Black wire syndrome

[twilightflyer]

As the title says.....I was the changing the off side rear bumper marker and noticed that the negative lead to the lamp was quite rigid,on stripping the outer sheathing I noticed that the cable itself was black, I have come across this phenomenum before in my Radio Control Model aircraft whereby the negative lead shows the same symptons but nobody seems to be able to shed any light on the problem................can anyone here shed any light on it? Or is it the case of replacing the cable!.

I have found this information.......but does it apply to our cars with lead acid batteries?

http://www.ezonemag.com/pages/faq/a309.shtml

[skyship007]

Black wire syndrome is nothing like a case of Black death. Black death kills turbos and Black wire kills the electrics (Oh dear I forgot about all the ECU & MAP stuff). Suffered from it a few times myself as it can be a nasty issue for boat electrics where untinned Copper wire was used and not soldered but crimped or tied in knot in some cases.
Classic case of you get what you pay for because good quality marine grade Copper wire is silver cos they coat it in solder and that prevents black wire death.
If you can't pull the wires out and change them, the best thing is to solder every connection and then shrink tube it, self amalg tape or sticky seal it to stop water getting in. Never ever use chocky block connectors unless they are stainless steel ones. Dirty Copper is tricky to solder as you must remove the black stuff first. Sandpaper, rotary wire brush or seriously nasty acid flux it before soldering it.
The wire and connectors in my P2 1.9D are in perfect condition as good quality wire and connectors were used, whereas my old "Never again" Renault was a horror story in comparison, although the 5W tail lights lasted longer.

[960kg]

I repair old wireless set`s and reel to reel tape recorders and when setting up a rather large hi fi system at home i decided to buy wire off the bay and make my own leads with plugs etc. ......To my surprise when recording some music there were drop outs of sound when played back and the problem was only solved by purchasing brand new ready made leads.

Upon stripping the middle of the wire from the bay i found most of the wire upon it`s length bluey black intermixed with copper strands. This was the cause of the drop outs as the resistance was greater in the contaminated or corrosioned wire due to the cheapness of the copper coating (or lack of it).

The sad thing is one can think that you could be onto a winner but in the end it costs more as you have to replace all again.

To a certain degree one only gets what one pays for which is repeated with whatever we buy.


If on the Volvo you see this aged wire best to replace with new if possible, but it must be the same size cross section.

[skyship007]

Originally Posted by 960kg

I repair old wireless set`s and reel to reel tape recorders and when setting up a rather large hi fi system at home i decided to buy wire off the bay and make my own leads with plugs etc. ......To my surprise when recording some music there were drop outs of sound when played back and the problem was only solved by purchasing brand new ready made leads.

Upon stripping the middle of the wire from the bay i found most of the wire upon it`s length bluey black intermixed with copper strands. This was the cause of the drop outs as the resistance was greater in the contaminated or corrosioned wire due to the cheapness of the copper coating (or lack of it).

The sad thing is one can think that you could be onto a winner but in the end it costs more as you have to replace all again.

To a certain degree one only gets what one pays for which is repeated with whatever we buy.


If on the Volvo you see this aged wire best to replace with new if possible, but it must be the same size cross section.

You get more trouble with thin than fat wires, I've never needed to replace thick Copper cables, BUT the real thin ones can fail as described. Most black wires in a car are OK as they are big enough.

[twilightflyer]

I agree with you guys on your remarks but what about other wires,cables and such like, are they going to end up the same way, and if so how on earth am I going to check this? except by using a meter to check resistance?or is there another way, I would be gratefull for any suggestions.
Thanks in advance.