Why URO DME Relays Fail Right Out of th Box
 

I bought a URO relay because it was 1/3 the price of the others and I thought how can you screw up a relay? None the less I decided to test it and it didn't work.

The two center 4mm pins were very loose and freely rotated. They look to be silver plated but tarnished. I screwed with it and it started to work. The swaged pins are not tight to the metal jumper strips that go to the PCB.

I decided to fix it by hitting the top of the pins with a punch (see the center bottom pin in the lower photo). Getting the bottom off is not an easy task btw. I hope the profile of the pin has an area to accommodate the plastic of the base and the swaging doesn't also compress the plastic. I'm thinking of adding solder if the plastic will take it.

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Junk. Use the Kaehler brand. KAE. German.

That was my first thought but I like to do failure analysis.


EDIT: this is a spare. The original had a bad solder joint.

Well, now we know how to fix them on the fly.

Thanks brother Rick!

Hey URO guy, you watching this, I think you should send this to China to let them know what they need to do. a Super simple fix or manufacturing step. For them maybe .5 cents in cost per week?

URO products aren't worth being a door stop.....why bother?

I'd solder it and be done with it. It'll work fine because the silver-platted stuff wets easily by the solder. And if the plastic gets hot and deforms a little - who cares..... While you are at it also reflow the other solder joints as they look a little thin.

Apparently the swaged top of the pin also compresses the plastic because the pins got loose again after the heat of soldering.

This thing is a piece of junk but if you want to resurrect one I think you could get in and solder the tops of the pins without removing the PCB.

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Is there a country of origin on that part? It looks like the crappy is built in

Most URO parts suck, they have the same bad rap when it comes to Saabs.

But they are CHEAP! :p

That is because the company strives to build parts down to a price, not the best part they can make. They know they are not competing with the big companies on quality.

Lots of their crap comes from China but not all of it.

JR

I do not really mind that they make crap, because the price indicates crap.

What I do mind is A brand companies making crap and charging the premium.

EG; The Bosch silver bullit Coil made in the Brazilian Rain Forest by midgets on coke.

^^^^^^Hehehehehehe^^^^^^

When my DME relay failed a few years ago I bought a Porsche branded relay from our host. It was no good right out of the box. I got a Kaehler as a replacement and no problems. I figured the Porsche one would be the best, not so. Maybe they use URO ;)

I think it's unrealistic to expect multiple companies to keep manufacturing a part that is targeting a very small and shrinking market (pre-1990 Porsche and VW). We can be lucky if a company is still willing to make stuff at all. It can't be a very profitable business with these small production volumes.

I've only seen the originals fail due to solder joints cracking, which is easily remedied with a soldering iron and 5 minute of time. Do they fail in other ways?

There is no country of origin on either the relay or the box it came in.

The DME relay is just two standard automotive relays. All we all really need is an adapter that routes the pins of two Bosch relays to fit the Porsche socket properly. Cheap and excellent replacements forever.

Anyone know how to manufacture stuff?

rick-l,
Can you flip that thing over and show the relays?
Bob B

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