Tap relay now fitted

[JohnCalifornia]

Hi, I’ve been having problems with my tap working when it wants. I diagnosed the fault to be the micro switch in the tap. I have Cleaned the contacts on the micro switch twice now and although much better there was still the odd time it didn’t work. The Cali has the 5 year extended warranty with 1 year left so thought I’d give the van centre a call and book in. I explained the problem and they told me it would need to be booked in for diagnostic to see what the problem is. I tried telling them the old factory fitted shower trick where you turn it on and the water comes out of the tap but they were having none of it and have not heard of that method of checking the tap and warned me that there could be a £99 diagnostic fee depending on what they find. They also want the Cali for 1 day. This is not a massive problem but getting the Cali there and picking up again then waiting for the part to come in and doing it all again would cost me around 5 hours of my time, £20 in fuel and the risk of them wriggling out of the warranty claim and me paying £99 diagnostic fee. Im assuming even if I got a new tap fitted it would still eventually fail. So after reading all the posts on here about fitting the relay to reduce the load on the micro switch I thought I’d have a go and forget about the warranty route. I called to my local car accessory shop on my way home, got the 30amp 4 pin relay and some spade connectors all for the pricely sum of £5. Anyway thanks to some great posts on here with detailed pictures I got it done and now all working as it should with hopefully no more tap issues. It took me around half hour from start to finish and I took my time and double checked everything. Some pics attached . Again thanks to everyone who has posted about this relay installation.

 

[andyinluton]

Good job.

I would stick a bit more insulating tape around the spade terminals so that no bare metal can be seen, you wouldn't want a bit of protruding cutlery to start the water pump

 

[JohnCalifornia]

Good job.

I would stick a bit more insulating tape around the spade terminals so that no bare metal can be seen, you wouldn't want a bit of protruding cutlery to start the water pump

Mmmmmm. That’s a good idea. I’ll do that tomorrow.

 

[sidepod]

Mmmmmm. That’s a good idea. I’ll do that tomorrow.

Or get a relay base for the relay? Anyway, well done

 

[JohnCalifornia]

Relay base? Didn’t know they did them. I’ll look into it……

 

[flying banana]

You could have got spade connectors that are covered all the way down to the end. But insulation tape will be fine

 

[yossarian]

Lots of ways to make it look better, but pretty good job I think.

 

[JohnCalifornia]

You could have got spade connectors that are covered all the way down to the end. But insulation tape will be fine

I tried to get the fully insulated ones but they didn’t have any. It’s taped up now with black gaffer tape two all good.

 

[sidepod]

I tried to get the fully insulated ones but they didn’t have any. It’s taped up now with black gaffer tape two all good.

That’s messing with my head, could you just make a nice neat job and post a pic?

 

[ArunAlec]

Well worth fitting the relay but I would suggest adding a switch to the battery supply so that you can easily isolate the tap without having to pull the fuse. That way you can leave the tap “open” without operating the pump to allow you to drain/winterise the system.

 

[JohnCalifornia]

Yeah that’s a good idea. I may well do that. Did you fit a toggle type switch on yours!? What amp switch did you fit?

 

[ArunAlec]

Yeah that’s a good idea. I may well do that. Did you fit a toggle type switch on yours!? What amp switch did you fit?

I just used an old 12v toggle that I had can‘t recall the rating.