Relay board copper trace reliability

[Joffrey]

Over the last 100,000 miles, spread over 5 years, I have found the relay board to be the least reliable part of my car. Never had a relay fail. Never had a fuse blow. I have 20 amp main 7.5 for the injectors and 15 for the fuel pump. It's just the higher amperage copper traces that go. First the ground went. Then the +12 that powers the ECU. Most recently the +12 that the main relay switches burnt out. I replace it with a wire, and I'm good for another year or so, until some other bit that hasn't be replaced with wire goes. I don't think I am running as much current though it as some other setups do. I have EDIS, only 4 cylinders, injectors are not low resistance. It is under the hood, so it gets more road salt than if it were better protected. There does seem to be some corrosion where the traces fail. Did I get a bad board, or is this normal? I'm going to put together a new relay board and keep it in the car to keep me from getting stranded again. Should I add the wires to the new board right from the start? Is there any specialized tool for troubleshooting relay boards the way a jimstim helps check out MS ECUs? I can figure them out with a multimeter, but wondering if there is anything faster, for roadside fault isolation.
Thanks!

[trakkies]

Must admit to not being a fan of the relay board concept. It introduces extra connectors that simply ain't necessary. No big deal to just use ordinary car relays and bases and a suitable fusebox for the power. And run all the various sensor inputs etc direct from MS.

[Joffrey]

Thanks Dave. On my first megasquirt project I did just that, with wiring up a bunch of relays and fuse connectors. It looked like a rats nest, but didn't fail. It was also nearly free! On my current driver, I figured the relay board would be "better" and make fault isolation faster because everything is neatly labeled. It's not as easy to locate and fix a burnt copper trace when stranded on the side of the road, as I would like, as it turns out!