Mustard relay and good eyes

[Kibokojoe]

Tackled my son's 735i brake light problem this weekend. His tail light were going off and on for no reason. Took out the infamous mustard relay and examined the circuit board closely. Now that I am 53 years old my best closeup vision is without glasses. On close examination of the board I notice multiple soldering joints that were cracked. I used braided copper wire to remove all of the old solder and a good electronic solder with flux to resolder. Came out real nice. Easy job and took less than a half hour. Now on to his aftermarket amp, Looks like he cooked several capacitors. Luckily for me there is a great electronics outlet close by

[whiskychaser]

Could never get on with solder suckers and would always use desoldering braid. Dry joints seem to be a problem on relays for some reason. 'Helping hands' are useful:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HELPING-HANDS-MAGNIFYING-GLASS-60MM-GLASS_W0QQitemZ270437436380QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_C rafts_JewelleryMaking_GL?hash=item3ef753cbdc&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Hope you can find a diagram for the amp

[Ross]

Solder joints seem to be the bane of all sorts of electronics. A friend who used to repair televisions(dead trade) showed me how a nice Sony tv kicked to the curb usually only needed some solder reflowed on the tuner. Half of BMW electronic troubles seem to be rectified by this and I've managed to cure sundry other ill electronic gizmos with this trick.
Supposedly, the more vibration a board is subject to the more likely the solder is to fail.
Who knew?
EDIT KJ, sure you're not a Scot? Those relays are cheap as chips.

[shogun]

Ross must be a very rich man, saying a mustard relay is cheap ;-).

Relay - Daylight
Part # : 61 31 1 378 052 $ 49.95

copied from an old thread:


BTW:
VW # Audi have the same relay, # 447959875
Relais VW Audi Nr 447959875, but for another purpose.
They call it Fensterhebersteuergerät
= electric window control module (and for electric sunroof), might be cheaper.

Found this: quote
Found another fix to the Mustard Relay. I have a 1985 Audi 5000 cd turbo that I am going to scrap and I got thinking they are both German there must be some parts the same so I thought I would take what I want off before I scrap it and voila,I found the mustard relay.That lights going out happened to me a few times and it is scary.
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What is the Audi part number? And pls let us know all what is written on the Audi relay.
Thanks __________________
Ok Shogun,but have to wait till daylight tomorrow. I'll post it,as I am off tomorrow.I also think more parts will match cause I already put the sun,wind screen for the sunroof and it was a perfect match months ago.
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UPDATE! MUSTARD RELAY NUMBERS.Sorry guys I took so long but tried to take pics, but my camera is junk,but here are the numbers. 447 959 875, made by HELLA. iT IS ABOUT 3/8S HIGHER but still fits and I think my lights are brighter and haven't gone out since! Exactly the same prongs.
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unquote

BTW: there are 2 kinds of mustard relays. One has mustard inside = electronics which can be resoldered such as relays, see here my one under repair http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/249600/
And there is a mustard relay without mustard inside
and it has only some metal connections inside. All older E32 have mustard relays with mustard, later on some models such as the 740 this part in charge for side lights/parking lights moved into the LKM, and from then on it was without mustard.
with mustard:
Lighting Relay; Daylight Driving/Taillight; 7 Prong Connector 61311378052 list price $57.91
the other one has 5 prongs
61311378525 called connection plug low beam and costs only a few $

[shogun]

for old men like us, even with LED, helping hands
http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=helping+hands&Submit=Go

[Kibokojoe]

yeap I got one of those, pretty nice