DIRTYROTTENMACKINFRACKIN...

[TSGB]

Started up the car last night to go to a friend's house from my girlfriend's. No dash lights. Well, it's just a couple of miles, so I take it slowly, occasionally flipping the overhead light on to make sure I'm not speeding. /forums/images/graemlins/deal.gif I make it there without incident, and check it out the next morning. Turns out to be a blown fuse. No big deal. I replace it, figuring if it happens again, I'll get concerned. It happened again tonight. /forums/images/graemlins/doah.gif

But worse.

I blew my interior lights when I flicked the overhead to set my cruise control. At this point, the light smell of melting army men/plastic insulation fills the car. /forums/images/graemlins/yikes.gif Got home and looked about-- taillights are gone (except for brake lights), front running lights are shot, trunk light, and all interior lights. /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif

I hate tearing apart dashes, so I weaseled as much gap as I could around the headlight switch area, only to find more stink, and a spring about 3-4 inches long contracted laying next to a filament looking thing. (I also found the switch itself is encased in a one-piece steel box, with just a little port to reach it.)

What happened? /forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif

Until I get this resolved, no headlights for me!
If I remove the fuses leading to my interior lights, will that keep them from drawing power and burning plastic?

/forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif

 

[TSGB]

Oh, but wait! It gets better, but unrelated. I was cleaning my windows today, and was sitting with the passenger side door open. I looked into the front of the jamb near the hinge and the seal--

A colony of sugar ants saw fit to infest my car! /forums/images/graemlins/rotfl.gif


All starting a day after I get my engine replaced. /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

 

[justhorsinaround]

Never heard of such a thing as sugar ants. What do they look like?

 

[mr.smartass]

they are tiny black ants that do not sting or bite but are attracted to sugar, not harmful but annoying...

 

[justhorsinaround]

Huh. I don't think we have any of those little critters round these parts. Just the little red ones.

 

[gravdigr]

[ QUOTE ]
they are tiny black ants that do not sting or bite but are attracted to sugar, not harmful but annoying...

[/ QUOTE ]

We call those pissants /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif

 

[TSGB]

While discussion of the sugar ants rages, I drive in the early morning light, on the freeway, in a rainstorm, WITHOUT USING MY HEADLIGHTS FOR FEAR OF ELECTRICAL FIRE!!!

/forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif




Although I did let the little buggers live... /forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif

 

[Blue85]

Is your alternator voltage too high?

 

[TSGB]

How can I check that?

I haven't had problems with it before Friday...

/forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif

 

[NoSmog73]

[ QUOTE ]
Got home and looked about-- taillights are gone (except for brake lights
, front running lights are shot, trunk light, and all interior lights. /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

All run off the headlight switch

[ QUOTE ]
I hate tearing apart dashes, so I weaseled as much gap as I could around the headlight switch area, only to find more stink, and a spring about 3-4 inches long contracted laying next to a filament looking thing. (I also found the switch itself is encased in a one-piece steel box, with just a little port to reach it.)

What happened? /forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like the filamont might have broke and caused a short or the short caused the filamont do what it did..Replace the headlight switch

That is the headlight switch..Replace it and check again..Check all the wires coming from it for cracks or cuts that could short.
Check the wire that runs under the driverside door rubber seal that turns on the interior lights..I bet that it might have worn a hole in the insulation from (over time)stepping on it getting in and out.Should be a orange and white wire,IIRC /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

 

[TSGB]

Excellent call!

Tore it apart (the hard way. The Napa guy showed me the easy way!) and that filament is torn to hell.

What confused me though is that there's a pile of greenish poweder, finely ground like coca... I mean powdered sugar. /forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif


Off to pick-a-part and to get fuses.

 

[Can Can]

I'm willing to bet that the "green powder" is an accumulation of oxydized something or other that has flaked off inside the switch.......

 

[TSGB]

/forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif

Actually, I'm kind of liking the look of my dash without all the plastic crap covering the workings...

 

[Can Can]

Yeah, a "Mad Max" dashboard has it's upsides, eh? /forums/images/graemlins/rotfl.gif

Maybe the sugar ants thought you left some green Kool-Aid crystals out for them? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif