Hot Relay?

[2coolit]

So last weekend I had my fuse box catch fire, and left it partially melted on My 08 GP V6. The HDM (low beam relay) relay seemed to have been the cause of it, I'm lucky I caught it in time or the damage could have been worse. Anyways, I got me a salvage fuse box (since dealer wanted over $500 for a new one) and I put it on and all is well. Or so I thought, after driving it for about 45 minutes I noticed the all to familiar burning smell, I pull over and pop the hood and fuse box and everything is still intact. I did touch the low beam relay and it was really hot, also the same with the A/C relay. Are relays suppose to get freakishly hot? Like I could hold it in my hand for a couple of seconds but then I had to move it around.
So now im super paranoid, and I've looked around and i can't seem to find any wires along that line that have grounded out somewhere so any help? Thank you in advance.



Picture of the melted fuse box

[Scottydoggs]

they do tend to get warm. but if its to hot to touch it maybe having a wiring issue still. id check out the wires to the head lights, or maybe even the drl module is going bad or something like that.

[JamesIvey24]

i'd check grounds

[2coolit]

Wires seemed good, Any way of checking the relay itself?

i'd check grounds

Where all are the grounds? I found one leading down from the negative battery cable to frame, and I found one on the driver side light behind there.

[Scottydoggs]

have you replaced the relay that had the melt down? if not start there, put a new one in, see if it also gets hot as hell. if it does its something else.

you have stock head lights still? no hid's or aftermarket lights?

and theres a the main grounds on the tranny bell housing, where the neg bat cable bolts on. theres one or two eye loops there with the cable.

[2coolit]

have you replaced the relay that had the melt down? if not start there, put a new one in, see if it also gets hot as hell. if it does its something else.

you have stock head lights still? no hid's or aftermarket lights?

and theres a the main grounds on the tranny bell housing, where the neg bat cable bolts on. theres one or two eye loops there with the cable.

Well I bought a salvage yard fuse box, that came with fuses in them, But I will replace the relay on there so I know its new.
Headlights are stock 9006 bulbs.
Didn't check the ground going to the bell housing, just the one that went below the battery.

[Scottydoggs]

dont buy a new relay, the swapped one from the yard is the same deal.

might need to find someone who knows how to use a voltage meter and read the power in the wires to find why its over loading if all the wires "look" good.

that main ground, make sure the smaller wires are not pulling from the eyelets, if you see bare wire there at the eyelets, they need to be redone. bare wire or cracks in the insulation is bad, causes dry wire. aka its not shinny any more and now it no longer flows current properly. so keep a eye out for that.

[nik12937]

You're either flowing too much current for the relay/fuse box connection to handle, or there's excessive resistance at that relay/socket. I don't think a bad ground elsewhere will cause heat in the fuse box, just reduced voltage in the circuit overall.

I'd first make sure your low beam bulbs are the proper wattage (higher wattage bulbs will possibly exceed the current capacity of the circuit). I believe they should be 55W. If the bulbs are good, perform a voltage drop test across the power side of the relay (pins 87 and 30, it should be labeled next to the pins) and across the fuse box socket as well. A high reading in either spot would indicate excessive resistance and create heat.

Google "voltage drop test" if you're unfamiliar with the process, volt drop readings make electrical issues much easier to diagnose. And remember the test needs to be done with the circuit active, so test those areas with the lights on.

[Dacton1985]

Replace the hdm that you bought with the salvaged fuse box. The newer ones are different. The old ones even have a recall Iirc.

[J57ltr]

08 uses a solid state relay that they call something funky. 05 uses a relay but I think in 06 they changed.

Jeff

[2coolit]

You're either flowing too much current for the relay/fuse box connection to handle, or there's excessive resistance at that relay/socket. I don't think a bad ground elsewhere will cause heat in the fuse box, just reduced voltage in the circuit overall.

I'd first make sure your low beam bulbs are the proper wattage (higher wattage bulbs will possibly exceed the current capacity of the circuit). I believe they should be 55W. If the bulbs are good, perform a voltage drop test across the power side of the relay (pins 87 and 30, it should be labeled next to the pins) and across the fuse box socket as well. A high reading in either spot would indicate excessive resistance and create heat.

Google "voltage drop test" if you're unfamiliar with the process, volt drop readings make electrical issues much easier to diagnose. And remember the test needs to be done with the circuit active, so test those areas with the lights on.

Could a bad alternator have had a play in this? Cuz there were certain times my voltage of my battery would jump from 14.4 down to around 13.3 or even lower and be inbetween there, and this weekend my alternator bit the dust when it went down to 12.56 so I replaced it and ive been now sitting around 14.34 steadly.

[2coolit]

08 uses a solid state relay that they call something funky. 05 uses a relay but I think in 06 they changed.

Jeff

Yeah from 2005 to 2006 they changed the pin configuration. so 06-08 are same low beam relay

[stealthee]

There is currently a recall on the 07's for the HDM relay. I don't know if it has expanded to 08's or not.

[Dacton1985]

Already mentioned that stealth my man

[Dacton1985]

Also the relay is called the hdm ( headlamp driver module

[J57ltr]

I'm not sure why they decided to switch to a SSR but I haven't looked into it. I'm only 500 pages into the FSM for 04-05..... It's covered about 3 subjects so far...

Jeff

[Dacton1985]

Cause they were catching on fire!! Lol

[2coolit]

Well alternator didn't fix my voltage jumps after all, it's back to dropping while going down the road. Seems like everything has to be complicated

[Dacton1985]

You can look around on the Web for the location Of almost all your grounds. Also something that helped me with a starting issue that might help you, take your battery connections off cut the wire back. To where there is new fresh wire and reconnect them.

[J57ltr]

Dacton1985 Weird my 05 doesn't have an issue and the recall is for the 06+ right?

2coolit your voltage is going to vary between 12-16V depending on conditions. This goes for all 04+ cars. If you think that it's a problem and the battery isn't charging then pull into a dark area and turn on the headlights. After about a minute the voltage will go to 13-14V.

Jeff