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ritehere

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 13, 2012
Messages
67
With the many people around my area that are doing the recovery processes now, I find myself strapped for any regular sorces for getting boards and other for my hobby. However there is still my most abundant source thus far of automotive electronics scrap.
I run a towing service and often end up with the clunkers. The scrap that I recover from comes from things and components such as mass airflow sensors,o2 sensors,ecm's,stereo/radios etc. As well as any jewlery and misc. found in the autos.
I was wondering if any of you out there have processed any of these items and what you have found from them.
 
Hi their, all switch have silver or PM's, that also goes for relays, the computor card found in most modern cars, have PM's and i would say the same for some of the sensors.

Not much help i know, butt if you adopt the policy that all electronic contain silver or PM's, then you wont throw anything of value away, how much silver and PM's? Sorry butt Pass.

Deano
 
ritehere said:
With the many people around my area that are doing the recovery processes now, I find myself strapped for any regular sorces for getting boards and other for my hobby. However there is still my most abundant source thus far of automotive electronics scrap.
I run a towing service and often end up with the clunkers. The scrap that I recover from comes from things and components such as mass airflow sensors,o2 sensors,ecm's,stereo/radios etc. As well as any jewlery and misc. found in the autos.
I was wondering if any of you out there have processed any of these items and what you have found from them.

Don't forget the cats!
 
Thanks NoIdea that is a great policy. And the cats come off first. I am quickly appoaching my 1,652nd catalytic converter sold on e-bay or to core buyers
 
I have an old mass air flow sensor from my van and after looking at the contact pins, I noticed that they are gold plated.

Kevin
 
Have another friend (who is a scrapper) and he has been collecting some of the igniter wire from blown airbags. It has been said at many times that they are platinum wires. Is this true? are the just coated in platinum? And if so how much platinum?
 
a fine wire only 0.018 millimeters (18 micrometers) thick, one third the diameter of a human hair. Made of a special platinum alloy and just 1 to 2 millimeters long, the wire is part of the airbag trigger, called the initiator.
 
I was doing some prospecting at a local flea market and found an auto ecm. I figured that it was a computer so there must be some PM inside. Picked it up and a few other odds and ends for $10. I couldn't tell what make or model car it came from. Four screws held the cover on. There was a mother board inside with quite a few processors but it was encased in a clear amber colored gel material that was really tough. The gel might be a silicone or urethane, regardless it is strong enough that it wasn't worth the effort to dig it out. The connectors on the side have some gold plated pins so I might pull those out. Red
 

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That looks like an older ECM... AC Delco type... Forget trying to just pull that rubber out and finding a clean board. It must be poured and let harden in there as it's attached to everything inside.

The newer autos have an aluminum case with the board attached with screws...
Toss that to where you can get scrap and keep searching...

The air bag sensors have gold plated pieces as well as all that copper wire leading you to sensors with just about everything and anything hiding inside.

25 years and total auto destruction have taught me there's PMs in that thar junker!

B.S.
 
redrat, try different solvents on that goop to see if something will just melt through it. Maybe acetone or paint thinner or mineral oil, etc.
 
Auggie said:
redrat, try different solvents on that goop to see if something will just melt through it. Maybe acetone or paint thinner or mineral oil, etc.


Solvents would probably be a losing proposition even if they worked. I was going to suggest heating the ECM on a hot plate or on hot coals and see if the majority of the resin might melt and pour right out of there?
 
Karyl1Matt said:
Have you ever knew that XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
will make a difference in your daily life.

I had to deal with these guys on another forum.

He's gone.

Harold
 
I have just joined the forum. I have zero precious metal recovery experience. So take this two cents of mine for what it is worth. I get a lot of scrap fluorescent light fixtures from our side business in construction. They have copper ballasts inside of a poured resin assembly like what you have displayed above. To get them out I throw them on my anvil, give a few sharp whacks with a four pound cross peen, and they break right apart. I am not sure if this is an adequate method for your purposes. Once I break them apart initially I use two pair of slip joint pliers to break the smaller clingy bits off.
 
Wulf said:
I have just joined the forum. I have zero precious metal recovery experience. So take this two cents of mine for what it is worth. I get a lot of scrap fluorescent light fixtures from our side business in construction. They have copper ballasts inside of a poured resin assembly like what you have displayed above. To get them out I throw them on my anvil, give a few sharp whacks with a four pound cross peen, and they break right apart. I am not sure if this is an adequate method for your purposes. Once I break them apart initially I use two pair of slip joint pliers to break the smaller clingy bits off.

Carefull with those ballast, most older types contain PCB (and I'm not talking about Printed Circuit Boards).

Polychlorinated_biphenyl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlorinated_biphenyl

For the little copper they contain, it's not worth it seriously. Your health is worth more...

my2c

Alex
 
Silencetriedgood said:
Anti lock brake systems have gold as well as air bag
Can you be a bit more specific, exactly where, how much and is it close to the explosives in the air bag? We don't want happy amateurs blowing off their hands looking for gold in a explosive charge.

Göran
 
g_axelsson said:
Silencetriedgood said:
Anti lock brake systems have gold as well as air bag
Can you be a bit more specific, exactly where, how much and is it close to the explosives in the air bag? We don't want happy amateurs blowing off their hands looking for gold in a explosive charge.

Göran

Not sure if it's like this for all new vehicles or not, but, on our 2010 equiNox (yes, I'm sorry, and call it "the nox") - it's more the "wheel speed sensor" which is by the brake caliper system, it can throw the abs system out of whack if its bent, or misplaced, or damaged when changing the tires or brakes. It looks like thisScreenshot_2017-03-24-09-24-12-1.png
 
Below is a picture of two gold plated steel balls (although not 100% sure about the steel part) that came out of the impact sensors (crash sensors that deploy the airbags) from a Mercury Sable (1996). The balls are approximately 1 centimeter (7/16") in diameter and I suspect the plating is fairly thick, as compared to the plating on fingers from PCBs.

However, don't think this is a new gold mining opportunity, since these impact sensors were buried in a rubber potting material. The only reason I opened them up was I was curious to see how the impact sensor was designed. I think they used the gold plating to prevent oxidation of the steel ball for fail safe operation of the airbags. Please note that the impact sensors are mounted in remote locations that are expected to feel the impact first, so there is time for airbag deployment. In my case they were located at the base of the front bumper.

I would use extreme caution and ensure there is no battery connected in the car before anyone goes messing around with the airbag system.
20170324_135029 2.jpg
 
There is a you tube video about a guy who looks for the "legendary" gold ball in the airbag sensor and finds it. He was just doing it to see if he could find anything and he did. Pretty good video, but I don't have the link.
 
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