I have a weird fuel pump relay, and other fuse block questions

[Novelty Fashion]

So I've had my 930 for a few years now with no real issues. Recently, I had to do the rear wheel bearings, and the job went about as well as they do, all things considered.

I decided I wanted to know everything about my car that I could, and so I started researching and reading all I could, right here.

Well, in my poking around the forum, I discovered that my fuse panel isn't quite to factory specs. Namely, I had a black relay in one fuel pump slot, and as for the other relay, well, I'll let the pictures do the talking:









Yep. Some weird, oddball square relay in the place of the factory relay. I didn't do it, so it must've been like that when I got it. Car's been running fine for two years, and I have no idea why the whole thing was replaced like that.

I bought a relay socket and new red relay from our hosts here, and I plan to wire it in after the holidays, (busy with family here and all).

Any idea on what this relay is, and why it would be used in lieu of the proper one?

[Novelty Fashion]

Other questions:

1: Is it hard to wire in the relay socket, and should I seek professional help?

2: The fusebox must have some mods to it, since I can have the foglights on, and flip to highbeams, and the fogs stay on. My brother's US model car does not do this. Is a wire jumped, or do Euro cars do this?

3: I HATE the lack of availability of the ceramic fuses, (among other things about the factory fuse block), so I am debating on eventually changing over to the dzug blade fuse panel, seen here: X-Factory Fuseblock

Any thoughts on this conversion, and if it's worth it, and the difficulty.

Thanks for y'all's time.

[M5guy]

That square relay is a very common one and inexpensive, a very reasonable substitute in a pinch. When you do the requisite headlight relay upgrade, you will use two just like it.

[Novelty Fashion]

BUMP guys. Come on. I know you can help me.

Now, I know this isn't a thread about shoving a basketball-sized turbo up my car's ass and making eleventy-billion horsepower, but COME ON!

I thought this was a resource for ANY air-cooled (turbo) Porsche questions. I have some rather pedestrian questions regarding my electrical system, and I am trying to solicit input. If such "lame" questions are beneath the power-mad and lightweight-insane members of this forum, let me know, and I'll seek out counsel in meat-space.

THANK YOU M5guy, for your thoughtful response. I appreciate it, and it gives me insight as to why my car was this way upon purchase.

[JFairman]

It's not hard to remove the generic relay and wire in the correct relay socket and plug in the red relay. You'll need to trace the wires and figure out where they should go. Looking at another car still wired correctly would help and make it easier.
I don't think you can expect anyone to take their fuse panel off and peel the tape off the wiring and take detailed pictures to figure it out for you but maybe someone has done it before. Try the 911 tech forum too.

For the foglights it sounds like someone wanted to be able to turn the foglights on regardless of where the headlight switch is positioned. I know I do. There is one little skinny trigger wire on a relay you cut to be able to have it that way and I learned which one it was years ago on the tech forum but I don't remember which one it is now.
That said I don't think I've ever turned the fogs on while driving. You rarely ever need them in south florida.
Try the tech forum for the fog light high beam trigger off wire I mentioned.

The blade fuses are an improvement over the old ones. I havn't done that though because the origonal ones work fine and don't give me any problems. If they do I bend the tab that holds them in place a little to increase tension and clean the ends and/or twirl them in the tabs to scrape off any surface corrosion.
Then spray the fuse ends lightly with a little Corrosion Technologies and they stay clean and corrosion free.
The marine red can corrosionX is great for cleaning corrosion off and maintaining all magnesium and aluminum surfaces too.

Merry Christmas

[Novelty Fashion]

Thank you Mr. Fairman. Lots of good info there. Merry Christmas to you too.

To the rest of the forum: my sentiment still stands, but I do apologize for being a dick about it. I had a little too much "holiday cheer" last night and I lost my mind a bit. I do hate how some interesting threads seem to languish here, while a very narrow few subjects seem to continually rise to the top, bit I could have been more political about it.

Thanks again to everyone.

[mreid]

Your red fuel pump relay wires just like the generic some PO put in its place. The red relay has a diode that prevents current reverse flow from the fuel pump motor. You even have a schematic on top of the generic to help you along. You definitely need the correct wiring diagram for your car and this will be an easy 1 hour job.

[DSPTurtle]

Hmm... power mad maybe, lightweight insane, definitely not. Haha.
It seems like you only ask three questions...
1. No, it is not hard. The hardest part is make sure that you look at the relay correctly when you are trying to figure out which socket is 85, 86, and 87 on the relay socket (use an ohm meter to make sure you are grabbing the correct wire off the socket). Getting your hands on a relay socket is the hardest part so you have that done. Make sure you don't just use some ghetto crimp connectors. Use a j-hook technique and solder. You can get even more fancy and use shrink tubing instead of electrical tape. Then buy some friction tape and wrap the loom to make it look factory.
Have you figured out what the relay is for? It might be the Rice upgrade for the fuel pumps, but it might be a relay for some bigass amplifier that all the crazy people added in the 80s. If you haven't figured it out, that would be the first step. (Try turning everything on and pull the relay out and see what stops working)
2. If it works, who cares? But if it annoys you, spend some quality time with your ohm meter and the Bentley manual (section 9 I think in the back has every wire trace listed) and put it back to stock. But again, if it works, who cares?
3. Sounds like more work than anyone needs to go through. Plus it is expensive. I have changed three of the 10 position fuse panels because they got hot and cracked so I know exactly how hard it is to change it out. As for the fuses, I keep a pack in my glove box at all time. I usually find them at our local FLAPS or Ace Hardware. Plus, Buss will never stop making them so you can order them online. Buy a few multi packs and never worry about it again. Unless you are like me and have a neighbor that "borrows" them for his old 911 and blows through them once a month cause he won't fix the damn root cause problem. LOL (I love my neighbor, don't get me wrong, no one else would be okay with me using a grinder at 2am 20ft from his bedroom window). But if you are really talking about hard to find, those old round relays are a PITA to find and URO build quality is complete crap. I keep a spare black and a spare red in the glove box of each of my cars. It would probably be better if you are bored to change the round sockets out for the square sockets. <--- I am just kidding on that... way too much work.
One other thought... learning about your car is a great reason to poke around in there. But, are you borrowing trouble trying to change things that already work fine? I have two old 930s (well one is a narrowbody with 930 running gear) and they keep me busy enough just fixing the $h!t that breaks on its own. Any time you are messing around in that rats nest of wiring, you run the risk of effing up something else. At least that has been my experience
So there are one person's opinions on the answer to your three questions. If you have more, just post them. But don't expect an immediate response from the Pelican family on Xmas eve eve. LOL

[JFairman]

If that relay is for a fuel pump, change it to a round red relay. There is a little diode across 2 terminals in the red relays and other than that the red and black relays are the same. You can use a red relay in place of a black relay so if a black one goes bad you can replace it with a red one.

More info about that here: Red or Black Relay?

You can pop the round top off one of these relays by gently squeezing the sides with pliers until it starts to give up it's grip around the bottom edge, then pull and twist it off. The sides will bend in a little ways before the plastic cracks.
Then it will snap back on and stay there with a dab of silicone glue around the bottom edge.
When those relays go bad rather than toss them I do that and solder a jumper wire across the switched terminals on the inside and put the top cover back on. Then label it a jumper relay with a sharpee pen and keep it in the glovebox.
That way if a relay ever goes bad and I don't have a spare relay or if I want to jump the relay socket for diagnostics the jumper relay will get the fuel pump running with out screwing around with a jumper wire in the relay socket.

[DSPTurtle]

Irony... OP gets pissed off cause no one responds. People respond and OP goes radio silent. LOL.

[cole930]

Obviously his Heinass got his demands met and has no further need to
lower himself by fraternizing with the lowly masses.

Cole

[jsveb]

Come on guys give him a break.

I remember when I got kicked in the nuts, just because I was a newbie ignorant.

But, you grouchy old fokkers didn't scare me - too much.

If he digs this, he'll be back

Welcome to the forum.

Merry Christmas.