Blinker not working due to corrosion of socket connector pins

Question

I've got a 99 Nissan Almera 1.6L with a turn signal that's stopped working. If I press on the wires at the base of the connector in a specific direction it will start working, but as soon as I release it stops.

This is apparently a common problem:

This is a pretty simple problem, the ends of the wires into the sidelight connector corrode and this stops the sidelight/s from working. To fix it take the bulb holder out, clean up the connections and solder some new wires in, then solder these onto the existing wires.

The above instructions aren't completely clear to me. I've heard you can repin electrical connectors, but I've never done it. I suppose I could look for a socket from a junkyard and splice it in in place of the current socket, but it's likely any one I pick up may have the same corrosion problem.

Could someone explain a little more clearly how I might overcome this problem via cleaning up / repinning the current socket? I can upload a pic of the socket if that might help.

POSTSCRIPT Aug. 21st 2017

So the socket disconnects from the wiring harness likes this:

The first problem I noticed was that the ground pin in the socket was pushed way up, and probably barely making contact with the plug, so I pushed it out so it would be even with the other pin. I wasn't able to get a good picture of that though.

The second problem I noticed was that everything was very gunked up with oily sediment:

I removed the retaining clip from the back of the harness plug by prying it with a small flat head screwdriver and cleaned out the plug first with carb cleaner and then with electrical contact cleaner, front and back. Tried to remove the pins from the plug without success, but once I cleaned it up and saw with a test light that it was working, I put everything back together.

I'm guessing the main problem was the pin in the socket not making contact, but it can't hurt for everything to be clean as well.

Blinker works great now.

Answer 1

Before you replace anything try cleaning the corrosion off the contacts to see if that fixes it. Electronics stores sell contact cleaners which usually work well for that sort of thing. If you have a rotary tool that might work too, just use a smooth bit to avoid damaging anything. Sometimes a good scrape with a flat head screwdriver will do the trick, but so might some wire wool.

Answer 2

I would suggest that you should proceed as follows:

1. remove the old pins
2. make new ones
3. solder wire extensions onto these new pins
4. fit them into your plug
5. solder the new wire extensions onto the existing wires
6. test (with temporary insulation)
7. cover the joints permanently with shrink-wrap or insulation tape

Answer 3

A wire brush and some contact cleaner or isopropyl alcohol and unless a wire breaks during cleaning it should be fine.