Lights Flickering - bad splice in panel?

[mhmmofro]

Backround:
100 year old house with 90% new / newer wiring, New panel installed 18months ago, service and meter and weather head from ~60's.

About a month ago i noticed some of my lights flickering. I shrugged it off until i saw it happening more consistently. The circuits i was seeing the flickering on were both old and new. I went outside and my meter base is looking a bit weathered and it is rusting at the bottom. I then popped the cover off my panel.

As you can see the electrician used these splices. The red one seems to have failed or at least the outer insulation has failed. The circuits that are flickering are on this leg.

My questions are:
1) what kind of splice is this?
2) why did it fail?
3) At 18 months out should i expect a warrante repair?

Thanks
mark

[ActionDave]

I would call it an insulated, compression, butt splice. It is a legitimate way to splice wires.

What went wrong? I don't know. I can't tell from the photo. It does look like a bad splice and needs to be fixed and soon.

Warranty? Unless you are upset with whomever did the work I would him first. If he is a stand-up guy and made a goof he will fix it. If the problem is caused by something not related to the work he did then their will be another charge. If you decide to call someone else then find an electrician with good references, get it fixed, write the cheque, and move on.

[Speedy Petey]

WHY in the world they have changed the panel and leave a '60's vintage service entrance????

[big2bird]

Hack job. You do not splice in a panel.

[big2bird]

WHY in the world they have changed the panel and leave a '60's vintage service entrance????

Agreed. The best way would have been to rewire the whole house at once. I sense the entire house is full of skeletons such as this. Expensive, but a good piece of mind. When I see something like this that is visible, I get very concerned about the hidden you cannot see.

[mhmmofro]

Thanks for the answers guys. I left it original to the panel to save money and because the sparkies who checked it out told me i would be fine for at least 10 years. In terms of the splice in the panel i was told it was fine I dunno. Clearly you can see why one would not want a splice in the line - crap like this happens.

[mhmmofro]

The guy who did the work is supposed to come check it out on Monday. Could poor balancing of the phases cause this? I mean could having to many high current items on this phase cause the splice to fail even if it was installed correctly?

[Homeownerinburb]

Could poor balancing of the phases cause this? I mean could having to many high current items on this phase cause the splice to fail even if it was installed correctly?

That should not be a valid cause, if the crimp was rated.

Assume it is a 100 amp service. This cable should be able to pass 100 amp without trouble. The crimp likewise.

And the main breaker should trip if this leg of the service sees more than 100 amp for more than a moment or two. The crimp should endure that without issue.

I doubt that you stressed the one side so much more than the other that you cooked this crimp.

I think the crimp was just not executed well enough, and is of itself a point of resistance, at probably half the amperage that the panel is rated to.