Today at Atelier Kaz - ex-Honda R&D, F1, Indy/CART engineer

And I planned to start working on another NSX from today but the driver delivering the next NSX couldn't make it so
decided to look into the failure mode of this resistor box.
Immediately, I understood what happened.












First, the crimping force was way too much that it squashed all the wires flat waiting for the wire to break at the edge of the terminal.















Also, over the years, the moisture and high electrical current created patina corrosion around the crimped section of the copper wire.

In fact, the corrosion was even happening inside the cable sleeve and the moisture managed to travel quite some distances that
it created the patina more than 2/3 of the entire wire length resulting in rock solid feeling.

The loss of wire flexibility didn't help at all and after years of vibration and people hitting the cable from time to time, slowly but gradually,
each wires got broken up but by bending it sharply and being held by the bracket, the issue was never found until now.













Even at the other wire, the patina corrosion was already happening and once again, you can see how bad the crimping was with excessive pressure.





There are other failure mode with this resistor box such as internal crack resulting in open circuit but if your wire holder bracket is heavily corroded or
if the wire feels very stiff, that will be the sign of wire failure mode so you may want taking preventative measure.



Even with the open circuit at the resistor box, you can still start the engine but won't be able to keep it running at steady idle rpm unless
you bypass the resistor or create the condition to activate the fuel pump high speed relay.

I don't like the way the wires are crimped so I may modify the resistor terminal to accommodate 250 90deg socket and crimp the wire there instead.




Kaz