Hi everyone,

I've got a new to me 84 GL 4WD wagon. Very faintly, the alternator light, brake fluid light, stop lamp, and parking brake light are illuminated all the time.On a bright sunny day it's impossible to notice. Night driving you can easily see it. The lights illuminate to full strength when you turn the key before you start the car (as they do in all cars). Or if I pull the parking brake, it will be 2-3 times as bright (as desired). The lights will almost entirely fade away at 3,700+ rpm. Then they return when I shift up.

So I am pretty sure it's not actually a problem with anything that's lighting up, since they all behave the same. Nonetheless:

- Alternator tests fine at idle and while revving and under load. Battery gauge works and the needle is always in the normal range.

- I did a brake flush. Fluid level has always been fine, and the old fluid didn't even look bad. No noise from the brakes and the brake action feels pretty good (for 34 year old brake technology).

I made a video to show what I am talking about. The first part is with the key turned and the engine off, to demonstrate how bright the lights should be. The second part is starting the car and then turning off the instrument lights. The parking brake is on the whole video and you can see how much brighter that light is than the brake fluid/stop lamp light is. At night the lights are pretty obvious but you wouldn't be able to see them during the day.

 

 

 

I am not 100% sure on an 84, but 86 through 93 are what I run - on these, this is the symptom that one of the brushes in the alternator has worn down and is not making good contact with the slip ring.  It happens around 150k miles, like clockwork. 

That's a typical issue o the alternator. 

Expect those lights to all get bright on a drive soon - when the alternator completely dies. 

Cheers

Bennie

Much appreciated. I will replace the alternator and see what happens. And I've only got 110k!

If you can , measure the Volts at the battery before another alternator goes in. Should read 13.8 to 14.2 V. I have found many on their way out only read 12V and work fine if used daily. leave them a few days, batt flattery ....

 

Mind you, one alternator I bought at great expense, only after its warranty expired, did I find it still only put out 12 V !!

 

This is why I bought my next reco from Rock. Cheaper and cant easily go in and abuse them ...h a ha

Thanks everyone. I put in a new alternator today and it looks like the dash lights are behaving normally now.

And my goodness, that has got to be about as easy as replacing an alternator could be.

Sounds like when my alternator was starting to fail.