So I noticed some time ago (don't remember if it was before I left or not) that I had some weird glue like substance coming out of this...

before I left Calgary in this van I had two fresh deep cycle batteries installed from a shop back home. Other than that there has been no change to the electrics.

But when I talked to an old guy around here he said that this blue wire...should not be that way because nothing should run back to the ignition. (Blue wire is running to the front connection on piece that isolates the house batteries.




This is the backside


Any thoughts? How would I test it? Lucky enough...I have a spare ;)

Cheers

Looks like it got hot and melted the potting material. I have a brand new one of those too if you need one.

I would definitely remove that blue wire. Is it supposed to be a 12V hot lead at all times? I would somehow tap this to the battery.


The stuff that's melting is just a heat sink material. Replace the module with a good quality one and keep that one as a back-up. I noticed it was only mounted with one screw; you definitely want it held down with two screws because the module relies on a good body ground to function.

is that connecting to an isolator or a solenoid? (the device separating the house batteris)

Nate said Tap HEHEHEH

The lack of a good ground, two screws, COULD be causing it to have a larger draw, causing the melt down described. . . .

Thanks, that pic is after I started the removal. It is held on with two screws.

The clip that the blue wire goes to is an interesting blue clip. It was there when I bought the van so I'm reluctant to change it up.

New unit is solid and it corrected the issue with my headlights resetting the stereo when I turned them on.

Isolator

You might consider removing it from the firewall for a min, sanding the area around the screw holes to clean bare metal, and remounting it, that way it has good clean ground points again. . . . just a thought. If you do this, just sand a tiny area, and add some dielectric grease ( available at MOST auto parts stores ) to protect against rust AND form a better ground.

That blue thing is a quick-splice connector. If you don't want to remove it, then wrap some electrical tape around it to keep moisture out.