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The company I work for makes terminals and connectors for automotive use.  The
big reliability issue with Ford and Chrysler customers (besides forgetting to
connect both halves together) is the quality of the crimp between the wire and
the terminal grip.  In automotive all the crimping is done automatically with
purpose built crimping dies although rarely do we use smaller than 20 gage
wire.
 

The problem in the crimp area is twofold:  either the initial crimp is poor
due
to poor terminal design or improper crimping specifications or the crimp
loosens
up over time due to stress relaxation.  It's a big enough issue that some
engineers have talked seriously of soldering crimps - a horrendously expensive
proposition in automotive wiring.

The old timers I work with, upon hearing of my airplane project, advised
that I
solder every last terminal on the plane.  Since I don't have a tool that
will do
a 'B' crimp, I have been dutifully soldering every lead except those done
by the
Lancair avionics guys on the panel.  To date, I have not had a break at the
solder joint.  I figure reasonable strain relief ought to take care of
eventual
fatigue cracking.  The few leads I did without solder pulled out easily or
were
loose.  Maybe I don't have the right tools for hand crimping.

Ed de Chazal
Rochester Michigan