Electrical tape use for wire management, does anyone else find this sloppy?

[Kryten]

I own a 2011 Fusion SEL and just bought a 2013 Focus Titanium, when I bought the Fusion I was amazed at the crude use of electrical tape on a few areas, trunk wiring harness had it wrapped around a wire bundle and was not cleanly done. So I pop the hood on my Focus and see it wrapped all over the ignition system wiring and etc, not exactly done very neat and also not fully sealed at the ends. I have to wonder how this is will hold up in the heat and etc over time. I do not understand why they cannot use shrink wrap or a better method of wire management?

 

I know these areas are not visible to most people, but being a car person who opens the hood and keeps my car maintained and clean, I find it bothersome maybe I am just too fussy?

[YT90SC]

Most, if not all manufacturers use electrical tape for 'wiring management'. Its flexible, light and quite durable. Since it has been used seemingly since the dawn of time in automotive manufacture, it is not an issue. Shrink wrap is a terrible idea, as it would make service of the harnesses harder and lock moisture and dirt into the harness where it can damage the insulation of the wire resulting in failure.

[Kryten]

Shrink wrap is actually used a lot for environmental sealing on wiring, Raychem is one that comes to mind. Servicing means replacing the cable assembly, I do not picture a technician unwrapping the tape from the ignition system wiring to replace one bad cable.

 

http://raychem.te.com/documents/webservice/fetch.ashx?fileid=2438&docId=2196

 

In time and under the heat, the adhesive on the tape will eventually fail, I suppose for most who do not own the car longer than 4 to 6 years, it won't be an issue but it appears other Ford owners experience it sooner.

 

http://www.f150forum.com/f38/electrical-tape-88488/

 

Electrical tape is just basic cost cutting in my opinion, it's cheap, but there are better options out there like flexible plastic conduits and etc. that I have seen in other brands.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Kryten

[YT90SC]

Yes, we do unwrap wiring to install a new wire in the harness or repair it. Though its usually sliced open then re-wraped with tape. Replacing/repairing one wire is a lot cheaper than a multi-hundreds of dollar harness. In fact, it is almost always cheaper to do so. Shrink wrap makes this all but impossible in the field. Flexible conduit or convolute tubing ALONE can actually damage the wiring, especially where the wiring EXITS the tube. The wires can move around on the edges of the tubing and the insulation can and does fail. At the ends of those sections of tubing, electrical tape is a necessity to prevent this. How it looks is not important. It is functional and cheap. And lifespan of tape is a non-issue as my 77 ford's wiring is still in good shape, as well as my 345k mile 94 Taurus, all with cheap useless tape... We see lots of 200 and 300k mile vehicles that have had absolutely no functional problems with tape

.

[Kryten]

Slicing electrical tape wiring harnesses to remove the tape can be risky in damaging the wiring or causing a short. I have had cars with conduit that protected the wiring better than electrical tape from vibration wear against adjacent components. It all depends on the application and how it's designed and implemented.

 

Also I live in South Florida, I have seen excessive heat aging at work on a lot of my cars. I do not have a problem with electrical tape being used or denying it works fine for most, it's just that when you buy a new car and pop open the hood with 5 miles on the odometer and see electrical tape wrapped around the ignition system wiring and uneven at that along with not being sealed well at the ends just looks like it was stretched ripped and not fully seated, sends mixed messages on build quality.

 

I thought the same thing when I popped the trunk on my wife's Fusion when she bought it, the wiring harness was not typical of other makes I owned. It works fine, no issues but it looks cheap and crude and perception is one thing you can't change.

[theoldwizard]

Electrical tape is just basic cost cutting in my opinion, it's cheap, but there are better options out there like flexible plastic conduits and etc. that I have seen in other brands.

First, let's get our terminology straight. It is called "harness tape". It is a PVC based tape with no adhesive. As pointed out before, harness tape as been used for many more years than most of us have been alive. Properly applied and terminated with friction tape (a cloth based tape that is impregnated with an adhesive that stay tacky for many, many years), it is a durable, cost effective solution.

 

Second, what was called "shrink wrap" is properly called shrink tubing. This a very durable and neat solution for bundling wires, but the tubing is more expensive than harness tape and much more expensive to assemble. Each wire would have to be individually threaded through the entire tube before it is heat shrunk.

 

Third, the plastic tubing is called convoluted tubing. It is more expensive than harness tape and provides little if any protection against moisture.

Edited March 11, 2013 by theoldwizard

[RandomTask]

I have a 2005 Focus and can say that I thought the same thing when I bought my car - but the "harness tape" as theoldwizard refers to it as is still intact and doing it's job. So ugly as it may be, it seems to be sufficient!

[theoldwizard]

I own a 2011 Fusion SEL and just bought a 2013 Focus Titanium, when I bought the Fusion I was amazed at the crude use of electrical tape on a few areas, trunk wiring harness had it wrapped around a wire bundle and was not cleanly done. So I pop the hood on my Focus and see it wrapped all over the ignition system wiring and etc, not exactly done very neat and also not fully sealed at the ends. I have to wonder how this is will hold up in the heat and etc over time. I do not understand why they cannot use shrink wrap or a better method of wire management?

 

I know these areas are not visible to most people, but being a car person who opens the hood and keeps my car maintained and clean, I find it bothersome maybe I am just too fussy?

Can not evaluate without pictures.