how to repair the engine compartment wire

If the copper wire is in no way damaged, just the insulation, I'd be inclined to just wrap it with electrical tape.

Maybe put a few mothballs under the hood, somewhere where they won't fall out?

Guess I'm just looking at the scale of the problem, and it's tight quarters, short lengths of wire.

I appreciate shrink tubing (for example) is superior, but then you have to pull the wire out of the connector, or cut it, and it really looks like just grazed insulation. Plasti-Dip painted on sounds good, never considered that before.

I realize too, that regular electrical tape is second best, but it's not bad. You can see a lot of it in the pic, applied at the factory. Even just wrap both wires together with tape, for expedience.

 

For stuff like that, there are a few options:

• For a long time, I've used Plasti-Dip (from a brush-on container, of course, not the spray cans people use to dip their wheels). It has good electrical properties and insulates to 1400 volts per mil of thickness. I usually do several coats (just for mechanical durability, of course, not because of the thousands of volts involved!) Time spent waiting for it to harden is a downside if you're in a hurry ... providing good airflow helps. (The Plasti-Dip people sell another product they call Liquid Electrical Tape for just that purpose; as far as I could ever tell, it has the same specs as plain Plasti-Dip, just in smaller bottles and fewer colors for more money.)
• Ordinary vinyl electrical tape will eventually turn goopy and unwrap. I've never seen an electrical tape that didn't.
• Rescue Tape (the silicone stuff that bonds to itself) is pretty darned cool, and faster than waiting for Plasti-Dip to dry. It maybe doesn't actually fill into voids the way Plasti-Dip does.
• A proper heat-shrink repair might be the gold standard. For auto and marine uses, there is adhesive lined heat shrink tubing; the lining sealant fills into the voids, the tubing shrinks down tightly around the repair. You would release that terminal from the connector shell, slip the tubing over the end up to the repair, shrink it, and put the terminal back into the shell. (The wiring diagram manual also shows how the terminals release from the different styles of shell.)
• If the copper looks like it's had corrosion start already, or any time the damage is so close to the terminal you don't have room for a good repair, you can buy a repair terminal at the dealer. (The diagram manual has the part number of the connector shell, the parts counter person can go from that to the part number for the terminal.) Toyota sells those pre-crimped to a new piece of wire several inches long, so you can cut the old wire a few inches back and get to good wire. You do a proper splice there (for example with lined heat shrink), and plug the new terminal into the connector shell.

-Chap

 

F4 Tape - Self-Fusing Silicone Tape - Home

I'm telling ya, F4 tape is the stuff...but do as you see fit.

 

Coat it with spray cheese.
That way when the rats return, they'll bite all the way through it. No vagueness then.

I think I'd go with just good ol' electrical tape. You can keep an eye on it, and in a year or more if it starts to unravel or deteriorate, just slap another piece on.

 

Thanks for the info. Ordered a couple of rolls from a Navy vet off of eBay.

Sounds like great stuff for my wiring projects and self made wiring harnesses. Electrical tape always turns into a goopy, loose mess.

 

Back in my days of using Plasti-Dip for such things, I always liked to use the clear. Then you can always see at a glance the quality of the repair, whether the copper is continuing to go green underneath, etc. I've also got clear heatshrink tubes.

I'm a relatively recent convert to the silicone tape, but it is great stuff and I am coming toward the end of my first roll. I don't know if you can get the F4 in clear, but the outfit behind it has a differently-branded version ("Rescue Tape") that does come in clear, as well as various other colors.

Just as with the Plasti-Dip vs. "Liquid Electrical Tape" difference, the branding difference doesn't seem to involve much difference in the tech specs, if any.

 

You must be buying the cheap brand electrical tape at Walmart. If you buy name brand, like Scotch 33, it will not turn in to a goopy, loose mess.

 

Brush on plasti dip is excellent for things like this.

 

You guys work to hard. F4 takes seconds...and it's legal too. Too each their own.

 

It's great but pricey, and not readily available wherever you go. Any tape may be a bit hard to wrap around so close to the connector and such a short lead down by what looks like lower headlight area.

 

Not a problem to wrap, but like I said...to each their own.

 

For you or I? Absolutely not. For the op quite possibly, do not know if you've seen some of their other posts/ doesn't seem to be the most mechanically inclined.

 

"Rescue Tape", the downmarket brand from Harbor Products, the current company behind F4, seems pretty ubiquitous and affordable. And if you can find any difference in actual temperature, tensile, or insulation ratings between the two tapes, be sure to point it out, because I can't. Other than no fighter-jet stories for the Rescue Tape, I mean.

-Chap

 

Received my eBay self fusing silicone tape the other day. Great stuff!
☺

 

I have used electrical tape, then zip-tie the tape for durability.

 

Some zip ties don't hold up very well in hot environments.

 

Look for uv resistant, heat resistant. Aka pro electrical zips.

 

So buy the time you buy the high dollar zip-ties...just use F4 and your done.