[Lars Buchholz]

I watched this video and found it very informative and very much agree with everything Eric says.

Im from the industry and had a lot of contact to criming technology, mostly from a troubleshooting and quality point of view.
So some smartass additions from my side. 😉
Uninsolated connectors are always preferred in the industry because:
– better controllable crimp pressure and result because of the missing plastic layer
– automatic machines can do uninsolated crimps in good quality in a matter of milliseconds
Those reasons lead to the fact that orignal cable connections in cars (and many other industrial products) are mostly unisloated crimps from factory.

Isolated crimp connectors have somewhat less predictable quality and shouldnt be used if you want to go to current limits of the connections.

When it comes to soldering:
Solder BEFORE crimping is not seen as a good idea.
Solder tin will float away/squeese out under pressure over time, loosing the tension of the mechanical contact.
For screwed connections it is already forbidden in the industry because screws will become loose after some time and contact problems can cause malfunctions or even fire at hight currents.
Pure copper doesnt float under load.

Soldering after crimping:
OK as long if you dont get too much tin into the wire and stiff it up.
The wires tend to break where the stiffened tinned part ends and the flexible pure copper part starts. Keep that in mind at wires that see a lot of motion/rattling i.e. in a car.

And i fully agree with Eric:
Buy a good tool!
In the industry the supplier of the crimp contacts will require you to use his shape and setting of tool to get any warranty on the contact performance.
You cant match that standard at home but you want to get close to it to reach the specified current ratings.

End of smartass mode. 😉

[Lars Buchholz]

I like all the Videos here!

Keep up the good work and dont get de-motivated!

Man, i work in a level 3 support and i always have angry people on the phone!

And you still have to look at the people that are happy with your products and hear what they say to improve it! 🙂

[Lars Buchholz]

Hi all,

Im a bit late to this discussion.
But hey, im a new member here! 🙂

Comming from Germany means that i should defend VW and Audi tech.
But i cant! 😛

While i was working on my own cars (Toyotas) and compare that to friends cars (VW, OPEL) i recognized the tendency to protect their own dealership by requiring a workshop to own a bunch of special tools.
I once wanted to do a favor for a girl and replaced the brake pads on her Golf. I had to improvise a tool to wind the brake pistons back in :angry:
What i also missed on some engines (older 1.6l VW) was a marker on the sprockets for the timing belt to align them :ohmy:

Working on Toyotas was much more foolproof.

But things become muddy now since my current Toyota is made in Czech republic and is a coopreation with Citroen and Peugeot.
The engine is from a Daihatsu and made in poland for a bunch of models.
Modern Diesel engines in european Toyotas are from BMW.

So finding cars that are easy to fix becomes more and more a lottery…..

[Author]

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