automotive relays with built-in LED? (wish list)

How about a relay with test points in the top of the case?

Power to coil, power to contacts, etc. The LED idea is nice, but sometimes a system fails because contact power is lost, even if the coil works OK. You could then stick an LED (with integrated dropping resistor) into the appropriate test points.

Down side to all of this: economics of manufacturing dictates the shaving of fractions of a panny off the cost of each component.

Actually both of these exist as after market parts. They are sold as testing items but they are just modified relays.

The issue then becomes, why would a company place diagnostic tools like this under the hood or in the fuseboxes of all their vehicles when well over 75% of the users will never even look at them or understand what they are used for.

Steve W.

That's the basic problem. Cars are not designed to be repaired or diagnosed. This is why you don't see lights on relays, why you don't see any way to pull the engine codes and parameters off from a convenient LCD display under the hood, and why you don't see connectors at regular points along all the wiring harnesses where you can disconnect or measure signals.

Airplanes are designed like that. If cars were designed by the people that design airplanes, they'd be a delight to maintain and they would last a lot longer.

--scott

Are you saying Saab cars are a delight to maintain?