Battery cable insulation

[robsco]

Hi all. Mine is looking pretty shabby now, I'm looking to neaten that area up. Does anyone know what was used from the factory? It seems to have stood the test of time relatively well. Cheers.

[Tanguero]

I believe it was the black nylon "Flexible Convoluted Tubing" on this page http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-onlinest...
or something very like it.

[robsco]

Thanks Peter. Mine effectively has silver matting which is beginning to fray and look a bit ugly, is that not what was used originally?

[Tanguero]

Do you mean the foil coated fibreglass tube? If so I have some spare if you want to PM with an address.

My car had the corrugated nylon over the battery cables and the fibreglass over some other engine bay wiring. Who knows what was original or whether it was even the same from car to car!!!

Edited by Tanguero on Wednesday 30th July 22:43

[robsco]

That's the stuff, thank you. I'll drop you a PM.

[GT6k]

One thing to be careful of is that the aluminium coated fabric is of course conductive. So make sure that it is properly terminated clear of the cable ends. It is probably safer to use the convoluted plastic conduit.

[morebeanz]

The aluminium was for heat resistance, does the plastic tubing have that?

[Supateg]

I use this for fuel as well as battery lines.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=...

Stopped my vapour lock problem.

[robsco]

Is sleeving the fuel lines a good idea? It's very difficult to see the condition of the rubber that way?

[Tanguero]

robsco said:

Is sleeving the fuel lines a good idea? It's very difficult to see the condition of the rubber that way?

My original fuel lines were sleeved, and yes the sleeving concealed a split (that should have set the car on fire, I have no idea how it didn't!) The replacement lines from TVR Power were PTFE inner with braided stainless outer, which don't need any additional heat protection.

Given my experience of high pressure fuel pissing across a hot exhaust manifold on the M6, I would be very very wary of sleeving over fuel lines!

[Supateg]

Sleeving extends the life of rubber hoses, takes the heat degregation out.
As long as you check / change them as part of a maintanence schedule there isn't a problem. Plus the fuel is cooler going into the engine.

[Tanguero]

You can't check the hose inside the sleeve.

[Supateg]

would check It when I do the coil packs and leads, easy to check then.

I have performance Hondas from 1992, 1996 & 1998 the rubber is perfect on them. The cerb was rubber was looking tired last year. Maybe there is a quality issue with rubber or a heat issue at play here. For me, doing my own maintanence it's fine, I keep a very close eye everytime I work on the car, which is most or the time lol.
How many owners on here never check the fuel hoses? There seems to be more posts when fuel is spilling out on the floor than 'look what I found when inspecting the hoses'

I agree you cannot fully check the condition of a fuel hose in a sleeve.
There again to properly fully check the fuel hoses on a cerb you need to meticulous or best take them off as the routing of them when in the 'v' of the engine is near impossible to inspect properly.

[Tanguero]

The part that horrified me with my fuel leak - apart from fuel spraying over the n/s exhaust manifold - was that I did regularly check the condition of the hoses very carefully so I thought.

I feel a lot happier with the new style stainless clad teflon hoses!

[Supateg]

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_110...

Interesting article worth reading.

[Tanguero]

robsco said:

That's the stuff, thank you. I'll drop you a PM.

It's in the post.

[robsco]

Tanguero said:

It's in the post.

Thanks again Peter.