Circuit board failures in higher load applications is a board mfgr. industry
wide problem.
In my field off appliance repair bad joints at relay connections is getting
more and more common when the relay is switching 10+ amp loads. In fact
there have been several recalls lately for board issues by several mfgrs. .
Problem stems from the reduction of lead in solder, that's why it wasn't a
problem years ago as higher lead content was OK to use.

On Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:41:15 -0400, "Martin Riddle"
<martin_rid (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote:

Define 'they'... General Motors doesn't exist anymore, so one has to
understand what the new GM (Goverment Motors) has with regard to
obligations that General Motors had.

On Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:50:26 -0700 (PDT), jcage (AT) lycos (DOT) com wrote:

I like that way of looking at it, but since General Motors went to
their grave, I'd guess they are off the hook, so to speak! <bg>

Who buys a vehicle base on the warranty? If that were the deciding factor
everybody would be buying Chryslers with its lifetime power train warranty.
LOL

Personally, if I could get a discount on the price of the vehicle I would go
without the warranty. I have not had a warranty claim on any of my
vehicles in such a long time I can not even think of when it was I had a
warranty claim.





"hls" <hls (AT) nospam (DOT) nix> wrote

<jcage (AT) lycos (DOT) com> wrote

On Sep 22, 10:30 am, "JR" <rac... (AT) epix (DOT) net> wrote:
Exactly what they told me. They're a real pisser to deal with too.
Many calls or emails back and forth just so they can tell you that
they won't cover it and the real irritating part is that they refer to
that as "their solution". Thanks for the tips... Does the "remove
negative battery terminal" recommendation apply to removing the
board? It *looks* like 3 torx screws and it's out (from the face of
the wiper motor assembly). What do you have once the 3 torx screws
are out - the controller card that needs to be unplugged???? thanks

I honestly can't remember if there was a screw holding the board or
if it sat on supports.It was 5-6 years and 100,000 miles ago.
When you have the original board in your hand and if you are familiar
with wave bath soldering you can see how the solder joints
would fail. The board is very thin and the solder wave soldered the smaller
connections just fine, but the larger connections just didn't get hot
enough.
The flexing of the board eventually broke the cold solder joints.
With a good meter you can actually measure the resistance across a
cold solder joint.
Regards,
JR

<jcage (AT) lycos (DOT) com> wrote

On Sep 22, 10:30 am, "JR" <rac... (AT) epix (DOT) net> wrote:
Exactly what they told me. They're a real pisser to deal with too.
Many calls or emails back and forth just so they can tell you that
they won't cover it and the real irritating part is that they refer to
that as "their solution". Thanks for the tips... Does the "remove
negative battery terminal" recommendation apply to removing the
board? It *looks* like 3 torx screws and it's out (from the face of
the wiper motor assembly). What do you have once the 3 torx screws
are out - the controller card that needs to be unplugged???? thanks

I didn't remove the neg battery cable.
Regards,
JR

I wish I could say the same. My '99 Silverado was addicted
to the dealer's garage for a few years. If I didn't have the
warranty I'd have spent quite a few thousand on odd-ball
things. ECM and TCCM would be two right off of the top
of my head. What was weird is that after I got the wife out
of her she didn't complain anymore. :-)

"Mike Hunter" <Mikehunt22 (AT) lycos (DOT) com> wrote

"Repairman" <repairman54 (AT) embarqmaildot (DOT) com> wrote

In the Wiper board case, the solder was thin to begin with and the
connector did not have any mechanical means to hold it in place. As a
result, The thermal expansion and contraction as well as mechanical
virbration stresses cause micro fractures between the connector pins and
the PCB. You can barely see them, unless you know what to look for.
ROHS probably did not contribute to it, I do not think it was lead free
at the time (97).

To repair, Desolder the connector pins, Fold or crimp the pins down to
the circuit board, and resolder.
There are some larger components that need the treatment as well.
And don’t forget to conformal coat the resoldered joints.

Cheers

"hls" <hls (AT) nospam (DOT) nix> wrote

Dealers don't usually lie about recalls. It is not to their advantage,
since they get paid to do the work on recalls. It is common for a VIN
series not to be covered, only to later be covered. That though, is the way
the recall is released by the manufacturer, and has nothing to do with the
dealer. Happens on every brand of car.

--

-Mike-
mmarlowREMOVE (AT) windstream (DOT) net

"Martin Riddle" <martin_rid (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote

In the olden days when printed circuit boards were just being implemented
and quality was still poorly defined, we often had to repair the boards by
running solder completely down the foil trace. In some cases we even
soldered
small diameter copper wire down the traces to add a little strength.

Shouldnt be necessary now, but it was a brute force way of dealing with
crappy boards.