# I manange an automobile scrapyard where to find pm?



## bigscrap84 (Feb 25, 2012)

Yes I know the obvious one is the cat but I am talking the harder to obtain stuff. Relays fuse switches etc.


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## jeneje (Feb 25, 2012)

bigscrap84 said:


> Yes I know the obvious one is the cat but I am talking the harder to obtain stuff. Relays fuse switches etc.


Research is the best way to learn about what is out there, you can start by using the search function on this site. Also do research on car parts.
Ken


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## Smack (Feb 25, 2012)

Any where there is a electrical connection or contacts for electrical current to complete a circuit you have a chance for precious metal plating to be present. Hard to beat pm's for their corrosion resistant properties. Just some things to keep in mind when your taking apart vehicles.


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## bigscrap84 (Feb 25, 2012)

I did use the search alot of the threads involve cats copper and aluminum that's the basic stuff. I want the hard to find aquire stuff.


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## bigscrap84 (Feb 25, 2012)

Todays haul


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## skippy (Feb 25, 2012)

Bottom middle drawer has brass discs in it with a silver crust on it, no? I found something like this in my miscelaenous pm containing doo dad collection, and I think I may have pulled it out of a microwave, but I'm not sure. Anybody know more about where these things come from?


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## bigscrap84 (Feb 25, 2012)

Ya those discs I pulled out of a few old pdas. And calculators I have several hundred of these to take apart still. My yard gets 1000 cars a week so I have nothing but material


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## niteliteone (Feb 25, 2012)

Most oxygen sensors and Hot Wire mass airflow sensors will contain some platinum not to mention gold plated pins and connectors on a lot of the sensitive smog sensors and the onboard computers ( ignition, brakes and airgags)

To name a few places that usually contain PM's.
Tom C.


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## bigscrap84 (Feb 25, 2012)

Ya I pull around 800 wiring harnesses a week with my sas scorpion motor puller so I get ecus sensors relays tons a week


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## Geo (Feb 25, 2012)

solenoid switches have contact points (at least the older models do) there's also some silver solder in older starters. the armature will have solder where the windings are fastened to the commutator. this is found more often in starters that have been rebuilt. in a process called "leading" the armature is fluxed and heated and then dipped into a vat of melted solder just past the commutator. it then gets turned on a lathe to remove excess solder.its not much but at a few grams per starter and your scrapping them anyway. remove the armature completely and heat it to beyond the melting point of solder and drop it onto a hard surface with the commutator facing down. the solder will fall out and cool quickly.also the alternator will have a bridge capacitor and a few resistors with some silver in it as well, maybe more so in newer models with the built in voltage regulator.


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## qst42know (Feb 26, 2012)

You have the access perhaps you should be telling us?

One type of mass air flow sensor has a platinum wire, check the wiki.

I have seen spark control module circuit boards that looked like they had potential but I never tested one.

The on board computers being both rugged and expensive would merit some testing.


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## bigscrap84 (Feb 26, 2012)

Lol I'm not an expert in everything I'm the first to admit it. The inboard computers come out when I rip the wiring harness/ dash out. I am curious to see the maf wire I will do some major testing tomorrow. While the starter Seems like it would be easy enough to get. The best part is I can take and do whatever I want for testing. So if your curious about something let me know and I will do my best to test it


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## qst42know (Feb 26, 2012)

I would guess anything that has a built in heat sink or requires a thermal compound when installed would be good candidate for testing.


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## bigscrap84 (Feb 26, 2012)

Now I gotta find someone who can refine endless amount of material in the nyc / nj area lol


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## lazersteve (Feb 27, 2012)

skippy said:


> Bottom middle drawer has brass discs in it with a silver crust on it, no? I found something like this in my miscelaenous pm containing doo dad collection, and I think I may have pulled it out of a microwave, but I'm not sure. Anybody know more about where these things come from?



They look like common piezo speakers/buzzers to me.

Apply an audio signal to the two wires and it should produce sound waves. Very common device used in many consumer electronics.

Steve


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## bigscrap84 (Feb 27, 2012)

The little factory amplifiers have some really decent gold fingers in them. Well I wouldn't say fingers because one of them is huge the hot wire maf is too time consuming to figure out if it is or it isn't.


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## bigscrap84 (Feb 27, 2012)

And the digital cable / satellite boxes seem like a treasure trove also.


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## bigscrap84 (Feb 29, 2012)

Ok so after a few days of prospecting I have found that car radios are good especially ones with the larger buttons. Newer cars mostly obd-2 like 95-96^ the instrument clusters have some really nice boards behind them. The maf wires are too hard to identify and most of the newer lt-1 ls-1 gm mafs sell to the tuner racing scene for much more than whatever platinum would be inside. The air bags kind of scare me I'm not gonna lie lol. Most of the relays and wire connectors have gold plate or flashing on them. Some of the relays appear to be silver inside as well. I'll keep you guys informed.


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## Geo (Feb 29, 2012)

these two boards are from the firing control module from a 1998 ford mustang. the four colored connectors have gold plated pins and there are 6 large flatpacks and a handful of medium to small flatpacks.


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## trashmaster (Mar 1, 2012)

do a search about electric fuel pumps,,,


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## bigscrap84 (Mar 1, 2012)

The connections or inside the pumps themselves? I don't really like smelling like gas if its unnecessary lol


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## tek4g63 (Mar 1, 2012)

I worked for the last 13years in a factory that makes the engine control units (computers) and the airbag control modules. I can tell you that you have nothing to fear about the airbag units, just as long as the battery has been removed from the car and the car has sat battery-less for an hour or so to let the capacitators discharge. 

Both the engine control unit and the airbag control unit will have some gold plated pins, but probably not every pin will be plated. They both also have QFP's (IC's) that may contain some gold. There will be a large amount of monolithic capacitors on both, that from what I read on this forum could contain some PM's.

On the airbag units, if they are newer, there will be these small components that are metallic and look like they are outlined with gold. If you were to carefully open one up you will see a tiny chip (like what is in an IC, just smaller) that chip is connected to the contacts internally with solid gold wires. They are very tiny but you can clearly see them. These are the "G" sensors. Newer cars will have a few on each board.

I hope this helps at least a little. Good luck!


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## bigscrap84 (Mar 1, 2012)

Heh when doing 150+ cars a day in a small area yard we don't have alot of cars that sit for more than a few minutes lol. But in 3 days doing it whenever I get free time I have roughly 150 lbs of pcb boards 10 lbs of plated and pins I am waiting on some of the acids to do my first test run


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## niteliteone (Mar 2, 2012)

bigscrap,
Looks like this post is going to pay off pretty well  

Who would have thought it at the first post :?: 

Looks like I better get busy clearing out all the cars around here too.
Good luck
Tom C.


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## bigscrap84 (Mar 2, 2012)

Well I am used to east coast street racing forums so I am used to forum fighting which then turns to real physical violence. So coming on here I wasn't aware people were actually helpful this forum is full of helpful people and the fact that most on here are highly intelligent with a wealth of knowledge and ideas is great.


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## tek4g63 (Mar 2, 2012)

bigscrap84 said:


> Heh when doing 150+ cars a day in a small area yard we don't have alot of cars that sit for more than a few minutes lol. But in 3 days doing it whenever I get free time I have roughly 150 lbs of pcb boards 10 lbs of plated and pins I am waiting on some of the acids to do my first test run



That's great! I wish you luck.


The only advice I could offer you at this point is. take your time, there is no need to get in a hury. The gold will still be there, it's not going anywhere. Separate your materials well before trying to process anything, you will be glad that you did. Above all, have fun and be safe!


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## lazersteve (Mar 2, 2012)

tek4g63,

What about the chemical portion of the airbag unit. Do they still contain the explosive compound Sodium Azide?

Steve


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## tek4g63 (Mar 2, 2012)

Yes LazerSteve, I'm sure they do. But that's not what I'm referring to. I'm sorry, I can see now that I was not clear enough. I hope that I have not lead anyone down the wrong path. What I was talking about is not the igniter part of the airbag (located behind the bag its self). What I am talking about is the electronic control unit. It will be located somewhere away from the bags themselves. It is just a small PCB (computer) in a case simmilar to the ECU. This unit houses the "brain" for the airbags, to tell them when to deploy.

I do not, under any circumstances recomend removing the airbags or anything directly attached to them from any car. I am truely sorry for the mix-up.

I would take a picture of one to show you exactly what I'm talking about, but I could get fired for that. Maybe I'll remove the center console from my car tonight and take a pic of one of these units to post. I feel like I owe that to all the members.


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## bigscrap84 (Mar 2, 2012)

Haha I think I have a few. I used to have a 20g 91 talon btw just noticed your name lol


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## bigscrap84 (Mar 3, 2012)

Is anyone in the nj area that could show me howbto decipher high from low grade etc. The pcbs still confuse me for some reason


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## Claudie (Mar 3, 2012)

bigscrap84 said:


> Is anyone in the nj area that could show me howbto decipher high from low grade etc. The pcbs still confuse me for some reason



Boardsort.com has pictures :|


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## skippy (Mar 3, 2012)

lazersteve said:


> skippy said:
> 
> 
> > Bottom middle drawer has brass discs in it with a silver crust on it, no? I found something like this in my miscelaenous pm containing doo dad collection, and I think I may have pulled it out of a microwave, but I'm not sure. Anybody know more about where these things come from?



I think you nailed it steve thanks.


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## bigscrap84 (Mar 4, 2012)

Thank you claudie


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## spiderman (Mar 4, 2012)

spark plugs platinium coating


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## shaftsinkerawc (Mar 5, 2012)

150 cars a day doesn't leave much time per car. How many people are working on a car at the same time? Can you describe what each one does?


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## Geo (Mar 5, 2012)

spiderman said:


> spark plugs platinium coating



Bosch Platinum spark plugs is suppose to have a platinum electrode.


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## bigscrap84 (Apr 27, 2012)

Ok well after a few weeks of careful treasure hunting the best ecus. From cars are the gm 3 series motors 3100 3400 3800 and most vans box trucks blazers with the vortec style motors. 4 large gold plated pin areas chips etc.


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## Geo (Apr 27, 2012)

thats from a ford. other makes may have a like component but i havent found one yet in chevy's. heres a shot from a ford mustang.


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## bigscrap84 (Apr 27, 2012)

Well the gm ones are very very common I get around 10 a day


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## resabed01 (Apr 28, 2012)

Personally, I wouldn't spend my time chasing gold out of engine control units. They are built very rugged meaning they can be difficult/time consuming to open. A lot of the time the board is coated with silicone making parts removal difficult. And, even though there is gold on the pins and inside chips, I think the rewards are small for the effort. That's why most of us like going after computer scrap.... It's easy pickins.

ECUs also re-sell anywhere from $40.00 to 150.00 each on ebay so I think their value isn't in the PMs

Platinum spark plugs, MAF, O2 sensor and of course the cat would be my targets. Not trying to burst your bubble but rather help maximize your gains. If you only have 3 minutes with each car as it goes through that alone would rule out removal of the spark plugs and O2 sensor. If you do end up processing ECUs, I would be very curious about your returns. I'd like to see you prove me wrong.


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## bigscrap84 (May 1, 2012)

No these computers pull out with the wiring harness and take a minute to disassemble


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## bigscrap84 (Jun 22, 2012)

I'd like to find someone to do some testing on the high grade boards no junk to see what the pm content actually is.


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