Solenoid failure comparisons
| Failure Mode | On/ Off | On/ Off | Proportional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contamination | 68% | 24% | 17% |
| Heat | 18% | 22% | 22% |
| Wear | 10% | 44% | 51 % |
| Abuse | 2% | 6% | 6% |
| Electrical | 2% | 4% | 4% |
| Life Expectancy Cycles occurring in 100,000 miles |
800,000 | 324,000,000 | 2,160,000,000 |
Contamination can bind up the On-off and PWM solenoids and Proportional solenoids with stronger coils. It can pull the armature through more friction, but the contamination will show up as increased wear of internal components.
Heat is a bit more of a problem with PWM and Proportional valves, as they have lower ohm coils that generate more heat.
Wear increases with the number of solenoid cycles. Thus PWM & Proportional solenoids are effected by increasing wear issues.
PWM and Proportional solenoids are effected by more abuse because they often appear to be adjustable and are more expensive, thus shops may try to fix them first before spending the money.
There is always a percentage of units that will fail for electrical issues, for example defects from the manufacturing of magnet wire,and coil winding. These are influenced by higher temperatures and harsh environment.
Life expectancy is reduced depending upon heat, contamination, wear, etc.
© Scott Kirkendall
Other related articles:
On-off solenoids: Failure due to contaminationOn-off solenoids: Failure due to wear
On-off solenoids: Failure due to abuse
On-off solenoids: Failure due to heat
On-off solenoids: Failure due to electrical causes
PWM solenoids: Failure due to contamination
PWM solenoids: Failure due to abuse
PWM solenoids: Failure due to heat
PWM solenoids: Failure due to wear
Proportional solenoids: Failure due to contamination
Proportional solenoids: Failure due to wear
Proportional solenoids: Failure due to abuse
Proportional solenoids: Failure due to heat
Replace and reuse rules