aaddpp

Hello all, tonight I swapped out the old filler neck for the new one Roger sent me. Simple enough...until I started looking around.

First thing that caught my eye was the stray orange wire in the photo below - I believe that it used to connect to the round component above (just below the wire bundle. Can anyone tell me what this is and if its repairable or needs to be swapped for a new component. Would this be leading to my ABS light coming on after driving?

Thanks,
Dave

Hilton

Yes, the orange lead should be attached to the white plastic barrel inside the black clip (the thing where all those wires go in is actually white). Its an earth lead.

You can see the embedded copper wires in it where it became severed, and yes, it will cause your ABS light to come on. I had exactly that problem in the front right wheel well on my '87 S4.

Hilton

To fix it..

Unclip the black clip holding the white plastic barrel in place and unplug the other end's leads to make working space. Swing the plastic barrel connector out towards you to improve access to the green circle area.

Then I cleaned the heck out of the embedded copper bits in the plastic barrel - highlighted with the green ring. I used copious brake cleaner to get it clean, then a small brass wire brush to make the copper shiny.

Then I got a pick, and poked around in the mess of embedded copper wires to make some space between the cores, and use more brake cleaner to clean it up.

Next I cut about 5mm off the end of the earth lead (in the red circle) with wire cutters, to expose cleaner copper. Slide some heatshrink over the lead, and then strip about 3mm of sheath off the end to leave a small set of copper stubs which I splayed slightly.

Then I applied soldering flux to both the end of the lead and the area in the green circle, before jamming them together so that the stubs sort of stuck into the pits made with the pick.

Lastly, I heated up the leads with a soldering iron, and applied solder - the flux should ensure that the solder penetrates into where the connection is being made - just make sure you get it hot enough that it flows all the way in.

Lastly, slide the heatshrink down to cover the soldered bit, and gently shrink it.

It's held up for about 1500km's so far. Good luck

SeanR

Mine did this also, I did a mickey mouse repair by taking a solder gun and melting the rubber/plastic around where it broke exposing enough wire to re-attach it. It lasted about a year and now the problem is back.

F451

Another Mousekateer here. Exact same issue. My repair did not work, but it was pretty rough so it did not surprise me.

I got a replacement section of that harness, but have not gotten around to splicing it in yet (working on all kinds of other issues right now).

I'm also wondering if a section of the harness getting spliced in will cause isses with the abs due to resistance issues or whatever though the soldered in wires.

Stromius

Prompted me to look at mine too. Even though the wires are still attached, the protective covering is gone from the engine bay all the way to the brakes. Is there suggested replacement to this covering??
Thanks

aaddpp

Stefan, I have only just found it, but I saw something called heat shrink tape that is suposed to serve the same purpose as a wire sleve but for wires that are attached / a pain to remove and pass through the sleve. I have not tried it, so it would be interesting to see if anyone has had any luck with it.

Dave

F451

I have the exact same issue on all four corners. I suspect most of our 928s are suffering from this. If you look closely in this pic you can see that I have wrapped the harness in electrical tape and zip tied it for good measure as a temporary fix for that part of the harness. The protective covering is also trashed where it goes through the inner fender.

F451

On the rears - not the circled area, but the wiring just above it:

Mrmerlin

you can get a roll of self vulcanizing tape and wrap the harness,
it works OK

Stromius

Thanks Ed and Merlin...sorry for hijack Q.