Adventures with Fuel Sending Unit connections

[boodie]

Being a long weekend, I decided to wash my '02 X and also check the OEM fuel sender connections (I checked the unit once last Fall but didn't disconnect anything).

They looked good; no splitting, no corrosion (we gots salt in Winter). Some road dirt, but nothing to be concerned about. So, to be pre-emptive, I packed the two connectors with Vaseline, to inhibit corrosion. Put them back together...

Hit the key; engine cranked, no fire. Ominous note: fuel gage says Empty...(I know it had 1/4 tank in it)...SES light on - well, I expected that...

Hook up my Actron OBDII code reader/eraser, get *6* codes set...but 3 are duplicates of other 3...All generic fuel codes I've seen before, when I got bad/low octane gas or gas cap was left loose (I just had to try that)...

So, take connectors off again, clean out most all the vaseline, plug everything back in...Only 2 codes now; fuel temp & fuel level...Erase them, X starts right up, no codes, no SES...

Drove around for about 20 minutes; no problems...

No real moral here, unless it's maybe don't fill connectors with vaseline...A light coating should do...

I'm thinking about putting some kind of foam ring around the connections to keep splashes out...Thick packing foam, wedged between body & tank...Anybody tried that yet???

[Schludwiller]

Smartass remark, but you could just get it fixed at a dealer by the recall.

[boodie]

Originally Posted by Schludwiller

Smartass remark, but you could just get it fixed at a dealer by the recall.

US dealer [one-half hour drive away - The next closest dealer is an hour drive away] won't even work on my X (Lockport Nissan); it's a Canadian spec and it's not in his database, so the service manager refuses to even work on it, much less do warranty work. His suggestion: "Take it to Canada".

I could; but traffic on any bridges here (Buffalo/Niagara Falls/Lewiston) is at least a two hour wait anytime; holidays more.

I once (well, more than once) tried to do what you did, transfer my warranty, but after waiting *45* minutes on hold, I got annoyed at Nissan Customer Service.

[OffroadX]

Don't use Vaseline, use dielectric grease (typically used for spark plug boots) instead, it's made for electrical applications.
And don't mess with the foam ring thing, that's just asking for trouble. If anything, get a nice tube of RTV silicone and apply a modest amount to the area. I'd almost suggest some of that self-curing/expanding foam (http://www.dow.com/greatstuff/) but that's gonna be a bitch to remove if/when you actually need to get at anything under there again.

Brent

[boodie]

Originally Posted by OffroadX

Don't use Vaseline, use dielectric grease instead...I'd almost suggest some of that self-curing/expanding foam (http://www.dow.com/greatstuff/) but that's gonna be a bitch to remove if/when you actually need to get at anything under there again.

The Vaseline was handy...

I didn't think of it until later, but I should have used the stuff I put in my house breaker box...(If you have aluminum house wiring, you know what I mean)...Where the aluminum wiring gets pinned down to the breaker contacts...

I am still considering the expanding foam; I have used it in my celler (that's a big room under the house below ground level for you Southern/Western dwellers) to plug holes...(I had a mouse problem for a while)...

But the gap between the gas tank and the seat bottom [steel] is about 1 1/2"...The foam will seal it off (I could put a circle around the outside of the sending unit orifice), but I'm wondering if it would become a place for the salty-slush to build up and eventually rust the tank itself...Right now, it is sort of self-cleaning...