This is one of those times I think I got over my head. I have a '03 V6 3.5 Santa Fe. The clutch on the AC compressor went out and was making a loud racket. When I was pulling the compressor off I noticed the wire harness connection to the compressor was damaged. Either by me or previous change. So the end of the harness on the car side is damaged.
Can a new one be purchased and spliced? I cannot see where it goes to see if it can be replaced.
One suggestion given to me was to cut the connection off the compressor and then splice a new wire between the compressor and car wiring. Does any one have thoughts on that idea?
That's what I would do. Just make sure you use wire at least as thick as the wire that's already used in the circuit and you should be fine. If you can get your hands a couple of blue crimp on Duraseal butt connectors, those will make a nice water tight connection (if you crimp them on properly). Those connectors have a heatshrink insulation on them with a layer of hot melt glue. After you crimp the connector heat it with a cigarette lighter and the insulation shrinks onto the wire and the hot melt glue seals the ends to keep the water out. A regular crimp on butt connector will work OK too but you'll likely have issues with it down the line due to water ingress.
Thank you for the confirmation. I did find the correct connector system online which I will buy but will still need to splice that onto the wire from the car side. Will for sure get these for that portion.
One more question, does the heat melt the rubber quickly. Don't want to overheat and ruin the wire. Any tricks or tips?
Yeah, it shrinks almost instantly. Just keep the flame moving up and down while at the same time rotating the wire so the heat is applied all the way round the joint.
A heat gun is a bit OTT for this application, IMHO. They're big so you can't always get the heat where it's needed and you need a 110/240V mains supply to power one which isn't usually available when your working in the street. And the time it takes to dig it out and unreel the power extension cable, etc, the job would already be finished if I used my trusty gas cigarette lighter. I've got a little heat gun attachment that I can fit to my gas soldering iron but I rarely use it. It's just easier/quicker to pull my lighter out of my pocket and use that.
I'm a non smoker by the way. My cigarette lighter is only ever used for heat shrinking wiring repairs.
I eventually used a lighter. I had very little room to get a heat gun in there and the lighter worked great. Thank you all for your great feedback.
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