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
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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!
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