The ABS, Battery, and the two little red lights for the Water & Oil stock gauges are staying on while I drive.
A few weeks ago they just flickered off and on, now they stay on.

I originally thought it had to do with the stereo but nothing fixed it.

I noticed my alternator missing the rubber cap to the nut and so I put some electrical tape on it.. but it fried the tape! So I made another rubber boot to go over it and the lights are still staying on.

So what do you guys think is causing this?

 

Here are a couple of shots in the dark:

Failing alternator?
Loose alternator belt?
Corroded connection to the alternator? (It shouldn't be that hot - clean it.)


Start reading at page G-7 of the FSM.

 

Makes sense.
I checked the Alt. Belt and it has decent tension, (1/8" of play) Doesnt it need to be extremely tight? (as in no play?)

 

Page A-7 of the FSM says that the alternator belt can have as much as 0.29 inches of deflection. It sounds like yours is fine.

 

So get this...
I put a rubber cap on the alt. nut and it melted it. Its melting everything I put on it.

And the other day.. when it was dark and I turned my headlights on. The dash lights slowly faded off. So does that pinpoint the a failling alternator?
thanks for the help

 

I mentioned earlier that that connection shouldn't be that hot. Hot indicates either a bad connection or excessive current.

A bad connection can be disassembled and cleaned (emory cloth works well, but scraping with a knife or fine sandpaper will make a difference).

Excessive current is caused by a current drain somewhere (bad battery or a short).

Or the alternator could have just failed (need proper tools to diagnose, or just swap in another one).