Knock Sensor harness plug

[GooeyGus]

Hello,
Well, I finally changed my knock sensor today and it feels as if my retarded timing issue is resolved

The silicone was completely gone from the back of the old sensor, and I could see the guts on the inside.

I got the old sensor out and popped the new one in, it was super easy and took me about 5 minutes (thanks to no AC bracket).

When I went to plug in the new sensor, I realized I had a wire broken AT the harness where the sensor plugs in.

Shit.

It was connected when I unplugged the old one, but it looks like the wire was corroded and just broke with the slightest bit of pressure.

"No big deal", I thought. I clipped both ends of the plug off; on the engine wiring side and on the new sensor side, and decided to just solder the connections.

This turned into a 2 hour ordeal.

I am a pretty darn good solderer; I do a lot of SMT work on small boards. BUT it turns out that soldering irons dont like to work when it's 35 degrees outside. I first tried my 20W iron, since it's the one I use for everything. Too cold outside. I tried two more before I said "F it" and grabbed my 80W soldering "gun". This one worked, but barely.

SO after I finally got solder connections that I was happy with, I added heatshrink to everything and started her up. Everything seems fine, the car definitely 'got its balls back' from the new sensor, but I have two questions:

1. is there anything wrong with just directly soldering the wires? I connected black to black and red to white (just like the factory plugs do)

2. is there anywhere I can get the factory plug for the engine harness? It will sure be a pain in the ass in the future if I have to cut/solder these wires any time I need to pull the knock sensor. OR is there any way I can disassemble the factory plug so I can re-solder wires to the pins? I tried for about a half hour before giving up and soldering the wires directly. If anyone can tell me how to disassemble the plugs so I can get the pins out, I'll be set.

thanks! Sorry for the long post, but I had to vent a bit. I planned on doing a whole lot more to the car today, but then this sucked up all my time.

 

[Rob10_99]

Yeah soldering them is fine for now Mcguiver.
The only problem would be if you wanted to pull the block that's it. I'd suggest just getting a new pin or trying to pry that old one apart to put in a new wire to crimp in, it sounds like your capable of doing that if you do a lot of electronic stuff.
Take a pin and poke around on the opposite side of the wire to get the two flaps able to pass the plastic.

 

[LiquidX]

Somewhat on topic, but is there any difference between 1g and 2g knock sensor besides the connecting plug? Same threads and all? I'm doing a 6 bolt swap into my 2g and need to replace the sensor.

Finally found out the info I needed. You need to match up to the ECU/harness. So even if you do a swap, you need to buy for the harness.


I'd say you'll be fine if you just soldered and heat shrunk it. All you did was just remove the connectors that allow for easy disconnecting. If anything, you improvedthe connections since you said they were corroded that bad.