Egreaser

I have a 96 E300 with a poor-man's grease conversion (electrically heated fuel lines), but I don't think that's the issue. I was running straight D2 petro when I thought I could make it though a puddle. I started hearing the serpentine sound different and backed out. A day or two later the alternator started making noise, and the battery lost voltage. The alarm went off and my wife disconnected a horn somewhere (hmmm, just thought of that....)

Because the alternator was still putting out voltage I replaced the battery. I could start it with less than 12 volts.

My kid got into the car and left a light on, which really drained the battery. I tried to jump it, then I got the red and green (alternating) lights on the mirror (I can lock and unlock with the remote no problem). After that I charged the battery overnight, which brought it to about 13.6 as I remember, then the red and green fireworks went away and I could start it. I started it again after that, I replaced the alternator, then the red and green came back. My charger only brought the battery to 12.9 after that, and the red and green lights were still laughing at me. There are lots of clicks near the injection pump/distributer thingie when I turn the key.

I looked at the K40 and cannot see any problem. I OHM'd all the connections and they came out fine. I looked at the pse connectors and they are really green - I ran the connectors on and off a few times to see if that would cure it, but no luck.

I am not looking forward to cleaning these connectors, or replacing them. Can I cheat with CAREFULLY placed conductive grease? I turned the key in the trunk and the door. Someone said that I may need to reset codes - is there a cheap reader that will do it? Is there some 10 or 20 second rule that I need to try?

Egreaser

I guess I should be honored that 500 people have read this thread so far (no reply at all???), but I still don't have a solution. Last night I spent 3 hours cleaning the contacts on my green pse connectors, I re-soldered the pins that were broken, ohm'd them all, and the red and green lights are still there. I also re-connected the horn, and it sounds better now, but there's little point if I can't get the car on the road. A little help!?

pr.me

dont feel so bad
my observation those lights will smile at you when you remot batteries (2 of them) not your car battery are about to die.
they might do in other cases but this is the only one I came across
bood luck

Egreaser

Ya know, after all of the checking, it was in fact the K40 relay! I really suspected something was up when it acted up on hot days. My guess is that one of the contacts expanded just enough to separate when it was hot. Now I had already put the relay in the oven and tested all the circuits, but apparently it cooled off enough to where it wasn't misbehaving. Anyway, as many others have said, I recommend that you just spring for a new K40.