Should you change salmon relays as a maintenance item?

[mcbutler]

Hi all,

I have seen the salmon relays discussed often on the forum, changing to remedy roof faults and as a preventitive measure to prevent roof motor/pump burnout if one fails.
So, I researched it a bit outside of the forum and decided to swap mine out this afternoon.
Popped to BMW - £28 for the pair - went home, popped them in and the roof works fine
Before I swapped them over I compared them both and noticed that BMW seem to be selling an upgraded relay if the relay numbers are anything to go by;
Originals are 12 63-1742 690
Replacements are 12 63-1742/01
Both have the same part number.......

So, it might be worth 'upgrading' for safetys sake.....

 

[B21]

Emotionally it feels good to get a later version.

In this case, this generic relay has been used for a long long time in dozens of models..

An index revision may indicate addressing a known weakness (N54 injectors) but also it can be a range of things like legislation preventing or modifying use of certain manufacturing techniques (soldering for example) (E89 fuel pump controller) or change of materials for expediency or lack of availability.

Given it’s not been issued with a new part number as a replacement I’d tend to think it’s more a manufacturing / sourcing issues..

 

[Roddy]

Possibly identification of replacement mould tooling. I did that in a previous life, internals will be the same hence no part number change.
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