I just bought this car from one of the proverbial "little old lady" and though I had a steal of a deal. After owning this for 6 months now- I am starting to find issues.

One annoying one is that there seems to be an issue with the interior electrical. I am getting a lot of distortion from the stereo when I first turn it on. If I do nothing at all- the door open sensor for the passenger front door registers (dimly) on the dash after about 10 minutes. When this happens- the distortion goes away on the radio.

I also noticed that if I open and close the front passenger door- the sensor will "trip" and I can get the same results (dimmed door open light, no radio distortion). I also found that I can get the same results by turning the dome light on and off.

Speaking of the dome light- I have to turn it completely off. I would like to have the lights come on when I open the doors, but when I set the switch to "Door", the light will remain dimly lit and will not shut off (even after the doors are closed). When the car is off- I still get the dimmed dome light and I am also getting power to the cigarette lighter (should only be active when the ignition is set to on). I will also get a lot of static coming from the front right dashboard speaker - and sometimes will get a loud pop.

As to the radio- besides the distortion- I cannot get the speakers to work properly. I set the balance and fade the best I can, but some of the speakers work intermittently and I have to constantly re-adjust the setting to get anything clear out of them. This is both with the radio and the tape deck (using tape converter to play music off of my Evo 4g).

A friend had mentioned that he had a similarly whacky electrical issue with a Mazda he had, where there was a short in the dome light because water had leaked in from the sunroof (yes, I do have one). This had effected his gauge cluster.

I am pretty handy when it comes to fixing things and electrical is one of my better suites- I am just looking to see if anyone else had a similar issue and how it was addressed so I don't have to start tearing the car interior/dashboard apart to find the issue.

 

On a limb here, does the car have an aftermarket alarm system?

 

No AM alarm system

 

Well that "kind of" rules out the PCB....I would inspect and clean the grounds....the pass door switch would be where I would start, the rest of the doors and then the dome.....something is causing "a ground" signal to be sent thus the light and "door" open to come on......

 

Will check the grounds and post the results. Thanks,