How hard can it be to contact a major automotive component manufacturer about sourcing a manufacturing level part?

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I want to lengthen the antenna cable of the remote start system on a Ford Explorer police car so I can put the antenna up in the headliner because the current range sucks. This model never came with remote start so I had to program it in with Forscan and use an F150 antenna but the cable is way too short.

The idea is to buy a longer piece of RG174 coax cable and add the factory connectors on both ends like the antenna cable has now. Actually just need the terminals as the connector body removes easily from the cable. After some research online I know the connector is made by Sumitomo and after some more research I find the two part numbers for the connector which is in 2 pieces. And no, you can't buy them from Ford.

Googling those numbers, 8100-2802 and 8100-4219 gets few results and nothing about where there might be available from the normal electronics suppliers, Mouser, Newark, Digi-Key, Allied, Arrow, etc. So I try to contact Sumitomo USA. Good luck getting a human there.

Not sure how these companies can stay in business if nobody can contact them. Anyway, gave up on that idea and decided I would just lengthen the current cable by adding more conventional coax connectors at both ends. i.e. using 6 inches of both ends of the factory cable and connectors, and add in longer cable. Not the cleanest way to do things with the extra connections but it is what it is.
 
You’re not going to like my answer…but…

They stay in business by selling thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of an item, not one at a time.

Dealing with the sale of a single item - answering the query, stocking the part, packaging, and shipping, loses every economy of scale that allows them to stay in business.
 
Send them a letter and invite them to bid on 30,000,000 parts like you want. You will probably get an answer.

The smart thing to do if you want to sell such a part is to figure out (and apparently you have) how to build it yourself and then offer it on Ebay or Amazon as a pre-made part that you sell and ship to the buyer. You might be surprised how many other people would like such an item.
 
I understand that but they could give me the name of a stocking distributor that does. Wasn't expecting to buy direct from them. Anyway, how do they know how many I need? No way to contact them anyway.
 
There are companies that focus on the retail market. You, as a consumer of 1 part, are a retail customer.

There are companies that don't do any retail at all, and do everything at a wholesale or business to business level, often focusing on economies of scale... And the pieces you want to talk to someone about, fall in this category.

They both stay in business just fine, just to one you are not worth any time at all.
 
What does this thing look like?
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My guess is that Ford contracted with Sumitomo for N number of parts and Sumitomo made them and shipped them to Ford. They don't have this part laying about.

We encounter all kinds of similar situations in the biotech world. Those plastic bottles that tablets come in from the drug manufacturer? You can't easily buy a few thousand of them. They make them to order and a few thousand isn't easy to source. Glass vials? Same thing. Two month lead-time and how many million do you want?
 
You are being awfully unrealistic in your thought process
Had no problem buying a few of these other connectors and terminals for the same car,

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and best of all, they were willing to ship first class mail for $5.00 unlike some other places that couldn't be bothered and would only ship UPS for $15 or $20.
 
You will be buying thousands of assemblies, but you can resell them on websites.
XMI is one company your original question answered. They do not deal with LED's
WHMA member.
Xenia Manufacturing Inc. (search in google to find contact info)

Simple and Complex Wire
Harnesses
we engineer our production to maximize the use of automation, which meets the exacting standards of customers with some of the highest consumer satisfaction ratings in the nation.

Program Management our engineering department takes the guessing out of the pre-production stage - from prototypes, design of production and verification - to parts approval.

Long and Short Run Capability we service customers who have both large and small volume needs, and can rapidly make the necessary adjustments to our production line.

Small Parts Assembly automated, and semi-automated assembly of plastic and metal parts - quality verification, including vision systems

Fully Automated Wire Processing we seamlessly monitor 100% of termination, apply wire seals, pre-tin stripped ends, and perform two-wire terminations.

Production%20Photo%202.jpg
On-Line Terminating Where automation is limited, we utilize in-line terminating presses and crimp monitors.

Terminal Variety a large stock of applicator dies for terminals from various manufacturers provide cost saving choices to our customers.

Electrical and Digital Testing our customers peace of mind is guaranteed by our customized failsafe, in-process, and final inspection verification systems.

One-Stop For All Your Harness Needs Insert molding, braiding, and harness taping capabilities fulfill the full range of harness and cable processing needs of our customers.
 
As a wholesaler, we don't do "retail" sales. Too many issues and problems to be worth it (have to collect retail sales tax which at the time for us meant monthly tax filings in every state you sell the product - ask me how I know). And as mentioned above - sales support, dealing with returns, etc.

We don't have that issue with B2B. Retail is expensive, time consuming, and not worth it for us.

Retail margins are much higher compared to B2B, but the headaches are not worth it.

We normally ship on pallets - we have no small one item or two item boxes. No packing material to support that small size box either. And the list goes on and on. Remember when you couldn't get toilet paper in retail outlets, but the B2B suppliers had the huge rolls with no delivery delays - that's because their B2B buyers didn't panic buy and wipe out their stock levels.

Retail is a completely different animal than B2B.
 
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