I thought the last time I worked my glow plug system would buy me a few years minimum. I know most people have great luck with these relays so I thought I'd post my failure...

Previous relays that have failed on me were an open coil, the relay could no longer energize and the glow plugs never saw voltage. When the colder October days rolled around and I started having the same old symptoms I went about my troubleshooting the same way, however, I could hear my Stancor relay energize and so I just moved onto glow plugs. Turns out, people are correct when they say to replace the UCVH when doing glow plugs. I went through mine last November, re-used the harnesses and lucky me I got to open up the drivers side and replace a harness 11 months later...

Anyway, once I finally tested the Stancor relay I found that I wasn't getting voltage through it which surprised me. I purchased mine from dieselorings.com so I gave them a call and spoke to someone from their customer service, they told me to energize the relay and test continuity across it. That's all good and fine if you have a way to test it out of the truck, I would advise you not to do this with the 12V source attached to the relay unless you want to buy a new meter... The only option they gave me was to send it in and let them determine if I can have it replaced under warranty. I need the truck running so I spent the $75 and threw in a Motorcraft relay, always available at my local dealer and they will warranty it.

I opened up the Stancor, a picture of the toasted contacts is below. Coil was fine and everything else internal looked alright. Maybe a quality issue? Poor material choice? These aren't the absolute answer, this relay made it from November 2015 until October 2016.

 

I don't think that that is a lot of contact surface considering the job that they handle. I am surprised.

 

I seem to recall thathe relay has specs that way exceed the needs in a GP application.

 

Got a couple years so far,about 10k miles,not a daily driver.

 

Maybe a little of a hijack, but is the Stancor GPR worth the extra money or is the Motorcraft GPR sufficient?

 

The Stancor ran me $70 and change from dieselorings.com but can be found for less. The Motorcraft ran me just shy of $80 (at my local dealer) but you can get it from riffraff for $50. Honestly after my experience, I would get whatever is most accessible with a warranty.... my Napa relays wouldn't make it 6 months, stancor 11 months and isn't easy to get. Motorcraft is stocked at my dealer and carries a 2 year warranty. I think the Stancor relays aren't what they used to be, maybe since they became hecho en Mexico....

 

I bought this one and installed few days ago. Rated for 150 amps 25% duty cycle (6 min) I will see how long this one will last. https://www.amazon.com/Trombetta-Vol...a+684-1241-212