If you are anything like me you go to The Samba looking for tips on your beetle issues. When googling the Samba for hot start issues, one common recommendation is to install a hard start relay. While I don’t think this is my problem, I though decreasing the load going from the back of the car, up to the front through the key and back again couldn’t hurt. In my way of poor planning I bought two kits. One from Gary in the classifieds of the Samba and one from Wolfsburg West. I found the one from Gary by watching this YouTube video which mentions installing one. I emailed Gary and he said he would cut it a few extra inches longer to fit in the battery compartment. The Wolfsburg West one has a good blog post from 20 years ago(!) about the hard start relay install. I ended up using the Wolfsburg West one, because they were the same length wires, used heavier gauge wires and had a nice custom plug attached to the relay. But I think Gary’s is good too. So if you need one, contact me and I’ll get it to you.
Of course, you unhook the battery from the car when you start, a ramp again made this easy.
I fed the wires through the hole in the battery compartment after finding a good spot to mount it.
I used a generic grommet not the special VW grommet to plug this hole when I was done, FWIW. Next you remove the spade connector that comes from the ignition to the starter and plug it in to the really nice plastic covered receptacle on the relay.
The black spade connector goes on where you just removed the previous starter wire.
The large red wire goes on the the starter where the battery cable goes. This creates and isolated loop via the relay keeping the load of the starter off the ignition switch.
Next I organized all the wires in wire loom, which was probably the most difficult part of this job.
What about the ground you say? Well as I was mounting it inside the car I drilled a hole for a nutzert, then crimped the ground wire to mount on that as well.
The big question; did this solve my hot start issue? No. But again, good maintenance.
Parts:
- Wolfsburg West Hard Start Relay https://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/DetailsList.cfm?ID=111998611A
- Gary Relay https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2267872
- Nutzert Tool https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7702875