Ok, I know I've seen the question before, but the search option seems to be catty-wampus, so I'm going to ask forgiveness for repeating it.

I have a 1989 240 DL estate with an aftermarket AM/FM/CD. I had been having intermittant problems with the driver's side switch not always engaging the light, but a wiggle would make it work. On to what is now going on-

I was driving on a residential street, rolled over a speed bump, and- the radio went dead, the chime I used to get when the door opens went off (a friend has disconnected the chime, thank God, the dome light does not work, and the power locks do not work.

When I went to replace fuse eight, it sparked. I realize I probably casued a short with the jarring of going over the speedbump.

So far, I have checked:

Domelight ( removed and looked at wires that were visible)
Area behind the stereo (loked for wires that may have been sliced)
Door switch on drivers side (looked for anything that looked wrong.)

I am determined to figure this out. 1) I am cheap. 2) My wife is smug about her 2003 Camry working well, and teasing me about my stubborn affeection for the brick. 3) It's getting personal. ;)

Any tips, suggestions, or ideas welcome. I promise to post what does (and doesn't) work.

Best regards,

Mikojay

I am determined to figure this out. 1) I am cheap. 2) My wife is smug about her 2003 Camry working well, and teasing me about my stubborn affeection for the brick. 3) It's getting personal. ;)

Thanks for the laugh anyway.
I was going to suggest driving over the bump again but in reverse and then tell us about the look on your wife's face.

Well, I finally go to work last night. After pulling the door apart, and not finding anything; pulling the dash apart, and not finding anything; and then runnig the wipers to see if they were hiting anything, and not finding anything, I put it all back together.

For giggles and japes, I inserted the blated #8 fuse, and it didn't blow. Everything works. Well. I could not believe it. I drove it, over bumps, it still works. I guess I jarred whatever was hitting metal, and my problems may return. For now, I'm considering it warm up for the day my blower motor goes. ;)

Thanks for all the help. Does the tipjar take Paypal?

Best regards,

Mikojay

Thank you for all the new ideas- I've got a project for the morning, now. I'll let you know what I find.

Mikojay

Hi all,

As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." In other words, I haven't got around to this yet- I'll repost when I find out what's going on.

Cheers,

Mikojay

If you want to isolate the power locks from the realm of possibilities, there's a 3-wire plug over your left knee, with red, black and green wires in it. It's a 3-pin flat molex plug (like 3 bullet connectors). Squeeze and pull to disconnect- this will stop any actuation of the power locks from the switches, if this is in fact the problem.

I doubt that's it though- I'd look for the dome light to be shorting out against the roof steel. That scenario seems more likely to me.
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 87 244DL- 249K, B230F/M47, Turbo sways, Bilsteins, GT braces, Virgos, Turbo exhaust, Gislaveds for winter!

I would guess that it is a problem with the power locks, or the bundle of wires ( bends and flexes)that passes from the body to the drivers door.
edit to add: I got off my lazy as$, and checked the Bentley manual, and there are two more possibilities on that circuit; trunk light and engine compartment light. Both have wires that bend and flex for a possible loss of insulation and a short to ground or other circuit.
Gary Gilliam Sumerduck VA, '94 940 na Regina,'86 240

I recently took the interior drivers door panel off and found that the actuator/solenoid thing that goes around your drivers door lockset has 3 wires that come out of it. All of these wires had lost there insulation (it crumbled off just like the engine wiring harneses are famous for) right at that point where they go into that solenoid thing. I bought some of that brush-on insulation stuff and put that on there and it worked like a champ. I was lucky as I caught this before any problems had arisen. Don't know if this might be your problem but I thought it was worth mentioning. Good Luck!

That's just a switch. The three wires to it are ground, and the control wires to the relays for lock and unlock. Trace it back to the red wire for lock, green for unlock. They join a 3-wire harness going forward and thru the door wiring duct. There are 6 wires on the lock/switch side- 3 for the push-pull lock knob and 3 for the switch around the key lock cylinder. The two switches are in parallel- i.e. the key and the lock rod switch do the exact same thing on the exact same circuit. Only 3 wires go to the car.

A normally wired driver's door doesn't have any power anything in it, except a power window motor in GL's and late models. However the circuit works by grounding, so if the red or green wires grounded on the door or other metal surface, the locks could activate and possibly try to activate continuously.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 87 244DL- 249K, B230F/M47, Turbo sways, Bilsteins, GT braces, Virgos, Turbo exhaust, Gislaveds for winter!