platinum in car petrol sender units?

[mittens]

hi everybody, hope everyone is well,
im still just learning at this game and saving up lots of gold plated bits and bobs that i have found,
i was looking through the forum the other day and i came across someting to do with platinum in the petrol sender units on cars, but now i cant find it again! lol,
anyways i have a huge amount of cars and parts in my breakers yard and i have a large number of the petrol sender units sat on my shelfs that no one buys anymore, so rather than just throwing them in the scrap bin i wondered if it would be worth it for me to save these bits from them,

my main questions are these;

-does anyone know if it really is platinum on these little ceramic boards??
-has anyone had a play around with these before, is it worth recovering and refineing, and is it an easy enuf process??
-finally, i looked at the little strikers that run on the ceramic boards and one looks like it could be gold, the other (from nother car) is silver? what metal could this be??

im sorry to take up everyones time with a really long post, but i know you guys are the best to ask these questions to,

i have included some pics for you to have look at, see what you think,

thank you in advance guys,



View attachment 2

 

[Pantherlikher]

Good thinking. Petrol AKA Gas hee in the US can be highly corrosive and not really good electric conductor. Being submerged all it's life, the sender/ pump has to be a good connection so I'd have a guess nice plating of any good connectivity. Like gold, silver or even pladdium. Trim all connectors and run some small tests. Also cars with air bags have yellow standard wires and every connection should be checked as it need to be a good connection. Even the crash sensors have gold inside. Also look into any electrical part as you never know except you may know which parts are expensive. Expensive means good quality materials used.
Good luck and of course, let us all know.
BS.

 

[etack]

my main questions are these;

-does anyone know if it really is platinum on these little ceramic boards??
-has anyone had a play around with these before, is it worth recovering and refineing, and is it an easy enuf process??
-finally, i looked at the little strikers that run on the ceramic boards and one looks like it could be gold, the other (from nother car) is silver? what metal could this be??

im sorry to take up everyones time with a really long post, but i know you guys are the best to ask these questions to,


i have included some pics for you to have look at, see what you think,

thank you in advance guys,

View attachment 2

I believe they are silver. I was watching PBS one morning and the show MotorWeek came on. They had this segment. It looks like the same boards.

http://www.motorweek.org/features/goss_garage/cheap_gas_issues

Eric

 

[g_axelsson]

The worn part of the sensor looks a bit tarnished but the slider looks like gold plated silver and silver. I don't think they should use tin plate on the circuit board in a moving contact like this, my guess is on screen printed silver on the ceramic base, kind of the same technology as in keyboard mylars.

To rule out tin plate, take a piece of paper and rub it. Tin is so soft it will rub off on the paper and leav a gray streak, silver wouldn't leave anything unless there is some dust from the worn part and slider.

/Göran

 

[qst42know]

Just a guess but I would expect silver with a hardener for a sliding contact application. Test for a palladium content.