To DIY'ers-how not to wire things

[jkstill]

^ sorry for the assumptions then.

Seen too many bad solder joints.

Even made a few myself.

[joff]

Originally Posted by jkstill

^ sorry for the assumptions then.

Seen too many bad solder joints.

Even made a few myself.

Solder joints are the not the problem. Its undeveloped skills at soldering.

If solder was the wrong way to do things, we'd all have a problem as the thousands of internal connections inside an ECU, sensor, etc are all soldered and not crimped.

Every solder joint I've ever seen fail has been due either to a cold solder joint that someone experienced would identify right away as botched from the start, or long term corrosion from improper cleaning of flux residue. Comparing soldering to crimp connections is like comparing pop-rivets to a quality TIG weld.

I found the best thing for an amateur solderer is to introduce them to standalone liquid rosin flux. Flux core solder is nice, but you must work quick before the flux burns off which is not a skill you will have as a novice. With the liquid flux, you can fix a cold solder joint by just dripping some flux and reapplying heat.