Today’s tires have all kinds of electric gadgets on them.  And to make all of that work we need several of these… wire harnesses they’re all over underneath the car hidden where you can’t see them. There are hundreds of wires, and one of the big problems is something like we see in this wire connector it is corrosion, and corrosion like that could upset just about every circuit on the car. Now, if you’re in to do it yourself what do you need to do?

Well, first you have to know there are various chemicals that can be used to treat specific problems, things like battery cleaners to electronics cleaners all sorts of different things. Used the one that’s designed for what you’re trying to do. And don’t forget, that dielectric grease is your friend. Inside of a wire connector it’ll keep moisture out and keeping moisture out will help prevent corrosion. Now, if you like to test things yourself, yeah that can be fun, but remember, here we have an old fashioned volt-ohm meter. It cannot be used on a modern car because it flows too much electrical energy through some of these electronic circuits and it could damage the electronics. What you need is a DVOM… digital volt-ohm meter. They produce a different way of testing so that they don’t damage electronic parts. Then over here we have some handy do it yourself stuff. This is a very simple tester, it doesn’t give you a lot of information, but it helps give you an idea about your battery and your alternator. And over here we have what’s called an amp-probe. This amp-probe goes around a wire harness and it measures current flowing through it.

Now, the big thing here is to make sure that any tool you use around the electrical parts of a modern car that it is labeled computer safe that includes your test lights. Old fashioned test light, throw it in the trash it can do a lot of damage to a modern electronic circuit. And if you have a question of a comment drop me a line right here at MotorWeek.