Treating ECU / Immobilizer Pins

[Dave80GTSi]

Greetings to all.

I recently removed both my ECU and immobilizer, so to have them reflashed to ROW specs. In so doing I needed to remove a variety of plastic multi-pin electrical connectors, and I was pleased to see no signs of corrosion / overheating / distress for any of them. So that's all good.

Looking forward, upon reassembly, what is the consensus of the group as to applying a preventive material to these terminals, done so in the name of trying to prevent any future mischief due to a bad contact / water infiltration / what have you?

A spotty connection at one of these pins, which would result in a wonky operating condition or error code being thrown, could lead to an infuriating search as it would be non-obvious.

Some possible thoughts that I have had would be to work some copper dielectric grease down into the pin sockets before assembly. Or to spray the contact points with a silicone spray lube. Or to wipe down with a silicone grease. Or to treat the pins with a standard light petroleum-based oil.

Or else, just leave well enough alone, and reinstall “dry” with no treatment.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Thanks - DM

[78F350]

I always keep a couple tubes of 3M or Permatex dielectric grease in my garage and use it for almost all of my electrical connections. It keeps out moisture, prevents oxidation, insulates, and lubricates the sliding parts of the connectors. It also works well on weather strip seals (wipe off excess). Be careful with silicone spray lubes, some of them damage plastic and are intended for metal to metal use.

[JFP in PA]

Leave them alone.

[PL13]

Hi Dave80GTSI, I would like to remove both immobilizer from my 2000boxsterS to . How didi you proceed ?
Thanks

[gabedrummin]

Petroleum Jelly works well for electrical connectors as well .I have a wire EDM and a friend that was the service manager for ELox for 25 years told about this. Funny thing when I went to buy it all I could find is Cocoa scent now my connectors are water tight and smell good..!

[since95]

Dave80GTSi, I had electrical gremlins in my '94 348 Spyder F car. I found all the grounds corrode on the Italian cars and had a guy at a car show recommend Stabilant 22 after I cleaned them all off. I guess it is used to improve the connection between 2 wires/pins then sort of seals it off. All I can tell you is I had 2 dealers tell me I needed a new HVAC ECU, after spending $1500 on sending mine back to Italy to have it rebuilt. Instead of that I pulled off every ground to body wire (there was a ground bar behind the gauge cluster), cleaned them off, put Stabilant 22 on each wire, and re-connected.
Suddenly EVERYTHING worked! The electrical problems I was having never re-appeared after 10 years. I haven't had need to do anything like that since, but if I were in your situation I would do the Stabilant since I had such good luck with it on the Ferrari.

[Dave80GTSi]

Originally Posted by since95

Dave80GTSi, I had electrical gremlins in my '94 348 Spyder F car. I found all the grounds corrode on the Italian cars and had a guy at a car show recommend Stabilant 22 after I cleaned them all off. I guess it is used to improve the connection between 2 wires/pins then sort of seals it off. All I can tell you is I had 2 dealers tell me I needed a new HVAC ECU, after spending $1500 on sending mine back to Italy to have it rebuilt. Instead of that I pulled off every ground to body wire (there was a ground bar behind the gauge cluster), cleaned them off, put Stabilant 22 on each wire, and re-connected.
Suddenly EVERYTHING worked! The electrical problems I was having never re-appeared after 10 years. I haven't had need to do anything like that since, but if I were in your situation I would do the Stabilant since I had such good luck with it on the Ferrari.

Yup! Did the same with my "analog" 308, particularly with the grounds. But then, I needed to make up a new fuse board for that car, too.

Since the original posting, I have ended up using a very light coat of copper dielectric grease, which so far seems to have worked fine.

Thanks - DM