I tore into the electrics again this past weekend. One problem I discovered was the Sipea 0218 Seat Belt delay relay was stuck open.
I took it apart and discovered that the heating element had burned out. The element itself is a tiny strand of filament wire insulated with some kind of fiberous weave, which is wrapped around the armature of the relay. It looks to me like the fiberous weave broke down and caused the filament to short on the armature, overloading it, and blowing the filament (and possibly warping the armature since the failure mode for this relay should be stuck closed.)
IMO this relay is a really poor design, as the heating filament is on whenever the car is on - so it's going to wear out repeatedly. I couldn't find a New relay or new equivalent relay. Best I could find was a used (but working) relay on MWB.
I'm not a fan of buying a used Sipea 0218, because it's obviously just going to blow again at some point in the nearer future than if I could get my hands on a new one.
I've toyed with the idea of trying to source some filament wire to repair the relay, but that will probably be a difficult endevour as it will need to be insulated, and have roughly the same properties as the original (or else the relay will take way to long to open, or open way too quickly, or never open) and I have basically nothing to go on.
Has anyone successfully repaired this relay or found an equivalent new replacement?
I took it apart and discovered that the heating element had burned out. The element itself is a tiny strand of filament wire insulated with some kind of fiberous weave, which is wrapped around the armature of the relay. It looks to me like the fiberous weave broke down and caused the filament to short on the armature, overloading it, and blowing the filament (and possibly warping the armature since the failure mode for this relay should be stuck closed.)
IMO this relay is a really poor design, as the heating filament is on whenever the car is on - so it's going to wear out repeatedly. I couldn't find a New relay or new equivalent relay. Best I could find was a used (but working) relay on MWB.
I'm not a fan of buying a used Sipea 0218, because it's obviously just going to blow again at some point in the nearer future than if I could get my hands on a new one.
I've toyed with the idea of trying to source some filament wire to repair the relay, but that will probably be a difficult endevour as it will need to be insulated, and have roughly the same properties as the original (or else the relay will take way to long to open, or open way too quickly, or never open) and I have basically nothing to go on.
Has anyone successfully repaired this relay or found an equivalent new replacement?