SRI fuse box/gold connector kit upgrades

Excellent points...only weakness I see there, is the crappy boots. As we have all seen on the 355, 550 and 575, those "accordion" style boots last about 5 or 6 years and start splitting and cracking and let moisture, dust and dirt into the connection, making a mess of things. I would at least upgrade the Ebay kit and use the SRI silicone boots.

 

BMW use tin/tin. I recently designed an exhaust valve ECU for BMW and they specified the connectors, they specified tin.

Ferrari connectors are no different from any other. The problems simply happen with age, on any car which uses tin connectors. The only improvement in ageing is to use gold connectors but unless both sides of the connector are gold there is no point in using gold. Replacing one side of the connection with gold and leaving the other as tin brings no benefit above replacing it with tin. In fact there is documented evidence which states gold/tin is worse than tin/tin.

 

5 or 6 years for the OEM boots? What's you frame of reference? These cars are 16 to 20 year old.

Everybody uses tin-tin, to this day, where appropriate, and gold-gold where deemed necessary. And back in the 80s and 90s everybody used the same Bosch components. I point this out before, if you take a careful look at your 355 harness you will fine the TPS are gold-gold. Why did Ferrari bother to go gold-gold there? It was OE, not a retro fit or an update. Obviously they knew about gold connectors. Why did they then use tin anywhere? Rhetorical question. They used tin connectors on tin sensors because they knew the potential problems of mixed metals.

You have to ask a simple question. If gold works so much better regardless of what plating the mating connector has, whey do connector manufactures bother to make anything but gold plated pin? Why do all major electronics manufactures us same metal contacts in cell phones, computers, TV's,.... Checking prices you can see that there are gold plated pins that are cheaper than tin, so it is not a cost issue. But they make gold, tin, silver. The reason is obvious. It's because no one who knows anything about electronics, chemistry, metallurgy, etc, would mix metals on electrical contacts unless they were trying to create potential reliability issues. Arguing that there will be no (or less) corrosion because 1/2 a contact is replaced with gold is like saying the steel frame of an old Corvette won't rust because the body is fiberglass.

The only reason I bother posting in response to this stuff is because it is totally driven by ignorance and denial. But that is the crowd mentality.

FYI, picture of the boots from the ebay source. True Audi parts, made in Germany.
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Ha Ha Ha.....this is like watching the best rerun movie....EVER! (but, I still hold a special spot for Scent of a Woman)

When is the gold connector a premium? I can only think of one place on the internet that sells them for a %15000 mark up. I'm still laughing.


Just to clarify this for you.....the old tin and copper wire corrosion (the old crimp of tin on the copper wire) over the last 25 years is your problem. Just replacing the connector is the true upgrade. The move to "gold" is the next problem you will see. You would be better served by either a new tin connector or replacing both sides of the connector to gold. A tin connector is usually 28 cents and the gold one is 35 cents. But I have seen people spend $1500 for these at the advertised Ferrari "upgrade "dealer.

Can people learn the science before they keep posting that gold is better?

 

Are you sure you didn't just put snake oil on that connector, john?

That corrosion looks like snake oil corrosion! (Im kidding for those of you that don't understand)

 

Actually, there is another CRITICAL improvement you can make over most cars' stock connections ---- regardless of what metals are used, it will make a dramatic difference in reducing (nearly eliminating actually) corrosion.

....And, that is to pack the connection with a high quality electrical component grease --- it will seal out moisture, help insulate from heat, and protect the metals against corrosion.

Case in point, a little while back, I was doing some repair work on the electrically adjustable suspension of a 1993 Lincoln with 170K miles accumulated of midwest, salt corroded road driving. The connections were very exposed on the underside of the car, so they were in terrible, dirty, road-salted, condition externally ---- but when I pulled them apart, all the pins/sockets (which were tin) were absolutely pristine...... I was quite surprised by this. The undeniable reason why they were so well preserved is that Ford had wisely decided to pack them with grease at the factory

 

My 308 is 30 years old. Never had an electrical problem. My 3 series BWM was 18 year old. Never had an electrical problem. Driven in rain, snow, heat, cold. I know someone who bought a 95 F355 which was poorly maintained. A Florida car subjected to heat, humidity and a general corrosive environment. Lost of corrosion on plated parts but electrical connections showed none.

There is this constant hype here that if one or two cars, or several, suffer a problem, sooner or later they all will.

 

Maybe my cat peeped on it.

 

My 78 308GTS never had electrical issues either...well ONE time it died, and I found the fuse terminals simply needed to be bent closer together for the fuel pump. 5 minute diagnosis, and I was back on the road again. Great car, I miss it.

I have a 14 yo BMW, only two electrical problems in 231k miles...both times it was the voltage regulator failing in the alternator...just replaced the alternator each time...I still daily drive the car.

Ferraris in general, are a different beast...they are not nearly as well built or had the necessary testing that regular cars get. For the number of cars on the road, it is obvious there are a lot more issues...some related to lack of use, others from poor build quality, or bad design.

 

At what $1800 for another kit????? Sorry but there is NO WAY I would pay that kind of coin. You obviously are, but I am not.

If I where to need to do the process again, at this point all I would have to pay would be $30-$40 for pins. But the new JPT won't be losing their gripping power for a very long time. Regardless of the female pins being tin or gold plated, the male tin pins on the sensors and on the ECU/s WILL develop fretting corrosion/tin oxide that WILL need to be cleaned off after some time. Only thing I would really need to do is clean off the oxide with some DeoxIT. Matter of fact it is a good idea for EVERYONE to clean off the tin oxide regardless of if you have stock pins, tin JPT pins, or decided to go with gold kit. Get that oxide cleaned off the male pins.

Yeah the first crimp wasn't all that pretty. They did get much better looking the more I did. Be it a ratcheting crimp, or a squeeze the piss out of it crimp I did, it really doesn't matter because the crimp tool bottoms out anyway, preventing over pressure and crushing the wire. That is, provided you have the wiring in the proper gage slot. The hardest wires to crimp are the double and triple wires in one pin. You really need to make sure you chose the correct crimping slot for those.

However at least I didn't solder mine.

 

Yes yes you both are 100% correct but Ferrari is not using the same Bosch parts BMW is using or Ferrari is improperly specing parts for the job at hand. I can take old early Bosch motronic era BMW/Bosch connectors on/off and they work fine with not problems tin on tin. A similar Ferrari connector will crumble in my hand. Ferrari sources the low bidder. I swear they are using seconds from Bosch. Your generic BMW will not fail electrically like a Ferrari. You Generic BMW thrives in rain and snow. Your Ferrari can't do that.

 

I'm not saying gold is better. I'm saying the "gold kit" is better than what we got from Ferrari or it would never have been created. People are not repinning BMW's and Porsches. Those cars don't have our problems. Furthermore that gold kit works regardless of how the science says it won't and it has been working better that what we got from the factory and for over 5 years since the gold kit inception. Do any of you have any data to show the catastrophic failure of cars with gold kits? If the failure will come how long do you predict we will have to wait? It has been 5 years for me no problems. No visible evidence of fretting corrosion under magnifying glass. Will I have to wait 10? 15? 20?

 

I pretty much agree with you. I like fixing cars that's fun. Looking for parts, figuring out who has a good crimp tool, where do I get the little wire brushes, boots, 4 different kinds of pins, connector bodies, depin tools, sourcing stuff from 3 different guys, not getting what I want and sourcing something from a 4th guy that time costs me money too. Everyone enjoys the hobby at their discretion and spends on their hobby at their discretion.

And on solder that is another scientific NO NO just like gold/tin. However...there are times when crimp with judicious use of solder can be a very very good thing when properly applied. We can talk about it some time.

My phone was a brick last week which is why I did not call you back. I'll try and catch you later in the week.

 

I thought maybe you were at the track racing.

 

I was at VIR when it brickafied. I hate technology when it doesn't work. I'm off to Daytona Thursday and give you a call on a used Iphone that works. Fancy 5 month old Samsung POS = fail!

 

Shoulda bought an IPhone.

 

Fixed

 

What is the magic ingredient in cat pee? I have found that it is one of nature's most corrosive concoctions.

Maybe Maranello has a feral cat problem in their harness department? And all this time we just thought that Ferrari was being cheap.

John, you have once again amazed me with your insight and knowledge. I hope all is well with you and you are keeping the cats away from your 308/355.

 

Science dose not say mixed metal contacts (i.e. the gold kit) will not conduct electricity. Science says mixed metal contacts in the presence of an electrolytic (moisture) will result in galvanic corrosion with the potential for corrosive destruction of the metal acting as the anode, the tin plating on pins of the sensors in this case.

As for fretting corrosion, again we have been through that before. You can continue to ignore the research done and published by connector manufactures which clearly shows that gold on tin increases the rate of contact degradation by fretting corrosion. http://www.te.com/documentation/whitepapers/pdf/p316-90.pdf. If the goal is to reduce fretting corrosion then silver-tin would be the desired route.

It isn't about the quality of connection on a Ferrari compared to other cars, though I have seen nothing but anecdotal evidence suggesting Ferrari used inferior components. But good or bad, if the connections need to be refreshed the idea of introducing dissimilar metals is generally the worst thing you can do. While research suggests silver-tin may reduce fretting it is only marginally better than gold with respect for the possibility of galvanic corrosion as this chart shows. Given that the majority of sensors have tin plated contacts, the chart below shows that the further below tin the other metal is the more severe the potential for galvanic corrosion. So perhaps you won't need to replace you connector in the future if you use gold plated contacts, but rather all the sensors.
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Is it possible the rubber boot failures on the Ferrari could be from higher under hood temps?
I can't understand how Bosch rubber would be different on other cars?

 

So john,

First sensors are a wear item. They get replaced all the time. So if my gold eats the sensor over five plus years is that bad when the sensor life is questionable anyway? Also people who chase ghosts first thing they do is change sensors. At least with gold I change sensors only upon sensor death which we have not seen in five years and counting.

For the truely paranoid the gold kit is divided into motronic ECU's and everything else. So you can skip the ECU's or do everything else and TIN the ECU's if so inclined. The proof of concept is good. The ECU's must be done in some way. Pin spread is near 100% from what I have seen. People are arguing about small details like if shields ruins the lines of your ferrari. There is no question this concept works. How people implement its up to them. If they want to Ernie it follow his threads. If they want a kit with support SRI is the only Turnkey commercial solution and that means those users are stuck with gold pins.

 

I can pretty much guarantee that is the reason. I have never replaced a connector boot in any other car I have owned. But 355s and 550s seem to consume them with great regularity. Particularly the fuel injector connector boots.

 

I'd just going to response mostly with bullets.

1) The concept works, if needed, agreed. But gold has nothing to do with it.

2) Agree that the kit is the only one commercially available. I give DH credit for putting it together.

3) I believe the kit is over priced, but it's capitalism at work. No one is forcing anyone to buy it.

4) It's more than a few sensors. It's MAFs, Idle control valves, Throttle position sensors, Cam position sensors, TDC sensors, O2 sensors, Coolant temp sensors, Injectors..... How many of them are actual wear items? I replace a coolant temp sensor, $16, and an O2 sensor, $65, in my 355. Never anything in my 308. And as noted, where the components have gold (the TPS is the only one I've found on my 355) Ferrari does use gold connectors. Right there that should tell you something. With hundreds of connections through out the car the one place you find a component with gold contacts Ferrari put gold plated pin in the harness. If gold-tin wasn't a potential problem why would they have bothered? Why would they not have just used tin plated pins as they did everywhere else? Ferrari really aren't the dummies some would have you believe. I read here that Ferrari uses cheap parts. But many of the Bosch parts used on the 355 are the same, identical parts as used on Volvos, Saabs and Porsches of the time.

5) Don't be so sure that the gap you see in the ECU pins is spreading of the pins. Not all pins are designed with zero clearance. It's got to do with insertion pressure and clamping force. If too much force is required to spread the pins when making the connection the plating can be scraped off the contacts. I don't know the original spec for the Ferrari pins, but I'm just pointing out that because the pins have a gap when removed it doesn't necessarily follow that they have lost clamping force.

6) I don't agree with swapping sensors to look for ghosts. And let's not call them ghosts. They are problems, intermittent or not. Anyway, most sensors can be tested in situ much quicker than by swapping. The problem is few people, particularly DIYers, understand how to do so or don't have the equipment.

7) I been frank and honest. I have said out right that there may never be a problem for those who install the kit. But, given two pins with the exact same spec except one is gold plated and one is tin, the odds of a future problem increase with gold on tin over tin on tin.

As I have said, I don't have a horse in this race. But I do feel that anyone who is considering such an install should have all the facts. It's really no different that the current discussion on antifreeze and whether it is necessary to use antifreeze that is specially formulated for engines with wet liners. Some will tell you it is. Some will say it probably doesn't matter in these engines. People will make their own decisions. Is an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure? Is the wrong cure worse that the disease?