet. I definitely hear it down behind that kick panel. As far as the lights, once my wife gets home I’m gonna have her watch the lights for me while I do some switch work and see if it’s affected. I’ll post up as I go along and if I come up with the issue I will definitely pass it on.
- Thread starter
- #8
I haven’t tore anything apart yet but did a little switch work to see if I could affect the relay, well when inactuated my cdl switch the relay quit clicking. I added cdl switch (actually an ECT switch, I read here somewhere the switch is the same as the CDL SWITCH aside from the label) awhile back and it just started doing this. May have to revisit that.
- Thread starter
- #9
Got in the kick panel today to try and isolate the problem. I started moving things around and lo and behold, there’s a relay clicking around. I start looking, and it looks like when somebody installed aftermarket security system they cut some wires and just left them bare, so I squared that away. Did the 7-pin mod while I was there. Well, I went out to ops check it and the damn thing is still doing it. I guess the bare I wire I squared away was a different issue that wasn’t evident until I broke into it. But, I did notice that when moving the shift lever that I can make the original problem relay click and act up. So now I need to break into the FSM and see what I can find.
- Thread starter
- #10
I got in there and found an exterior lighting control relay grounding out and activating, but it’s not the original problem! My last post on the thread lines out where I am now. Thanks again for the input!
LINUS
Waiting for the Great Pumpkin
Full spitball here - can you go out to it cold & use either a hairdryer or heat gun & use cardboard as a divider & try a couple different ones at a time, narrow it down & see what’s what?
IDK what all you have available or what other symptoms you’re getting, so best I can offer ATM.
IDK what all you have available or what other symptoms you’re getting, so best I can offer ATM.
- Thread starter
- #12
Great thought, however after yesterday’s troubleshooting, temp doesn’t now seem to be an issue-must’ve just been coincidental. It is the trans control relay that’s acting up. I can get it to do it with the engine off, key on, and by rocking the rig ever so slightly. May be a bare/intermittently open wire somewhere. That should be fun to find. Any and all input is appreciated!
Last edited:
Did you ever figure this out?
- Thread starter
- #14
Best I could come with is that the wire harness that runs between the head and intake has a short. I was able to sort of reach up in there and wiggle some thing around which would make it come and go. Probably chafing on an EGR pipe or something from some of the reading I’ve done. I never did get it repaired properly but was able to pull on that harness firmly and got it to quit and now my locker works fine. So far.
Weird. It's looking like mine is the added CDL dash switch... I think.
Removed it and it seems like the chattering stopped, putting a new one in later this week so see if it comes back. Been driving me crazy since there are a few threads with this issue and none of them have a solution.
- Thread starter
- #16
if I remember correctly mine wasn’t doing it before I added the CDL switch. But my CDL wouldn’t engage in low range either as it was blowing the fuse but didn’t realize it. I did the 7 pin mod and added the switch at the same time and that is when it became evident with the clicking relay. But once I fiddled with those wires by the intake manifold it all works as advertised now.
I'm wondering about what wires you are talking about. I don't think any of the CDL wiring is located in the engine bay, at least it doesn't show any in the wire routing diagrams.
- Thread starter
- #18
I don't know what wires they are honestly. There is a good sized wire bundle that is extremely difficult to see that runs where I mentioned earlier. I have no idea where I got the info from but read something about that being a potential problem so I started messing with it and was able to make it click at will while wiggling the bundle. One other thing I did to stop the click, although it renders your CDL inoperable, was to pull the diff fuse out. It gave me temporary reprieve from that annoying relay until I sorted it out otherwise.
NeverFinis
SILVER Star
The wiring ultimately ends at the transfer case, which means it is bundled with the engine harness for a time, until EC1. This is after the Center Diff Lock Control Relay.
EC1: ENGINE WIRE AND TRANSMISSION WIRE (NEAR THE STARTER)
