Now why would I be sad? I've installed a new wiring harness, my second one so far...aside from cracking the starter solenoid body and losing that small copper washer on the cold start injector (replacement gotten only at junkyard), I finished today. It's all hooked up properly as far as I know cranked the car and drove it around. The only downside is that the dash warning lights are all faintly on... dang! What is going on? The car sat for a while in the back yard while I did the job over a few weeks. I cleaned the fuse holders and fuses and coated each with dielectric grease. It seems to be doing well I just can't stand the fact that the lights are faintly on... I checked the spade connector at the rear of the alternator and it is in place; I'm not sure where to go from here, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Josh Lasserre
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Best Regards,

The situation you describe was exactly what happened to me shortly before the alternator completely died. It may be that time.

"I cleaned the fuse holders and fuses and coated each with dielectric grease."

did u put dielectric or conductive grease on?

if you put dielectric grease on the fuse and the contacts there will be much more resistance acrost the fuses and cause some serious problems. I did this also, not thinking... I thought it was not dielectric grease, so I used it and I almost burnt the fuel pump fuse totally. Thankfully I was @ home and caught the metal burning smell. Dielectric inhibits electrical conduction.
So if it was dielectric grease, remove that as soon as possible.
This might solve the faint lights, but I would also check the brushes in the alternator as the other poster suggested.

take care

Luke
82 242Ti 166k miles
84.5 245Ti 300k miles retired due to condition...

Could be a failing altenator. Or check the ground wires. Double check the the alt ground wires.

Thanks for the response I'm sure you're right. What prompted me to replace the harness finally was that the car was running off the battery, I thought it was soley the harness' fault but I guess it is the alternator. Tonight driving around the dash lights got dimmer as the battery began to run down, then it just quit working. Why do all the lights come on as the altenator fails? Why not only the battery light? Thanks for the help.
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Best Regards,