Club 80-90 Forums

Just been giving the dash and plastics a spray with cockpit spray,sprayed the seat adjusters and there was a loud fiz followed by white smoke and the earth from a relay in the battery box has fried,has the spray somehow shorted this out or is it just coincidence?

well liquids (most of them) are a conductor, so i reckon you got the relay wet, then fizz bang!

Cheers Lloydy,I did think as much but need reassuring. Makes you jump a bit!

I have to disagree slightly. I doubt if the electrical conductivity of any liquid (other than mercury) would be sufficient to cause a current drain large enough to burn out a relay's earth wire. I's hard to imagine what would cause the earth wire from the relay to burn out, though a (hefty, unfused) live wire touching the earth connector on the relay would do it.

Removed all the old relay/charging and in the throws of installing a Durite charge relay system,completely rewired as a lot of the of stuff was very tired.might just charge now,here's hoping

ghost123uk wrote:I have to disagree slightly. I doubt if the electrical conductivity of any liquid (other than mercury) would be sufficient to cause a current drain large enough to burn out a relay's earth wire. I's hard to imagine what would cause the earth wire from the relay to burn out, though a (hefty, unfused) live wire touching the earth connector on the relay would do it.

I don't know, I would say it's incredibly coincidental that someone is spraying liquid in the area and something electrical right next to it goes bang. See it quite a lot in boilers when someone sprays leak detection fluid in a boiler a bit too energetically and blows the pcb or gas valve or fan ect. Maybe not cause the wire to melt, but that damage may be historic.

Semiconductor circuits, yes, but not in a simple linear 12V DC device (imho of course )


Try wiring a simple relay, connected to a 12V supply, a 12V trigger supply with a small 12V bulb as a load, test it works, now put the whole lot, 12V battery and all, in a bath of water. It will still work fine (until electrolysis and corrosion eventually take their toll).

Surely you are not looking at a short here just a source of ignition of a volatile spray? A flammable gas inside a non airtight relay which is then actuated could cause a spectacular mini explosion and ignition of a slight fire where the liquid has collected on the wire.
Barking dogs and trees?