Baja design relay question

[Baja Designs]

I wired this light (BD 20” Onx6) a few weeks ago and everything worked great, until it didn’t…

Yesterday morning I went out to start my truck and it was completely dead. I jumped it and was greeted with alarms and warning galore, brake system fault, traction control, and so on. It seemed unhappy just idling, and the brake lights were illuminated while no one was in the truck. That’s when I noticed the Onx6 was flickering, which is weird because it was turned off.

I removed the inline fuse and restarted the truck, everything went back to normal. Any ideas what’s happening here? Maybe I need to try a different body ground? Maybe the light is defective? Should I ground to the negative battery terminal? I’m not sure since it worked fine for about 3 weeks.

Here is the wiring setup (BD relay harness):

View attachment 420338

Here is the flicker:

View attachment 420339

@Baja Designs @The Car Stereo Company @smurfslayer
@Specialtyperformanceparts

Hey Toadsmasher2k1,

Have you tired doing a direct power test to the light ? Process of elimination will help you narrow down the issue. Next step would be to change the ground to the battery ground. Please feel free to shoot me an email to [email protected] if the problem continues.
Best,

 

[ToadSmasher2K1]

Looks like the wiring melted some. Any ideas what would have caused this? I’d prefer to fix the cause and not burn my truck down next time…

 

[smurfslayer]

excessing resistance somewhere in the circuit probably.

 

[ToadSmasher2K1]

Excuse my ignorance, I am by no means an automotive wiring guru. Would that be an issue that existed in a faulty relay, or did I somehow wire it wrong, did it get wet, do I need a higher quality relay harness?

The Baja Designs harness says it's made specifically for this BD Onx6 light bar, so I'm just confused with what wrong and how I can avoid it going forward.

I appreciate everyone's input.

 

[Nex]

How is it wired? Up lifter is triggering the relay, red to the battery, black to a body ground correct?

 

[ToadSmasher2K1]

How is it wired? Up lifter is triggering the relay, red to the battery, black to a body ground correct?

Initially red to battery, black to body ground. It worked fine for 3 weeks.

Then it drained my battery and started flickering. I moved the ground to the negative post on the battery and it continued to flicker. I removed the harness today because BD sent me a new one that arrives tomorrow, and that is when I discovered the melting.

Blue wire is wired to Aux 2 as a trigger for the relay. As far as I know that wiring is correct?

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

i gave him a solution. it should work

 

[ToadSmasher2K1]

@The Car Stereo Company FTW

 

[ToadSmasher2K1]

For those wondering how this ended, there was water that drained out of the relay when I removed it. Looks like water got into the relay and completed the circuit, causing the battery to drain and flickering. I had the relay mounted where the wires were coming out horizontally, allowing water to get inside. Noah suggested mounting the new relay with the wires coming out of the bottom.

Makes perfect sense to me. Hopefully that's the solution.

 

[smurfslayer]

For those wondering how this ended, there was water that drained out of the relay when I removed it. Looks like water got into the relay and completed the circuit, causing the battery to drain and flickering. I had the relay mounted where the wires were coming out horizontally, allowing water to get inside. Noah suggested mounting the new relay with the wires coming out of the bottom.

Makes perfect sense to me. Hopefully that's the solution.

sounds familiar...
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