Hot start relay- is it worth doing?

[mike202]

I am removing some old wiring from the engine bay/starter from the 80's alarm system and tidying things up. Whilst I am doing this and cleaning up the starter motor terminals etc I was thinking it would be a good time to put in a hot start relay as I have a flexi wire conduit going spare now through from the engine bay to the starter motor.

I don't have any problems at the moment by the way, with starting hot or cold.

I have already looked on here and elsewhere and there seems to be two views on the subject;

1) installing one means that the starter gets the full hit of amps every time whether the engine is hot or cold, and also saves the ignition switch from taking 8+ amps when you crank the starter as opposed to a minimal current with a hot start relay.

or

2) you should leave it as it was meant to be and make sure that you clean and re-lube the starter motor every so often. Putting in extra things like a 'cheap plastic relay' means that there's more things to go wrong.

Anybody got any views or advice :?

ta

 

[reezvaan]

i had a hard start relay put on my trekker from previous owner. was a mess of wiring and everything. i sorted all the OG wiring and eliminated the hard start relay and found out that it wasn't needed in the first place but some how PO put it in :shock:

my 69 EB however has the hot start problem when it passed onto me but again, i am in the process of eliminating all the bastard wires from the harness and putting the stock looms in order (stuck due to non-availability of 12v 9 pin flasher relay at the minute ). I will see if restoring the stock looms helps, if it wont, I will be putting a hard start relay on. I also have serviced and lubricated the starter on my 69 EB so I am hoping it wont come to HSR when i am able to put it all back up together.


PS: on your original question, i will leave it stock any day and bin the hard start relay. cheers

 

[67panel]

now on my 3rd pattern ign switch as they burnt out on starter load,starter changed as well,all wiring good so poor patern parts,since fitting relay I have not had a problem.if you have OG switch you should be ok provided all wires/conections are good.fitted correctly its not a rats nest of wires!!!!!!!

 

[mike202]

Ok thanks guys, so probably best to just hook up the starter as OG with my original ignition switch.

 

[jonboylaw]

Personally I would go with a relay to the solenoid. Cutting down the current in older, higher resistance wire is to be beneficial.


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[69billy]

no, its something else to go wrong.. sort the wiring as it was, best thing I did was bin mine. don't do a make do repair instead of sorting the problem. mine was just bad connections few hours cleaning up etc and bang on now.

 

[gvee]

Phew, what a can of worms!

I rarely comment on this kind of thing as I'm not the most knowledgeable person on electrical matters, but personally, I'd fit a relay.
I'd rather the £3 relay failed than my ignition switch.

I didn't know one was installed on my new bus until it failed. I renewed the wiring and relocated the relay in the engine bay on the battery side near the firewall. Nice and obvious and easy to swap if it ever happens again.

You might argue that it's another point of failure but I just think of it like having an inline fuse. Is that such a bad modification?

 

[sharky71]

not to sound thick or anything but how do you wire one in :shock: :roll:
had the said problem a couple of years ago albeit i didn't do much mileage last year so wondered how difficult it is to do?? :roll:

 

[jonboylaw]

12v from battery to one side of N/O terminal, via 20a fuse, other N/O contact to terminal on solenoid, connector that was on solenoid to the +ve coil terminal of relay and -ve to gnd. Someone will be along soon with a diagram.


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[dubdubz]

this I think ? only with a fuse inline

so actually more like this

 

[sharman]

My opinion is if your wiring is old, then you may benefit from one. On the other hand, if your wiring is old then I'd recommend new loom. I found out the hard way when my bus nearly went up due to old wiring and years of bodges!
I since rewired my camper and fitted the hot start relay. Cheap enough to do. I got mine from Peter at Volksgoods, top guy.

 

[Trikky2]

I could never see the point of hot start relays because it was treating the symptom rather than the cause but the point about compensating for weak ignition switches makes sense.

 

[mike202]

thanks for all the advice guys.