Ok... here's the story...

For awhile now I have noticed that when I am driving with the headlights and dashlights on and step on the brake the lights flick for a second, I was thinking it was a grounding problem somewhere but never got around to looking into it... no big deal I thought...I noticed tonight that with the lights off and the fogs on the same thing happens...

So tonight I am out cruising and I drop into my buds place...there was a small stretch of dirt road which I had to go over, maybe 100 feet of it but rough enough to rattle the car a little bit...

I pull into his driveway and my dashlights go out, radio dies (it was flickering on and off first), headlights and parklights go out, dome light/maplight goes out...

I was baffled.... car stayed running, the guages were operating as I could see them from the outside light of my buds apartment, brake lights worked when I stepped on the brake, fog lights worked, signal lights worked, power windows and locks also worked....I shut the car off and she started back up fine....

So I decided to drive back home, had my fogs on I could see where I was going and as I stated above the brake and signal lights worked....

Here comes the weird part....

On the way home I saw that my light switch was still pulled out so I figured I may as well push it back in as the lights were out anyway, when I did that the radio came back on, pull the switch and the radio would go out. I then decided to do some experimenting,

- Light switch pulled out all the way, radio went out
- Light switch pulled out in the park light position, radio would go out

- Light switch pushed in all the way...radio would come on
- Light switch pushed in, dome light switch or maplight switch (I have t-tops with the overhead console) switched on, the radio would flicker on and off...

I was completely baffled....just before I pulled into my driveway as I was experimenting everything came back fine....




I obviously have a flakey ground issue somewhere or is it...with what I described above can someone point me in the right direction??

I don't have any big stereo or anything like that, just a simple CD Receiver which was wired up properly (never cut into the stock radio harness but used a proper plug which you can buy with just the pig tails on it and is made for GM harnesses)

For piece of mind I disconnected my battery ...wouldn't want an electrical fire

 

My Formula had a problem like that, I would be going down the road and my all my lights would flicker and gauges would start acting funny. Mine was the ground strap that goes from the back of the engine to the body, check that and let us know what happens.

 

with that story I am guessing the radio is aftermarket and is wired into the headlight circuit. switch could be falty. check the wiring while you at it(bare wires bad splices ect...)

 

Could be anything. Obviously check radio wiring as the other post said, also check the junction at the starter-it's a very common problem for the nut to get loose causing all sorts of intermittent problems. Get you bud and start wiggling things around till you get the problem to manifest itself.

 

Sounds to me like the dimmer control burned up. I'd pull it and check that maybe?

 

Hmm...map/courtesy/radio are all on the ACC fuse right? I dont know about headlights though....But definetly sounds like a bad ground. Something that might help, happen to have a multi-meter or ohm-meter to measure resistance with ? (or even perhaps a continuity tester). I'd start checking the ground on the radio and light circuits, if you can test the resistance to ground in them with an ohm-meter you may find the prob a little easier, not have to take as much stuff apart to find it.

 

I do have a good multi-meter (Fluke 23)... so I will be checking for ground problems in the upcoming weeks....I have to completely pull the dash out anyway (sealing up some water leaks along the firewall)...so I will take that opportunity to check for ground problems... I will check the main ground off the back of the engine as well as suggested above...

Thanks guys....I will be sure to post my findings, and if anyone else has any tips, stuff to check please post it here!