Been looking through the FAQ already. Only clue I got from the FAQ is that if connections are corroded "weird things" happen.

Yesterday, my wife returned with her 940 and said that she thought the right signals might be lit. We had a number of things come up and I did not get out there to check until after dark.

It appeared that most of the electrics on the passenger side were stuck on. headlight was dimly lit (according to her), right signal on the front and back were lit and the rear brake and signal were dimly lit. The highbeam indicator was also dimly lit and completely unresponsive to the switches. Right signal indicators did not work either. The dimness makes me think it could be some sort of short-circuit.

Aside from obvious non-function and lit bulbs, I couldn't see anything obviously wrong. I suspected a relay or something similar. I tried in vain to get the system to shut off, and after pulling the fuses and eventually the rear bulbs, the lights were finally shut off. I would have pulled the battery leads, but had no tools available at the time.

So. is this common/uncommon/unheard of? Any advice before I head out and start tracing for a short?

Dear RepairmanJack,

Hope you're well. It would be helpful to separate the status reports for instrument cluster indicator lights and the external lights. What cut-off power to the external lights, pulling a fuse or removal of the rear light bulbs? Is this car a sedan or a wagon?

Both malfunctions - instrument cluster indicator lights and external lights - can be caused by corrosion on connectors and/or grounds. This corrosion may not be visible: it may be only a few atoms thick. Sometimes, removing and re-seating a connector re-establishes the ground.

Ground corrosion is far more common than are switch and relay failures. Further, that the problem is confined to the passenger side, suggests that the problem is wiring-related, rather than switch or relay related. For example, if the headlight switch (or relay) fails, usually both headlights won't come on.

I do not have a wiring diagram for 1995 models. For 1994 models, almost certainly identical, the headlight ground on the passenger side, is just in front of the battery (on the passenger side of the engine bay, in a non-turbo car).

On a wagon, the ground for each tail-light cluster is just forward of the rear-most edge of each side panel in the cargo area (this is the panel under the side window). On a sedan, the grounds for the fender-mounted light clusters are under the bottom edge of the trunk opening.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

Another possibility may be a bad turn signal bulb. The contacts of these bulbs can distort or creep over time and short together, backfeeding parking light voltage to the turn signal circuit. Check your front turn signal bulbs-the two contacts on the base may have touched. Been there on a V90.