I have an 88 camaro that i bought a while ago. It originally showed that the accessory fuse (20a) was blown. When I replaced it, the radio, dome light, parking lights, and brake lights came on along with the alarm that comes on when the headlights are on but the key isnt in the ignition. The alarm and everything stays on with the door shut, amd it runs until the battery is dead. Any idea what could cause this or where one could start looking for answers?

 

Not sure what you mean by "and everything"; but... if that includes the dome light, then start looking at all the white wires. The dome light has fused battery (orange wires) on one side, and the other side is the white wires. Those go to the door switches and the headlight switch, any of which grounds the white wire to turn the lights on. If some PO hack job has malfunctioned, (no!!! say it isn't so!!! a hack job malfunctioning???) a white wire is chafed through and shorted to ground, or if a door switch is messed up, or the HL sw is broke, the lights will stay on forever.

I'd start by unplugging the white wires from those 3 things and see if it turns off. If so, it's one of those. If not, it's a wiring problem, and I think I'd start looking at know-to-exist hack jobs (*cough*alarm*cough*) next.

 

Check the wiring on your ignition switch.

 

I checked as much of the wiring as I could, and everything looked fine. I did make a discovery, when the accessory fuse and 'inst lmps' fuses are in, all the accessories turn on, and the alarm/chime kicks on. When I unplug the inst lmps fuse, the chime stops and the brake lights turn off. Any reason why this would affect things?

 

The alarm assembly is activating due to a faulty circuit.

To find out where, pull the

 

Hang on for a sec....There are two "alarms" here. Which one are you referring to?

One alarm is for when the headlights are on and you turn the ignition off.

The other "alarm" is for when you leave the key in the ignition and open the door.