Until This - I Bragged About Chevy Reliability

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by booster

I don't think I understand what you are saying here as grease of ever evolving types has been a standard on connectors for decades. In general, from what the manufacturers have told me about the connectors they sold was that grease does a bunch of stuff. It lubricates the sliding connections to prevent a galling, it coats the conductive pins or blades to prevent oxidation, it fills the areas and helps any seals seal better to help prevent water and corrosives intrusion. The actual conducting area, which tends to be quite small and wiped when plugging in pushes all the grease out of the way so conduction is not affected. The only downside I have heard of grease in connectors was related to heat dissipation but my bet is that the connectors were either corroded already or overloaded a bit. You certainly wouldn't want conductive grease as that would cause leakage.


Do you have a source on the no grease in pin area problem. It is very new to me and I have always greased connectors for 50 years as soon as I get a used vehicle or have the connectors apart. I just had the entire drivetrain out of my 96 Buick Roadmaster and when it all went back in you can bet all the connectors got silicone grease in them. No issues on restart with any of them, just like I have seen in the past, even though this car must have had 20 connectors just for the drivetrain areas.

Agree, facts and myth -
https://www.nyelubricants.com/stuff/...%20connections.

[TX-Trek]

I described packing terminals with grease that can hinder conductivity. Yes it's not bad stuff, I use it too, but in a very light manner.
Typically the connector pins have enough contact that a light application of the stuff is scraped (displaced) and the terminals make direct mechanical contact. The benefit is that the grease can help to block moisture and resultant corrosion.
I've traced several code faults that turned out to be connectors literally packed full of dielectric grease. Probably enough pin wear not able to displace the non conductive grease that resulted in the problem.
I'm simply saying an extreme amount doesn't do a lot of good. I still use it but sparingly just as I use antiseize sparingly. Look up dielectric grease - it's not an electrical conductor but good for helping isolate from moisture/dirt and later removal of plug wires and pulling connectors apart.

[booster]

I still don't see how the grease could do that kind of problem, sorry. The link GeorgeRa put up explains it well.


My guess, strictly a guess, is that the codes you saw for the connectors was not caused by the grease but was an indicator of a problem with the connector by it's presence. Connectors commonly get intermittent as their failure mode, often due to the oxidation mentioned in the link. Simply unplugging and replugging them in will often get them to work again for a while. At that point, many mechanics like the one at the Chevy dealer will grease the connector but not clean the contacts with contact cleaner or repeated connect and disconnect the halves so the contact self clean better. Those connectors then go intermittent again and are found with grease in them, often very fresh grease. Cleaning the contacts often will fix them but sometimes the connectors need replacement if they have not been well restrained and moving around so worn internally, are severely corroded, or have been overheated from high resistance or loads.


I will say that if you have a badly oxidized contact in a connector if you add any amount of grease or lube before you clean the contact by cycling the connector and/or contact cleaner the grease can reduce the self cleaning from cycling effect a bit. Cycling with contact cleaner is probably the best thing to do before any greasing.