I have had the P259 fail even with the v3 harness relays, I rest my case - you can do as you please.
I know this is old, but i'm just getting back into this.
The quote above brings into question the purpose of the P259 chip? If all you can drive are LED's and lamps. Is there a real need to drive 8 LEDs or lamps in any application? why have the developers not introduced a more robust circuit or chip? I don't think it is a real problem so long as certain guidelines are followed and not strayed from. I totally understand why you may not want to use it after failures.
I personally have used the P259 for driving relays and indicator lamps, but as already discussed, automotive relays with flyback protection inbuilt, particularly the Siemens items with the yellow case (flyback diode clearly indicated on the schematic on its case). I also use the OEM multi function relay that Rover use on all their MEMS controllers, again those have inbuilt flyback protection resistors (again clearly indicated on the Rover wiring schematics). I have probibly done 15,000 miles using those relays on the P259, not much in the grand scheme, but its enough for me to be confident with it for how I use the car. I'm not convinced the Webshop relays have inbuilt flyback (no detail of the relays talked about), which may or may not contribute to the percieved problem.
I know the cheap black auomotive relays available in many accessory shops do not have inbuilt flyback protection, and the one available in the webshop looks dangerously similar. Not saying it is, but there isnt anything to say that it is not.
As it happens, I have also suffered a P259 failure, but that was most certainly down to a grounding issue (because I stupidly and knowingly created the problem
), and not as a result of the relays.
Output use is detailed here
http://www.vems.hu/wiki/index.php?page=GenBoard%2FManual%2FDigitalOut%2FTable