I'll be as detailed as possible with the steps of what happened..

First of all let me admit that I'm an idiot, I capped off a wrong wire.. I capped the dead wire, and left a hot wire open to just arc on anything..

I was installing a new CD Player, and I've never used the 'Dimmer' / Orange wire.. Even the previous owner had it disconnected.
I put the CD Player in and I guess it positioned the wire at just the right spot to arc out and melt the red/black wire that comes from the stock radio harness and goes up into the clusters of wires in the dash.. LUCKILY only a few inches, I was able to cut that, and cap that safely now.

What it also did though, well I have no idea what it DID.. but here are the symptoms:

- Key on Acc, or the II Symbol on the ignition.

- When Parking Lights ON: Passenger Side front bumper light is On, Passenger Side Signal Arrow on gauges is On Constant, Both Tails are on (normal), Passenger side reverse/turn signal constant On. Driver Side blinker works fine. When I try the Passenger side blinker, I hear a click under the dash near fuse panel.

- Checked all fuses, only one I found bad was seperate location than the others.. could've been one that'd been blown long before now.. a 7.5A that's a little slanted, when facing the fuses.. it's off to the left, with a black/yellow, and a yellow wire going to it. Replaced that, didn't affect anything that I'm aware of (yet)

- When Headlights are fully on, BOTH front bumper lights are on, Driver side blinker still works fine. Both Tails On.

- When No Lights are on, Driver side turn signal flashes not only the lower turn signal bulb.. but it flashes the tail light itself too. Passenger side tuen signal flashes BOTH tail lights, Passenger side lower turn signal/reverse light, AND makes all interior dash/gauge lights flash, including the green pass. side arrow.

I checked all fuses under the hood, and under dash.. only that one 7.5A was blown probably from previous time..

Anyone have an idea?

this sucks..

 

I would pull that dash apart and start inspecting all those wires becuase I think that more got melted together than what you think. I would HOWEVER, wait to see what one of the real experts has to say about your nightmare.

 

that red/black wire goes to a lot of crap.......it is the one right out of the combo switch,,

this is one that i would have to do hands on.......sounds like there is some serious wiring repairing to do ....

you would have to look at all those wires in the dash to see if there is any damage to other wiring ,, follow the damaged wire ( red/black ) ..

 

What did I tell ya? Real Expert.

 

Just when I thought I had the other tail light problem and all fixed, and started putting time / $ into other stuff..

There is no kind of flasher/relay that could cause this, and the weird combination of how the lights work is a way to tell you something is blown? That's what I was hoping for..

Where would I even begin to trace this wire? It looked as if it only melted a few inches, I cut back tape/wire loom and looked up it as far as I could.

 

I am sorry for your dilemma my friend,, and i wish there was more that i could do from here ,,

do not waste your time looking at fuses it is not the problem
the problem is that you got a power wire giving juice to some other wire ( s ) when that ( those ) wires are suppose to have none ..that's why with the combo switch off you are getting all these lites come on and or flash ,,
you might have to start unplugging connectors 1 at a time to isolate the problem,,
I would start to where the melter wire lead into .. once you locate the wiring harness that is causing the problem, you might have to cut the harness open and lok for melted wires , repair as needed

 

do you know any spots that the red/black wire travels to/through/into? there is so much tape/wire loom, and dash in the way.. how can i remove the glove compartment?

thanks for the help

 

also, would a dealership look into something like this for me?

 

So here's what I checked today:

Removed steering column plastic, the panel around your knees under steering column, metal bracket that goes behind that, and removed alot of tape/wire loom.

I isolated only one section so far, the plug from the back of the combo switch, down to under the dash, ends with a blue plug. I did not check that small 3 foot or so section yet (but that section would be an easy replacement)

The section I checked is BEYOND that, the other end of that plug, left side above the fuse box under the dash. Removed more tape/loom, and found the red/black wire had been melted pretty badly, melted together with other wires.. for about 10" or so I was able to peel it apart where I saw melted spots, and seperate. After I did that, I tried everything.. no luck. I did that as far up as I could till it gets into a cramped spot way under the back of the dash. So wherever that one leads to I haven't started that journey yet.. Then I'd have the one under the center of the dash, (radio harness), was melted too (found that last night when problem occured) but wherever that one leads to.. not yet started that journey either so pretty much now I KNOW it's melted up pretty badly.

I disconnected the wire that I ran to get the tails/dash lights to work, so the red/black now has no power. I have no tails/dash/gauge lights, one side blinker works.. so I guess for now, only daytime driving.

Will the dealership get into working on problems like this, or am I on my own? Can I isolate this 'lighting' harness and replace it? If so.. how much could either cost me (dealership, or finding new harness and replacing myself.)

If anyone here has sources on finding new harnesses for my car, pleeaaase help me out. This is so frustrating. I finally had a nice car with minor problems that were fixable and let me learn from them.. but this is bad, makes me feel like my cars ruined.

Any help at all is appreciated, thanks guys.

 

call a junk yard best bet is to get a harness from them,,
I had a feeling there was quite a few wires melted .. you might have to replace the complete cabin harness,, I HOPE NOT FOR YOUR SAKE ,,, but to replace the harness the dash has to come out .. unless you can locate al the melted wires and be able to replace the pieces that are melted ,,which to be honest with you i would not advice ,, at this point i would go with a different wiring harness

sure dealership will do it ( or should i say ,,, should do it) but it is not going to be cheap