Warning lights on at start?
 

For the past week I have noticed that the E-brake light, Brake wear indicator light and battery light have all glowed dimly together after start up. Sometimes for up to a minute or more after start up? Is this indicative of a bad ground on the cluster, failing ignition switch, failing voltage regulator, failing alternator or is it some other simple and unrelated problem?

The car glows fine and everything works. I drove in the dark last night with no noticeable drop in output from the lighting, etc...

Any problem on these cars isn't easy :P

I would run a fresh ground wire if you haven't done so already. I feel as if these cars should have come with an extra ground cable for the instrument cluster. A wonky instrument cluster was one of the principle reasons why my stepdad put my car into storage.

There are countless threads on how to do it, but redundancy is a good thing.

Get a good gauge wire and some spade plugs. Latch the spade ends onto the rear screw on the cluster that is on the lower right of the spedometer if you're looking at the rear of the unit.

Then connect the wire to the ground collection to the chasis on the other end.

Good luck! Let us know if that was the case.

Usually when those bulbs glow it means the alternator isn't putting out much voltage. Check the voltage at the battery with the car running, should be about 13.5 volts.

Agree:
 

I agree..

Thanks guys!

OK... I'm on my lunch break and I'm driving the car all over the place (220 mile day). I went out and checked the voltage... Not good.

I got 12.45 volts with the car off and only 12.20 volts with the car running. The belts look good and tight. No strange noises to speak of. Now what?:confused:

I'm thinking that when I get home late today, I'll pull the regulator and see what it looks like (never pulled it before). Check and re-secure the 2 big grounds on the engine and hinge pocket and check the battery connections. Any other ideas?

I hope it is not the alternator...:rolleyes:

Before you replace the alternator check the hot wire from the alternator. Sometimes gets loose, sometimes gets corroded, although with the MB diesel there is usually enough oil around there to eliminate any corrosion.
I always run a voltage test right from there to make it certain the alternator is the problem; not some other connection.

Ok... I just got home and I put the meter on it again. I only had 12.02 volts with the engine off and 11.88 with it running.

Now, when I start the car, the Battery light, Brake Pad wear indicator light and E-brake light are not coming on at all? So, it appears that something has had a meltdown.:rolleyes:

Where should I start looking? Behind the cluster or under the hood? A bad voltage regulator would not cause this. Right?

hmmm, im thinking the plug on the back of the alternator has come loose. On the other hand a bad voltage reg could cause the same issue.

All the lights were working this morning. It just looked weird and took a minute for them to go out. Are the lights not working a symptom of a bad regulator? Are there specific things that would cause those lights not to come on? When there is a problem, the light is supposed to stay on, not go out... Right?

I looked at the plug on the back of the alt. It appears to be in there pretty good. I'm too damn tired to mess with it tonight. 340 miles over 2 counties today.

I guess I will plan to pull the regulator, pull the plug and see what I got? Maybe throw some dilectric grease on there and put it back together.:confused: It has got to be a simple fix.

Sometimes when the resistor in the regulator goes out it will knock out the dash lights. Also if the brushes worn out it can take out the dash lights. Basically anything is possible.

Go check the plug on the back of the alternator, and report back.

S,

Thanks... I'll do that tomorrow along with the above. All the other lights in the cluster work, including the seat belt light, glow plug light, etc.... Just the Battery light, Brake wear indicator light and E-brake light are out.

Oh... And it is not charging, battery is low, etc...:D

I know exactly what your talking about.

When I replaced my alternator I forgot to plug it in and when I turned the key on none of those lights came on.

Then other time I pulled out my voltage regulator to put in a old spare alternator I had on the shelf to have it tested, I turned the key on to put up the windows and I got no dash lights when the regulator was out.

S,

Yep... That was it. I finally got around to playing around with it. I disconnected the battery, unplugged the plug on the back of the alt., cleaned and greased the contacts and put it back together. NO change in the warning lights. So, I disconnected the battery again, pulled the regulator and the brushes were basically gone. One of them was "stuck in the bore". So, I fiddled around with them and got them to extend properly again, put it back in the alt. and hooked everything back up. This got the lights to come back on.

So, now with the ignition off I'm getting 11.9 volts on the battery and 13.2 with the car running. I have the battery on the charger to get it back up to the proper voltage and I'm ordering a regulator from Phil.

Thanks again!!:D

In the process I found a pretty nasty oil leak around the bottom of the compressor on the turbo. More good news.:rolleyes:

AJ

Great, glad to hear you found the problem. Do a search on turbo oil return hose or something like that, its a common leak point.

I finally got the new regulator in there. Now with the car turned off I got 12.6 volts and running I got 14.1 volts. I also found the lower alternator bolt to be completely worn out and almost worn in half. That bolt is on order and I will have to deal with it another day. Pics below.

The oil leak does not look good. It is coming from the compressor. NOT a feed or return line leak. There are some bars that are held in place with bolts around the compressor. On the lower bar on the passengers side and on the lower bolt is where the oil is weeping out. It is not very much... But, it is leaking and needs to be fixed ASAP. The car does not smoke and there does not appear to be any oil "inside" the compressor housing.

I'm going to pull the intake/exhaust manifold again this weekend so I can get a better look. Is there some kind of big seal around the compressor where these bolts (and bars) are?

Worn lower alternator bolt:
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg133/litespeed58/Loweralternatorbolttoast.jpg

Worn Voltage Regulator:
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg133/litespeed58/Voltageregulatorbeforeandafter.jpg