Dielectric Grease

[Alabtech]

I’m looking to treat the connectors in the kick panels this weekend since I need to check them. Two questions for those that have done it.

First. Is there a order of operations when doing this since it involves connections for multiple systems? Or do I just disconnect negative battery, wait 10min, unplug connectors, grease, plug the connectors back in and then reconnect the battery?

Second, how to grease? From what I’ve found it seem I coat male and female connectors and then plug them back to together. Is there anything I need to check afterwards?

Thanks in advance Mud.

 

[Leaky2014]

I would also grease the back of the connectors to create a water resistant seal.
Yes, disconnect battery, wait x amount of time.
Another place you might want to do is the fuse panels, water gets on those just as it does the connectors. I had lots of green crusties on the drivers side fuse panel when I had a leak.

 

[Alabtech]

I would also grease the back of the connectors to create a water resistant seal.
Yes, disconnect battery, wait x amount of time.
Another place you might want to do is the fuse panels, water gets on those just as it does the connectors. I had lots of green crusties on the drivers side fuse panel when I had a leak.

Ok thank you @Leaky2014. I will do the fuse panel as well.

 

[doru]

Squeeze grease from the tube directly into each female terminal hole (assumes you have a small tube with a pointy opening).

 

[manofthewoods]

I’m looking to treat the connectors in the kick panels this weekend since I need to check them. Two questions for those that have done it.

First. Is there a order of operations when doing this since it involves connections for multiple systems? Or do I just disconnect negative battery, wait 10min, unplug connectors, grease, plug the connectors back in and then reconnect the battery?

Second, how to grease? From what I’ve found it seem I coat male and female connectors and then plug them back to together. Is there anything I need to check afterwards?

Thanks in advance Mud.

It may be obvious, but I'd spray contact cleaner on anything that looks at all questionable, let it dry, go for the grease. I've been surprised many times how well that stuff works. That and brake cleaner - a wrench's best friends

 

[OSS]

This question really isn’t vehicle specific - it’s general electricity 101.
Unless the Toyota manual specifically calls out for using dielectric grease on certain connectors, personally I wouldn’t use it.
It’s really nasty stuff that gets everywhere. Just wait until it heats up in the sumner and the carrier separates and liquifies- weeping.
And once you get it on your skin - have fun getting it completed off.
Personally I despise the stuff.

 

[Leaky2014]

392° is the melting point of dielectric grease, if the connectors he plans on using dielectric grease on get to that temp he has bigger problems.

 

[bloc]

Carrier separation can happen long before the melting point.

 

[doru]

I never had a problem with this. I had problems when not using it even in better conditions than water dripping on contacts. It does not waterproof your connectors, but it does help keeping their terminals from corroding. Troubleshooting poor electrical contacts is a nightmare. Dielectric grease is cheap and works.
If it drips, it means there is too much. You do not need much as it is supposed to be applied on the terminals not on the whole connector.

 

[Leaky2014]

The benefits far out weigh any possible side effects...

 

[bloc]

Clearly why Toyota felt it was necessary.

 

[Leaky2014]

Clearly why Toyota felt it was necessary.

Just like fluid film.

 

[bloc]

Just like fluid film.

And it isn’t, for most people, installing it would just create a mess.

Like dielectric grease.

 

[Leaky2014]

Yes, morons should not use it.

 

[GordJ]

Clearly why Toyota felt it was necessary.

Surely you're not supporting Toyotas engineering on this issue?

 

[bloc]

Surely you're not supporting Toyotas engineering on this issue?

Toyota, and every other auto manufacturer with collectively billions of good connections that work perfectly without dielectric grease.

Specialists racing harnesses for high vibration environments without dielectric grease. In part because they need to service those harnesses and the mess the grease makes impairs that ability.

The engineering failure here isn’t the harness, it is the sunroof drains or cowl seal. The former is easy to prevent if you have a rig that isn’t garaged, but if it is maintenance isn’t necessary. The latter depends heavily on a good windshield install and ponying up for the correct parts, now that we know that cowl seal can be a problem.

Or I guess we could band-aid the problem…

 

[GordJ]

Which is it, the drains or the cowl? Or the faulty seal on the windshield? Until there is a real fix I will be using grease, which in my experience doesn’t liquify or run, to try and keep my connectors viable.

 

[bj70bc]

Im hesitant about weighing in on this but...... f*** it
i always have heard that dielectric grease should NOT go on to the contacts themselves but should be used around the connection to keep out moisture etc. by the nature of dielectric grease (and its etymological definition) it doesen't transmit electricity in a meaningful way and should not go onto contacts as it will lower the conductivity... which is WHY one would use it to be a barrier against water which does conduct and corrode.....

flame on

 

[bloc]

Im hesitant about weighing in on this but...... f*** it
i always have heard that dielectric grease should NOT go on to the contacts themselves but should be used around the connection to keep out moisture etc. by the nature of dielectric grease (and its etymological definition) it doesen't transmit electricity in a meaningful way and should not go onto contacts as it will lower the conductivity... which is WHY one would use it to be a barrier against water which does conduct and corrode.....

flame on

I'll rarely defend dielectric grease but if an electrical contact is depending on the conductivity of something surrounding it, that contact isn't healthy and is already on its way to failure. The metal contacts themselves should be in firm connection, completing the circuit.