hmm I will keep that in mind. I usually use WD40 to clean rubber parts/hoses.
And on my way home tonight I had the same problems again, stereo dies, ABS light, blah blah blah....so I STILL don't know what is going on...maybe I should take it into the shop...

I am having a similar problem. Was driving smelled some burnt electrical smell. Looked at the engine didn't see any issues. Once again drove some more and as I started to drive when I stopped car it died and no electricity at all car had no power. I am not good with electrical issues. I found a spot with a melted spot in the + wire going down from the harness box to the engine. I put some electrical tape on it and still no power. I looked some more took an ammeter and set to ohm to see if touching red to the +terminal and black to -terminal and still shows a short. This sux. Can't figure out where else took look. Any ideas. Not seeing any issues with fuses. Of course the block fuses I can't figure out how to test those. No power help

What I figured out is that I replaced the battery and alternator BEFORE I fixed that spliced power cable, so it killed them AGAIN. so I took them back and got them replaced AFTER it was fixed so all is well. So look to see if you can find any bad wires or grounds BEFORE you start replacing stuff, and take the battery/alternator in to get tested.

It's definitely a frustrating situation. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this would be appreciated.

Bumping an old thread to follow up in case other people come across the same issues. I picked up a 95 ti a couple weeks ago, it's my first 4 cyl e36. I've had 5 of the 325/M3 variety over the past decade. So I had similar symptoms to others in the thread. The ti would intermittently die, sometimes driving fine for miles and miles - sometimes days, other times it died right after start up. The previous owner put in a new battery in the last couple months, I tested the alternator and it was barely within acceptable voltage range.

I bought a refurbished bosch alternator, dropped it in and all seemed to be fine. After putting about 100 miles on the car, it died again, just like before. I was stumped. I checked the grounds and connections that I could see, some were corroded but nothing horrible. I cleaned and reconnected and none seemed to cure the problem, the ground near the drivers headlight was especially gunky but cleaning that connection up didn't help. Finally I pulled the alternator to check my new connections and try to see the wiring behind it. I traced back the connection from the alternator to the starter (? hard to see underneath the intake manifold.) and from under the car I was able to reach up and feel the nuts, the positive one was about a full 2 threads loose. FOUND IT! I cleaned up the junction as best I could and tightened it down. I recharged the battery then started the car, it now holds a steady 14.3-14.4 volts.