308 chattering relays in dash/doesn't start

Check your battery. Check the voltage to rule it out. Should be (without anything on in the car) 11.9V - 12.7V. If it is significantly less, change the battery.

 

check your fuse box, take out all the fuses and bend the contacts so they stay tight mine got loose and melted the box causing all sorts of problems

 

Sounds like you have two seperate problems --

1. See if you can determine which relay is "chattering" -- you should be able to feel it by just touching the outside cases of the relays with a finger. There is a relay controlling the fuel pump relay -- so the "chattering" one may not actually be the bad one, but if you can identify which one is chattering that would give a clue for what to do, or where to look, next.

2. No relays involved in the ignition -- if you've got no spark, in addition to the fuse holders themselves, you need to check the riveted connections. These connections can have erratic behavior (e.g., ok when cold, but goes bad after the plastic in the rivet sandwich heats up a little) and, if the area is already severely burned, that's a sign that the riveted connection, while mechanically still OK, may not be so great as an electrical connection -- either solder or new fuseboxes or Birdman's update. As a test (with everything still plugged in), use a jumper wire to connect the male terminal holding the light blue (A) wire on the top of fuse #2 to the male terminals on the top of fuse #1 holding the yellow (G) wires (the rivets and the plate on the back of the fusebox are supposed to be making this connection) -- if that restores the ignition, you can be sure your fusebox needs repair/replacement.

 

My car always gave me occasional trouble from my fuel pump fuse and relay. I would have to remove the fuse and scrape it on concrete to get a clean copper connection so it would work. The car always started, but it was just a pain the arse. I just recently put Birdman fuse blocks in and its been great. After looking at my old, original fuse blocks, the fuel pump relay bus was melted and was most certainly a fire hazard. Thank goodness we found it now.

 

Be sure to check all of your ground connections, and the connectors at the fuel pump. A bad ground will play havoc with your systems. Start at the battery, both ends of the negative cable, clean them and be sure that they are good. Agree with the suggestion to check all connections at the fuse block, and if you still have the crappy original blocks, get the new ones from Birdman (they eliminated virtually all the problems when I got my 308 a few years ago). As for relays, I changed all of them out when I did the fuse blocks. They are cheap from rockauto.com, so no reason not to change them all (just check the numbers and order them, rockauto sells the metal ones just like the originals).

 

And speaking of grounds, if the '82 FI version has the "digiplex" modules in it (not sure if that's just the QV model that has those), check the grounds on them. They are a known problem. There are a couple of threads on improving the grounding to those units.

Most electrical problems in cars can be traced to a bad ground, so that's always a good place to start.

 

+1 on Birdman's fuseblocks- When I first bought my car 3 1/2 years ago, during the first few months of ownership , I changed the fuseblocks (Birdmans) and replaced all of the 25 year old relays, I've never had any electrical problems since.
That is the best $200 investment you could make in a 308. (about $100 each)

 

Do the Birdman fuse block upgrade! Your car with thank you for it.

 

Did you check the fuel pump relay? They crap out all the time. Best test [when it is in it's no start mood] is pull the green connector at the fuel distributor, turn the key to the first position, if you don't here the pump running it's either the relay going bad [or gone] or the fuse.

 

+1, for the minimal additional cost, it will be a faster, and better than trying to fix what you have, and will avoid potential future issues.

 

* Re-soldering the fuse connections will NOT fix the problem. The factory fuse blocks are under rated for the current load they carry. You MUST replace them with the superior design of the Birdman style, to prevent future problems. If you don't change them , this is your future-see photo attached.
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That burn't terminal in my picture(above) was the fuel pump fuse terminal.

 

Yes, rockauto.com. I was able to buy all of the Bosch metal casing relays from them. Just write down the relay numbers off of the ones in your dash (leave them in place until the new ones arrive). Go on line to rockauto, and you will find them all listed (I think one of them has a new number, but the cross-reference comes up when you're checking). When the new ones arrive, change them out one by one, so you don't mix them up.