Removing Corrosion from Foglight Electrical Connectors

[KillerHERTZ]

The previous owner swapped my front foglights with Xenons - Yes I know but actually they are extremely useful at night as the 'follow me home' lighting lights up my garage brilliantly. as they are brighter than the sun!

Twice they have both stopped working, after removing the wheel arch liners and accessing the wiring loom I have discovered that the pins inside the plugs had badly corroded. All pins turned light green.

A month or so ago, I managed to clean off the pins with bathroom descalers which worked fine until yesterday.

Any ideas what is the best thing to completely clean the pins? they are tiny so getting wire wool in/tin foil isnt really possible.

I have re-located the loom to prevent any water getting on them in future.

 

[Ted]

Pretty much impossible, Karl - the only real answer is to get new ones and reterminate.
Some things you can try are fine wet & dry on the pins, then. if they have a 'split' along their length, expanding them with a knife so they are a more secure fit.
Closing up the female connectors doesn't really achieve anything.
Once done, silicone grease is the best way to keep the water out.

 

[grumpyoldgit]

Could try this, but I've never used it so don't know how effective it is. Also available in spray cans.

Caig Deoxit Contact Cleaner 100% 2mL tube | eBay

 

[stevehg]

I have contact cleaner, silicone grease here if you do not have any and want to pop by and borrow some. I also have some AMP connectors and crimp tool that may fit your connectors if you want to try and use these too. AMP seem to supply most car manufacturers waterproof connectors.

Drop me a PM if you do

cheers, Steve

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Thanks for the replies/suggestions!

Steve, just PM'd you

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Thanks to Steve for lending me his connector cleaner