1G Uh. Is this supposed to catch fire?

[CrackedDSM]

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Fuel pump rewire relay, actually caught fire a little bit.

I assume this isn’t a feature, so my next question is why the hell would this happen? Bad relay?

This begun because I went to start the car and the fuel pump wouldn’t prime. Checked the fuse and it was fine, checked the relay and it was fine. I pulled the voltage wire and the wire going to the pump and jumped the pump, and it kicked on. Hooked the wires back up and it kicked the pump on like normal. Then I saw smoke and a little fire and cut power.

Sooooo yeah. Please help.

 

[dwb]

Looks like the crimp and/or crimp connector.

 

[Turbski91]

I don’t think your crimp connector was designed to handle the amperage. Too much resistance. Got hot, and melted the plastic.

 

[jdxnc]

That's a bad connection, resistance = heat buildup. Those style crimps are terrible for that.

 

[luv2rallye]

Soldering the terminals on will eliminate resistance and be more reliable.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Solder your electronics (says the old fart with the EE degree but worked his life selling stamps ). It had too much resistance for the load and was only a crimp joint. I solder most and then add 3/1 Heatshrink with glue inside over it. Its just me.
Cut off the end and replace it and solder it and get a tube of economical yet "3/1" shrinking heatshrink tube and have a good SOLID GROUND.
Tip,.put heatshrink on the wire and get it away from where you may solder, ask me about why sometime.... I did alot of soldering today
Just trying to help "not burn down a car" like in my video post today with fuel falling all over the rear dif, headed for the tailpipe.....

 

[CrackedDSM]

That's a bad connection, resistance = heat buildup. Those style crimps are terrible for that.

What style crimps are better? Could I have a link?

Soldering the terminals on will eliminate resistance and be more reliable.

Just solder the terminals to the wire? Don't crimp them? Would you heatshrink over them afterwords?

Solder your electronics (says the old fart with the EE degree but worked his life selling stamps ). It had too much resistance for the load and was only a crimp joint. I solder most and then add 3/1 Heatshrink with glue inside over it. Its just me.
Cut off the end and replace it and solder it and get a tube of economical yet "3/1" shrinking heatshrink tube and have a good SOLID GROUND.
Tip,.put heatshrink on the wire and get it away from where you may solder, ask me about why sometime.... I did alot of soldering today
Just trying to help "not burn down a car" like in my video post today with fuel falling all over the rear dif, headed for the tailpipe.....

I soldered everything else on the car wire related, but with this I wasn't aware that soldering was an option. It's been on the car a very long time, and only just now gave me a problem. Are you saying you solder the spade terminal onto the wire?

Also I have marine grade 3/1 heatshrink with adhesive, and that's what was on the wire at the crimp connection. It's the red sleeve that has the clear stuff running out of the other end of it. I'm skilled with soldering thankfully. I've had to do it enough on this car.


So the consensus seems to be a bad crimp job, so I cut it off and used a neighbors better pair of crimpers and removed the plastic sheating on the new spade connector. Crimped it on, and it seemed to have fixed it. The wire/connector itself isn't actually getting all that hot. The relay gets fairly warm, but seems like it's okay. I think to be safe I'm gonna just redo all the terminals. I may try soldering them all on if I get some more guidance on it from some people here.


Also, information that I wasn't aware of before: there's apparently a leak into that side compartment that I had the relay in. There's water collecting in the bottom where I had the relay, so I assume the terrible patch job a previous owner did to delete the antenna is probably leaking. I'm sure water being in the mix probably didn't help resistance any.

 

[jdxnc]

What style crimps are better? Could I have a link?

These style, that engage the wire and jacket separately. These are what OEMs use, you will not find soldered terminals on any oem wiring harness, solder adds resistance and if copper wire is overheated, it becomes brittle.

If you buy the pre-wired relay sockets, they use this style crimps in them as well.

I built my entire harness from scratch with this style of crimp and not a drop of solder, I have had ZERO electrical issues what so ever since the Fueltech swap. That includes sensors that pull virtually no load to my fuel pump pulling 40A.

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[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Those are good connections Jason.  IF you have the tools to properly crimp a connection like that, it's 99% good. High load stuff I will solder and crimp both if necessary. I work on small electronics so it's kinda part of me.....OCD????

 

[jdxnc]

Those are good connections Jason.  IF you have the tools to properly crimp a connection like that, it's 99% good. High load stuff I will solder and crimp both if necessary. I work on small electronics so it's kinda part of me.....OCD????

I will agree that solder is a way to mitigate situations where you don't have the proper tools. It's just not the optimal way to do it in an automotive situation. There's tons of electronics where they are specifically designed for solder, DB9 connectors and such for instance, things that don't usually get subject to vibration or movement frequently.

 

[curt-s]

I think we're talking the difference between our common uses and a company wanting to avoid warranty under 100% of vehicle operational environments and circumstances for 100,000km (standard bumper-to-bumper -- or, at least it used to be). I've been crimping with standard crimpers and soldering since 2008 and have yet to see one connection fail. The 30 year old stranded wire will fail from corrosion and fatigue long before then.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Our factory wiring is just enough to "get the job done" and not a bit more. That's one downfall of these and alot of other cars from that era.

 

[jdxnc]

Our factory wiring is just enough to "get the job done" and not a bit more. That's one downfall of these and alot of other cars from that era.

I don't think they've gotten much better....here's looking at you Stelantis

 

[CrackedDSM]

These style, that engage the wire and jacket separately. These are what OEMs use, you will not find soldered terminals on any oem wiring harness, solder adds resistance and if copper wire is overheated, it becomes brittle.

If you buy the pre-wired relay sockets, they use this style crimps in them as well.

I built my entire harness from scratch with this style of crimp and not a drop of solder, I have had ZERO electrical issues what so ever since the Fueltech swap. That includes sensors that pull virtually no load to my fuel pump pulling 40A.

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Do these specific terminals have a name? Like, how do I order these specifically? I’m also assuming they take a special crimper too.


Also, as a tribute to @curt-s , can’t I just lick my fingers and twist the wires together?

 

[jdxnc]

Do these specific terminals have a name? Like, how do I order these specifically? I’m also assuming they take a special crimper too.


Also, as a tribute to @curt-s , can’t I just lick my fingers and twist the wires together?

I believe the proper term is open barrel wire crimps and yes you'd need the corresponding crimper, like this:

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These are cheap but for 99% of people will do perfectly fine. It's a 2 step process, first you crimp the wire and then the jacket, which takes the stresses, not the wire itself. There are tools that do both at the same time but I don't find they do a great job unless you get the really good ones. These ones I listed take slightly longer but you get a good result. I did a bunch of practice crimps before doing my harness.

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[BLACK'98DSM]

Short answer to your title: NO!
Sarcastic answer to your title: "At least it soldered itself for free!"

 

[CrackedDSM]

I believe the proper term is open barrel wire crimps and yes you'd need the corresponding crimper, like this:

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These are cheap but for 99% of people will do perfectly fine. It's a 2 step process, first you crimp the wire and then the jacket, which takes the stresses, not the wire itself. There are tools that do both at the same time but I don't find they do a great job unless you get the really good ones. These ones I listed take slightly longer but you get a good result. I did a bunch of practice crimps before doing my harness.

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Awesome. Thanks a bunch.

 

[TerminalTalon]

These style, that engage the wire and jacket separately. These are what OEMs use, you will not find soldered terminals on any oem wiring harness, solder adds resistance and if copper wire is overheated, it becomes brittle.

If you buy the pre-wired relay sockets, they use this style crimps in them as well.

I built my entire harness from scratch with this style of crimp and not a drop of solder, I have had ZERO electrical issues what so ever since the Fueltech swap. That includes sensors that pull virtually no load to my fuel pump pulling 40A.

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How many hours do you think you have in the harness?

 

[jdxnc]

How many hours do you think you have in the harness?

It's hard to say but I'd say between 20 and 40 hours.