One thing I learned from the "water hose in the engine compartment trick" is that you may get a dull glow at the oil LED on the dashboard; due to water + dirt making a slightly conductive path at the oil sensor.� Dull glow of oil LED goes away once excess water in nooks and crannies in the area has heated up and evaporated (at least it did for me and has not re-appeared after 4 months).

Rich
San Diego

--- On Fri, 8/24/12, Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

From: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: All the wires are brown!
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Friday, August 24, 2012, 3:14 PM

Was tracing out some wires in the old engine bay and noticed that all
the wires were brown. "This wire," I thought, "should be yellow with a
red stripe* ... oh, wait, that's just dust."

A lot of dust.

The brown overcoat is due to a hefty accumulation of Central and East
Oregon dirt road dust buildup on every object in the compartment.

Can I just stick a garden hose with a nozzle on it in there and wash
everything off? The weather is warm and humidity low (about 8% right
now, you guys in the South where it's probably, like, 99 and 44/100ths**
percent humidity can just suck wind) so things should dry fairly quickly.

=============
* Bonus points for telling us which wire this is. Details of the vehicle
in the sig, below.

** EXTRA bonus points: Which personal care product used "99-44/100%
pure" in their ad campaigns?

--
Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
1984 Westfalia, auto trans,
Bend, Ore.