Update (fixed) Bottle heater relay not working. Just sounds like a buzzer.

[John_D.]

Yes, I "finally" hooked up my bottle heater!!! Yeah!!!

...except

It doesn't work... Boo!!!

When I turn on the switch under the dash, the relay starts buzzing and that's all it does. Constantly. And the warmer does not get warm.

I thought it might be the relay itself. But I have another one just like it under the hood for my nitrous solenoid, so I put the old relay in the new socket (which is in the spare tire well with the bottle), and it still does the same thing. Both relays work fine under the hood...

So I have checked and rechecked that it is wired correctly. I even check their socket to make sure it is color coded like the other socket. I checked that I am getting good voltages, and good grounds.

Now what? I am stumped!!!

I bypassed the thermostat, and hooked that wire directly to the ground, which should have activated the relay. Thinking that the thermostat might be flaky. It still buzzes that way too.


p.s. I am posting this in General and in Nitrous, hoping to get an answer before racing Saturday night. Wasn't sure where I would be most likely to get some help. If you all want to lock or delete one of them later, that's fine, but can you leave it for a day or so first? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ April 13, 2003: Message edited by: John_D. ]</p>

[malloynx#2]

mine did the same thing.. check all your ground,, if oyu have NX you need to have really good grounds,, and if your relay is buzzing it's probably shot.... get another 60amp relay fro 10 bucks at the auto parts store

[Skinny]

As already mentioned, check the ground first. Make sure it's on a solid metal part of the car with NO PAINT. Might want to consider a thicher ground wire? Also check all other connections and the fuse - assuming the 12V power wire has an inline fuse (if it doesn't, it should!). If both relays work under the hood but not on the heater, then the problem is in one of the wires on the bottle heater. Use on ohm meter to check all wires for shorts (check resistance from one end to the other) and replace them as necessary.

[ April 06, 2003: Message edited by: Skinny ]</p>

[12secondv6]

Sorry man, I know nothing about electrical :(

Check grounds??
Put the positive to your tongue to see if it has power??

For some reason my tongue ALWAYS tingles :eek:


In a pinch you can just hook up one good ground and one wire straight to the power side of the battery. I did this last year at AIS 1 when some electrical crap crapped out. Just watch the bottle psi!!!

[ April 06, 2003: Message edited by: 12secondv6 ]</p>

[John_D.]

Good ideas everybody. (well, except maybe the tongue thing...) [img]smile.gif[/img]

Still haven't figured it out yet. If I direct wire the warmer, it does get hot. I thought maybe it had a short or something, but it's ok. I hooked an ohmmeter to it, and got a 1 on the scale, but I have no idea what it should be reading. Since it gets hot with direct power it should be ok though.

I thought I had a good ground. I might try a ground wire direct to the battery as a test (just running the wire around the outside of the car).

I had thought about bypassing the relay too, if necessary. Watching the psi, and maybe getting one of those strip thermometers like you see in an aquarium.

[youngcamarokid]

Wire it to a reliable source of power.

Buzzing relay = oscillation in the 12V, probably interference from ignition.

If all else fails run the power straight to the battery.

You can bypass the relay and run the power straight through the switch if you have a beefy switch. Make sure it will handle the power you are running through it.

[John_D.]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by youngcamarokid:
Buzzing relay = oscillation in the 12V, probably interference from ignition.<hr></blockquote>

Main power is straight from the battery, with a 30amp fuse. Goes to terminal 30.

Switched power is from the 12V acc terminal on the fuse box, to a rocker switch under the dash, then to the relay. Terminal 85 or 86. (changed it over from ign to acc, so I could test without having the headlights on, it was around 1am when I quit fooling with it Friday night...)

Thermostat switches the ground side of the relay on and off, it is 85 or 86 (whichever one is not the switched power...) As long as 85 and 86 are completed, the relay is supposed to activate.

Heater is on terminal 87. Other side of heater is grounded.

Testing was with the engine off at first. (no ignition) Then with engine on, to see if it behaved differently with charging voltage rather than the 11.9 it was seeing at the relay with the engine off.

300 watts / 12 volts = 25 amps. The relay is rated at 30 amps, so it should be big enough. I had thought about upgrading to a 60 amp. But this is all parts that come standard with the NOS kit, and should be working.

If my underdash switch is rated at 25 amps (will have to check...) then I will probably just run it off it, temporarily. It would be nice to have the relay working though, and the thermostat operational, so I'm not having to routinely check the bottle pressure manually.

Last check I need to make, is wire a small load to the relay (a bulb), instead of the large load (the heater), and see if the relay will activate then. It's possible the socket wiring is faulty, then I would just need to put a different socket on there.

[John_D.]

Dang, it's always the simple stuff... :)

(well sometimes it's not, but today is was)

You guys nailed it. It was a bad ground after all. That's what I get for testing it with a voltmeter rather than a load.

Hooked a bulb, in place of the heater, and it buzzed with just a puny little bulb as a load.

Hooked up a temporary different ground, worked like a champ. Hooked the heater back up (real load), with the temporary ground, a-ok.

So re-did my ground permanently, and it's working great!

[12secondv6]

Good, I woulda tried the tongue thing [img]graemlins/fluffy.gif[/img]
Maybe that is why I'm not right in the head??