Cleaned a connector with isopropyl and it made things worse

Had a 737 pitot probe giving flaky readings last week. Hit it with 99% isopropyl like always, but the residue left a film that actually caused more noise on the line. Had to blow it out with compressed air then let it dry 20 minutes before it was clean. Anyone else seen isopropyl leave gunk behind on older connectors?

2 comments

2 Comments

rivershah5d agoMost Upvoted

Hold up, are you sure that isn't just old dirt mixing with the alcohol? I used to think isopropyl was a magic cure for everything, but I had a similar thing happen cleaning an old car stereo harness. The alcohol softened up decades of grime and just smeared it around the pins. Had to hit it with contact cleaner after to actually flush the crap out.

shane_moore875d ago

Yeah, the 'magic cure' part hit a little too close to home. I once tried to clean a dirty game cartridge with isopropyl and ended up with what looked like a swamp creature's fingerprint smeared across the contacts. Classic case of thinking I'm a pro with a bottle of alcohol and a q-tip, only to realize I just made a bigger mess. Sometimes you gotta admit the grime is smarter than you are and just buy the proper stuff.