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Speaking of connectors

4K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  RWLott 
#1 ·
We've had several threads on here on variant issues where the root cause turned out to be poor connections in one or the other connector. I recall the MAF sensor, various lights incl. turn signals, rear lights, headlights, etc.

Now you would think that this kind of electrical issue is a thing of the past. Hey, we're in the 21st century and still putting electrical circuits that look like some cheap Chinese phone charger in our cars? Its depressing. This isn't Lucas Electrics anymore, much of it is Toyota, who should know better.
True, almost all of the connectors have a positive latch on the housing to prevent them falling off. Unfortunately this gives no indication of whether the connector is actually making electrical contact. Where it would fall of in former days you're much ore likely to get intermittent faults with no visible sign on the outside. Is that progress?? :thwack:

So let me add another connection to the list:

I've been having issues with the car apparently not reaching operating temperature. The water temperature display stays at the bottom and my OBD-reader is indicating 60° C. So, first thought would be the thermostat, but the issue has been intermittent and, very strange for a thermostat issue the temperature is held very constant at those 60°C. bWe did replace the water temperatur sensor a few months ago and things seemed OK for quite some time throughout the winter.

But now it was back.:confused: Well, yesterday I decided to take look and more coincidentally than intentionally figgled the connector on the water temp sensor. Suddenly the dashboard indicator jumped from 60°C to 78°C, right in the middle and on the set thermostat temp. Jiggled a bit more and it went back down, back and forth.

Well, today its off to fix the connector. So, how any more of these are there in the car that can make trouble over he next few years?.TADTS
 
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#3 ·
Weird, lotus does outsource the wiring harness from Japan, while not Toyota it may be same suppliers.
 
#6 ·
We looked into the connector yesterday. First off, you can pry off the yellow insert cover inside to access the individual contacts (I believe this is red on other connectors).

The individual contacst are your usual feather contacts, crimped to the wire. On my connector the feather was pretty much open, which explained the problem. We bent it as much as possible to tighten it up.

Looks like a potentially very common issue.

Soory I couldn't make a photo, you'd need a good macro-lens for that.
 
#7 ·
It has been a while, but it is time to add another connector to the list of culprits.

I have been having spurious MIL-errors indicating "System too lean" that I originally attributed to the Komotec tune. After a 650 Km drive on the Autobahn with repetitive errors (P0171, P0174) I was desperate for a fix. It was Friday afternoon and the nearest dealer was a few hundred km away. It seemed logical the MAF was measuring a lower airflow that actual, leading to a lean mixture. So, I pulled the MAF-sensor connector and gave it a thorough cleaning. Result: no more errors in the 900 km on the return trip.

These connectors are getting to be a real pain in the a**. Probably root cause to many more errors and issues we've been discussing on here.
 
#8 ·
connector issues

I had issues with rough idle/cold start occasionally throwing CELs for well over a year. The dealer replaced the throttle body connector pins with gold in July.

Since then I've been pleased I no longer have cold start problems. All is well.

After two years just edged past 20K miles.
 
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