There are way too many "electrical gremlin" threads for me to even find something specific to my problem and i apologize if the solution is already posted. I have tried searching and couldnt find anything helpful.

Had the car for a few months and asides from the issues that have been resolved, it has been fairly reliable; up until recently. I took the car to an empty parking lot to give a bit of a thrashing, and the problems arose shortly after that.

The first thing that i noticed was that my door lights were constantly on and i had a door light on in my gauge cluster. I took a look at the mechanism that cuts the power going to the lights and came to the conclusion that its being grounded somewhere else. Even with the switch removed, the lights are still on. I then proceeded by trying to see if the wire is being pinched somewhere and causing it to ground on the chassis. Found nothing in the immediate vicinity of the door.

I decided to pull the warning light cluster to see if maybe the wire is being pinched in the dash someplace and things took a turn for the worse.

I took a look and saw nothing out of the ordinary, but when i put the warning cluster back in the dash, my radio came on....without a key even IN the car. So right now I've reached the conclusion that something is terribly wrong behind the dash and is causing multiple electrical issues.

Perhaps this can serve to help other who are hopelessly stuck searching for a specific problem among a sea of electrical problems. Any feedback and insight would be appreciated. As of right now Im removing as much of the interior as i can to pull the dash and get a closer look at whats going on
Thanks

 

well the door light circuit is really simple, as you've noticed. there is power, and the door switches provide the ground.

so if the lights are on, its getting a ground somewhere between the cluster light and the door switches.

step 1 is to look for and remove any aftermarket wiring, 99% of the time its a badly installed alarm system, and putting it back to stock fixes everything.

 

other than the radio which i installed myself, nothing else is aftermarket. Stock alarm system 1990 GXL

 

The wire which runs to the door switch is Blue/White and this wire runs to the idiot cluster, alarm unit and the CPU's largest plug. Using an ohm meter will help you narrow down where the grounding of this wire is occuring.

The Radio fuse powers the radio. It appears this wire is receiving voltage constantly now rather than w/key to on ACC or on. This could be caused by a bare portion of this wire, Blue/White, rubbing against a constant voltage source (another wire) or the ignition switched is problematic. The Cigarette fuse powers the lighter so if the Blue/Black wire at the lighter has power as well w/no key then that should lead you to believe the switch is the root cause. Another way to check the switch is on the Front harness side of things at the ignition switch is a solid Blue wire that powers both ACC fuses and this wire should not have power w/o a key in the ignition.

 

ok so i removed the dash and im about to start inspecting the harness to see whats causing the issues. I decided to see if the door light issue was related to something inside the dash or the car, so i hooked up the battery and the lights are still on. This means i have more digging to do in the car to find where its grounded itself.
When i drove the car again yesterday i noticed that my clock had simple stopped working completely as well most of these functions seem to be in the same area of the dash so im gonna take a good look.
sorry the pictures looks so distorted, i have nothing other than my gopro to take pictures with

 

Uh,oh...Send me a pic of the idiot cluster or tell me if the top is THICK or thin.I may have another for you here Ivan.
stick that **** back together.you got 3 weeks..!!

 

the thing is the door lights were still on even with the entire dash removed... I tried to figure out where the wires are shorting out but to no avail. Im taking the cheap way out and im just removing the blubs from the lights and the "door open" bulb from the idiot cluster.
the radio issue turned out to be some exposes wires so i wrapped those up again and it seems to be working as it should