Date:         Wed, 29 Jan 1997 15:49:55 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Lawrence Johnson <ljohnson@halhinet.on.ca>
Subject:      Re: alt. & OXS lights freaky

Tonya Pope wrote:
> 
> Okay, I've searched the archives to no avail on this one, even though I
> know something similar was asked sometime around Thanksgiving.
> 
> Started yesterday, battery and OXS lights are coming on together.
> They'll stay on a while then go off and stay off a while.  Road
> conditions (i.e. bumps) don't seem to affect it.  It was quite rainy
> here the last couple of days.  Stormed real bad during the night before
> this started and water got into a number of places it usually doesn't
> (talking my house here--not the van!)  I was woken up in the middle of
> the night by rain dripping from my ceiling onto my feet!  As such, I'm
> thinking that maybe the wind was just right to get water behind my dash
> somehow?  I think a couple of drops actually fell from the bottom of the
> dash onto the floor while I was driving--reason for my suspicions.
> 
> If it was the rain, it's going to be a while before it dries up, since
> it's kinda cold here now.  If it wasn't, I would appreciate any insight
> ya'll can give me.  Seems like it has to be a short somewhere, just
> don't know where.  Engine starts just fine, so I don't think anything is
> really wrong with the battery or alternator and the belts look good, no
> slipping.
> 
> Ideas?
> 
> TIA,
> Tonya
> 87 Vanagon GL Wolfs
> 74 S. Beetle

Tonya,
I beleive that you are experiencing the effects of old wires with
failing insulation. Our Westy is a 1986 vintage and has had similar
problems. A cheap band-aid fix is to spray WD-40 liberally over all
wires (engine compartment, specially the high tension wires and
fuse/relay box). WD-40 is a Water Dispersant and is non-conducting and
will do no harm.
It worked for me :>)
Larry