Call me crazy but using silicone dielectric grease on avionics connectors is asking for trouble

I had to re-pin a whole harness last month because some previous guy packed the connector full of that stuff and it caused intermittent shorts in the landing light circuit, so why are people still recommending this when a dry connection or a dab of corrosionX works fine without the mess?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_kevin5d ago

Nope, dielectric grease is for lights, not avionics.

thomas_roberts5d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, I'm right there with you on this. Ngl, I learned that lesson the hard way years ago when I put dielectric grease on some avionics connectors thinking it would protect them. Total disaster. It made the pins slippery and actually caused intermittent signal loss because the grease got between the contacts. I had to pull everything apart and clean it all with contact cleaner. Now I strictly use it on lights and battery terminals like you said, never near anything critical. Tbh, grease is for sealing out moisture on low voltage stuff, not for signal paths.