Mk 1 Cabby Aftermarket Relay in the Starter Circuit

I have had some issues with my starter not kicking in.  I had another post on this but it was becoming a little confusing so I decided to start another.  I have what appears to be an aftermarket relay fitted close to the battery.  It has four connections as follows:
Black - earth
Blue and Red to starter solenoid.
Blue from ignition switch/fuse board
Blue permanent live

I have established that if I permanently connect the blue and red lead to the blue lead from the ignition switch/fuse board the starter kicks in correctly when turning the key and all is well.

I have 2 questions:

1.  What damage could I be doing by bypassing the relay in this way?
2.  Can someone help me identify the relay and where canI buy one? 

its not a factory thing, its been fitted to work around a problem i expect. the factory wireruns direct from fusebox and should be red/black, and it needs to be quite chunky. if the blue wire from the engine loom is too thin it could burn out

I have a 1990 cabbie 1800 auto mine also has this relay I thought it had something to do with the immobaliser be after reading this im not sure, problem I have is im converting to manual and wondering if this is going to cause me a problem ive also tried dis-connecting this and had no problems but like you was reluctant to remove completely in case it caused problems down the line hope someone else can shed some light on this (ugly looking) relay

trace the wires to where they go. if they run to the starter then once converted to manual with a decent starter motor then you wont need the relay unless there is a wiring/ign switch fault. the chunky red/black from inside the car should run direct to starter motor

Its the heat soak relay, the autos especially have the issue of too much heat from the exhaust manifold.

VW did a modification with the heatsoak relay to overcome the hot start problem. I ended up with a new starter on my nold auto….

chortle said

Its the heat soak relay, the autos especially have the issue of too much heat from the exhaust manifold.

VW did a modification with the heatsoak relay to overcome the hot start problem. I ended up with a new starter on my nold auto….

this sound about right have had a lot of problems with starter motor especially when engine is hot even after fitting a new one had to leave it a couple of times to cold down before it would start hopefully it wont be a problem for me now im converting to manual