Saved by the spare DME relay !

[sugarwood]

Took the 911 to my polo lesson. When I started to drive home, I was taking U-turn in a cul-de-sac and stalled. Not a clutch stall, the engine just died. Started it back up drove for 10 feet and stalled again. Rolled into empty driveway. Knocked on door, introduced myself and said my old car died, and his driveway happened to be in the right place. There is one quick fix I am going to try, otherwise, I will call a flatbed. Guy was super cool about it.

Went to car, had the spare DME relay in glovebox, and noticed I did not have toolkit in the car. I again knocked on the door and asked if I could borrow a 10mm socket. He had a socket set. Mint, never used DeWalt. Not even a fingerprint on the sockets.

Figured it was either DME relay or fuel pump. If latter, flatbed. I swapped out the DME relay (under drivers seat). Slid the seat back to undo the 10mm. Slid the seat forward to detach the harness from the rear.

Car started up. Thanked the home owner and was on my way.

What a miracle breakdown location. 60 seconds sooner or later would have been way more inconvenience. Lucky day. Thanks Pelican for the DME trick!

[ian c2]

An even better trick is to install a solid state relay , and keep the current one as a spare .

[jlex]

I didn't re-use the 10mm nut to hold down the relay when I replaced it with the solid state relay. Don't think it's all that necessary and it allows me to make a quick change. Don't know that there's any meaningful increase in vibration without the nut.
Allows me to remove it more easily in the Spring when I first crank the car to build up oil pressure before starting.

[Wangrande]

I remove mine all the time as an anti theft device. Never bolted down. Mine failed just last week like yours. 2nd time in 25 years. The spare saved the day.

[Joe Bob]

Will you do an autopsy on the relay?




This is what mine looked like.

[GH85Carrera]

Wow did that one work at all Joe Bob?

[Joe Bob]

My SC is a 3.6 conversion. Rain got past the convertible top. The relay was in a 1/2 inch pool of water. I never bolted it down, I DID put the brain up on spacers. No damage, a roll off paper towels soaked up the water.

I had a spare relay and it fired right up. I put length of butyl tape around the joint and try not to leave it out in the rain. Mongo gots a garage now.

[sugarwood]

Do you also have a DME under the seat? Did that also get flooded out ?

[Joe Bob]

Nope as I mentioned it has spacers underneath it out of the water.