I cut open the last oil pressure sensor that failed. It is a nicely made bit of
kit, but the resistance winding is on a bit of plastic with a low melting point.
The terminal post is put through a hole in the plastic and then squeezed
to tighten it. After this (necessarily) the wire is soldered to the terminal
post. My terminal post was loose in the plastic and the resistance wire had
broken because of relative movement under vibration between the resistance wire
and the loose post. I squeezed the post to tighten it and then used a soldering
iron to remove the terminal wire. by the time I had done that the post was
loose again because of the effect of the heat on the plastic surounding the
post. The problem would be cured if VDO used a heat resistant plastic, but then
they wouldn't sell you a new sensor every 100 hours or so. The brass weight
around the expensive one, which is supposed to dampen the vibration, doesn't
do a blind bit of good in my opinion and if I had known there was a cheaper
version I would have bought it last time.
Frank Mycroft G-BWYD
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