Check all grounds. A guy at work had major grief recently from a battery terminal broken inside the battery AND a loose ground at the transmission.

 

Dielectric is the property of electrical insulation, or of very high resistance. Bulbs and connectors rely on metal to metal contact, adding dielectric grease shouldn't affect connection at all as it wont stay between connector terminals and insulate unless that connector is defective or really loose. It will only surround it, offering protection against elements.

If your problem is related to humidity, dielectric should solve it.

Intermittently defective electrical components are usually caused by the connector terminals unsoldering from heat/internal resistance/breakage inside the component.

If someone has a wiring diagram for the APPS, you could diagnose it yourself using a multimeter and/or a test light, to avoid replacing a working component for a simple wiring problem. But it has been known to be defective on several vehicules so it's probably just that. Even mine acted up in the past but a simple connector cleaning fixed it to this day.

Generally speaking, it should have a 5V feed, a ground (some components ground themselves through the body), and some kind of pulse width output to the ECU (a 0-5V square wave signal). If you can have access to a scope, you could look at the output signal to see if it's right related to pedal position. Some automotive multimeters have a duty cycle function which could work also. A simple voltage reading on that wire won't help at all.

 

FYI, with all due respect to your post, in a shop I have solved several customer electrical "problems" with bulb sockets, terminal connections, etc. by cleaning out all the dielectric grease then simply re-connecting dry and clean.

There are specialty products, like Deoxit, that de-oxidize, clean, then evaporate yet still leave a protection that does not inhibit conduction. Relatively expensive stuff, yes.

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

 

Not saying that dielectric grease is not the problem.

In itself, dielectric grease is an electrical insulator. The only way it could cause problems is if it becomes contaminated and starts conducting current creating a short or if the grease itself is enough the spread the terminals apart and stop current flow from lack of metal to metal contact. Quantity is also a factor here. A light coat shouldn't impede current flow. If the connector if crammed full of it, or if regular grease is used, then it will mostly cause problems instead of preventing them.

In all cases, it still helps preventing corrosion inside electrical connectors that are exposed to elements. As in anything else automobile, it still requires maintenance intervals, mainly to prevent contamination.

 

ok update is i had checked my battery connection and the negative side was loose.. i pulled both off anyway and gave them a cleaning before reconnecting and making sure they were secure. drove great for a couple days and then it happened again..(not alowing throttle over 3k rpms and the whole car shaking if the throttle was applied at that rpm.. today i got back to it and discovered my cold air intake has a hole in it right where the battery tray is.. just rubbed it but anyway i dont know that the hole (about the size of a BB) is the issue so i'm going to check the grounds like advised and see about the electrical connectors..

 

any leak will cause problems....

 

clean the MAF while you're at it

 

ok so I said F*&% it and bought myself a new intake and put it on today but now my idle is way low to the point it wants to die after applying some power.. I'm going to cruise around tonight and see if the old issue comes back and see what's what after that. thanks for all the input

 

after changing the intake, let the car idle for like 5-10 minutes for the ECU to relearn close loop idle fuel trims...

 

yeah been driving it a couple weeks now but seems to be running rough, more so at idle I think I may be having fuel delivery issues (still occasionally get a misfire code) I got some researching to do. thanks for the help homies

 

something's wrong...is it leaking? did you damage the MAF? etc.

 

Hello Otter, i have a 2004 Ralliart and plan to replace this part. But when I bought the OEM MR578861, it the only the black/sensor that is shown and not the whole assembly. May I ask for any tips on how to properly replace just this sensor? Thank you in advance.

 

My 2005 Saturn Ion always goes into limp mode when it rains and snow. My throttle position pedal has been changed twice , please help me resolve this issue