Glow Plug Relay Location

Joined
Jan 11, 2008
Location
Elwood, Indiana
TDI
1998 VW Beetle
Glow Plug Relay

Thank you, HermTDI. I appreciate the help. Now, for people such as myself, where is the relay panel located? In the cab, or under the hood? Thanks again.
 

egibbys

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
TDI
1999 Jetta TDI GLS
Has anyone every heard of having two glow plug relays? Or two 180 relays? This is what I found under my dash. The second one (yellow dot) is plugged into something with wires. Any ideas?
 

DanG144

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 2, 2007
Location
Chapin, South Carolina, USA
TDI
2005 A4 Jetta 5spd
Relay panel lower relay panel upper relay panel aux relay panel auxiliary relay panel

The relay in position 10 on your panel is the glow plug relay J52, a 180 type relay. Two slots to the right is position 12, which is the main power relay J317, a type 109 relay.
The numbers painted on them (109, 180 etc.) do not tell you their function; it only tells you of the relay type.
We often use a verbal shorthand, convenient because the large numbers painted on them generally makes them easy to identify in that fashion.
In the schematics the 'J' numbers are used to identify the components.

To further confuse things, we often use relay panel when we mean Aux relay panel.

The RELAY PANEL or LOWER RELAY PANEL is the bottom row of slots (1-4, VI, VII), just above the heavy wire screw terminal connections.
The AUX RELAY PANEL or UPPER RELAY PANEL is the two rows containing 13 slots mounted just above the RELAY PANEL.

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The yellow dot 180 type relay appears to be mounted in slot 4 of the RELAY PANEL (AKA the LOWER RELAY PANEL). As far as I can tell from a quick look at the Bentley manual, slot 4 is not normally used on your vehicle - it is the fuel pump relay slot for some cars, and the fuel pump relay is normally a type 409 relay.

Perhaps someone has added a feature to your car, lights, fuel pump, or something else and pirated the location.

Speaking of pirating, the first picture was put in the gallery by tongsli, the second by MOGolf. I used them without asking, so that is piracy, eh?

To be positive that slot 4 is not normally used on your car, you would have to page through every schematic diagram series pertinent to your car, looking at the relay map on the first page. I did not take the time to do this.

I hope this helps
DanG
 

egibbys

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
TDI
1999 Jetta TDI GLS
hmm interesting. The only thing that I know of that has been added before I owned it are the foglights. but they have their own relay that isn't attached to the panel. It is just hanging under the dash. (you can see one of the red wires in the top of the picture) There were wires running to the trunk at one time and they were tapped into the harness heading back to the break lights. No idea what it was for so I tore it out. Perhaps that is why it's there and its not in use anymore. All of my electrical works fine.
 

weedeater

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 17, 2001
Location
Reston, VA
TDI
Jetta, 2001, Baltic Green
There were wires running to the trunk at one time and they were tapped into the harness heading back to the break lights. No idea what it was for so I tore it out.
Probably rear fog lights.
 

egibbys

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
TDI
1999 Jetta TDI GLS
weedeater said:
Probably rear fog lights.
But I would think that there would be an existing switch or something left behind from the whole wiring job. And the wires only reached the trunk they didn't go all the way to the lights in the back. When I first bought the car it looked like it was wired for subs but when I further checked it out I found it was taped into the harness that goes up and over the rear wheel well. Who knows what it went to.
 

danielsender

Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2014
Location
Berkeley
TDI
beetle 1998
Sorry if I break into this thread, but I have a similar issue. I have a 1998 Beetle TDI that I suspect that the glow plug relay is defective. All the pictures that I see on the web don't look like the one I have, e.g. the Jetta 1999 seems to be different. Can someone please point out to the correct one?

Many thanks in advance.

Daniel
 
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