Low/High Time-In-Service Behavior of Falsely Locked Automotive Electrical Connector as Demonstrated in a Bench Test

False locking of an electrical connector in an automobile can cause intermittence or open circuit, and is one of major factors that impact customer satisfaction. We have built a bench device to test how a falsely locked connector that initially was ‘good’ with low contact resistance would change resistance over time and finally be open circuit. In the test, a small pulling force was applied to one end of a falsely locked connector which was set on a vibration table to simulate vehicle usage. Data were collected with different pulling forces and vibration parameters. Unsealed and sealed connectors were used. Some data showed that a faulty connector might become open in a few hundred cycles, a few thousands cycles, or a few ten thousands cycles, simulating the low-time-in-service condition. Other data showed that a faulty connector might get loose only after about a million cycles, simulating high-time-in-service condition.