Dropping off my black SS w/ 15k miles at dealer here in Greensboro in a couple of hours to have the Stage one upgrade installed. Assistant service manager said I could bring my own kit from Crate Depot to save money (they wanted $649,) and I would be charged $75. for the labor. They have only done one previously , so I'm a little concerned. When I asked if they would solder the wires he said that if the manual requires it , they would. Wish me luck........

 

Mine were crimped, the tech told me as long as they use the correct crimping tool and know what they are doing its fine.

I haven't had any troubles with mine so far.

 

Make SURE you get the wires soldered. Do a search on here and print out what's been covered here again + again. Crimping the wires may lead to problems down the road; the better solution is soldering the wires.

Enjoy!
Allex

 

Oh geeze, here we go again...

 

Update.... Picked up SS this afternoon. Asked if they soldered the wires and was told there's not enough room in there to do it. Respectfully disagreed and explained what I've read on this forum, and was told there is much more room to work on the Cobalt's and that I shouldn't have a problem. We shall see... Since its raining here today I couldn't test out the new power without excessive wheel spin. The sound of the Turbo spooling up is much louder now and I can't wait for a dry road to enjoy the FULL potential...

 

The kit warantee will follow the new car warantee, so you have a recourse if the crimps were done improperly. These crimps are used for life safety devices, but if installed incorrectly (like butt connectors in car audio) you will have problems as many have had. If the proper proceedure is taken as per GM specs and GM tooling, the connections should be as reliable as they are in an airbag system (unlike the kit, this is life safety).

I made sure that my dealer used the proceedure and the required torch. If the tech used a generic butt connector crimp tool, you'll be in trouble. For more info, see the link:

http://www.i-car.com/pdf/advantage/o...005/103105.pdf

Also, note the "tips" at the bottom of this bulletin from GM TechLink:

http://www.sandyblogs.com/techlink/2...grade-kit.html

I brought this to my dealer.

I say this because in my occupation in supporting mission critical facilities, we have been using Duraseal crimp and seal splice connectors in our HVAC systems for years and have NEVER had a failure. But our techs follow proceedure to the letter...

 

While some have had issues with the crimps many more have not has issues. It comes down to the tech skill in doing it correctly. They can also screw up the solder too.

You have to remember people always start threads with poor crimps but few ever post threads to say Hey the tech did them right and I have no problems.

It is like anything else it comes down to the quality of the work done.

I am over a year in on crimps that were done correctly with nary an issue.

 

Hey the tech did mine right and have no problems so far!

 

Lets give the tech in the Techlink article a name. I think I'll call him Tim. Tim does good work following the recommendations of GM. Oh, and he only spliced the wires in that install. Properly spliced, there should not be any issues. Key word, properly.

 

That is the key word to about anything.

Properly!

I have seen some real hack jobs by guys who should know and do better. Often all in the name of flat rate.

I have used these connectors on many jobs with no failures.