HI Folks,

Did a search across the forums and did not see anything obvious that is like my issue(s), so appreciate any feedback...

Background: Everything electrical was working fine 6 months ago. Back in October through December, we stripped the car down of all trim and sent it out for paint and body. Car came back looking great and everything worked fine. A few weeks ago, I turned the key and turned on the lights and then the Pilot driving lights (driving lights are wired to work independently). The passenger side pilot light did not come on. I removed the grill and found that the wire was pinched from when the body shop put everything back together. I tugged on the power wire, which exposed some copper and it touched the bumper. The car immediately shut off. I went to restart it and it would not restart on it's own. I jumped it and it started right up. Pulled back in the garage and made the necessary repair to the driving light wire and the driving lights worked fine.

Now, for the gremlins...

Since this occurred, the following no longer works right:

1. Oil light is on all of the time. I did disconnect the factory wiring and run a test wire from the sensor to the back of the gauge and the light went off. I'm assuming there is some sort of short somewhere between sensor and the gauge.

2. The Engine Temperature gauge powers up, but no longer registers any change in temperature.

3. My driving lights intermittently work, even though the switch lights up when turned on. I found what looks like a power distribution block under the front trunk that affected the lights operating if I wiggled the wires (i'll get a pic posted of this shortly).

All of these things happened IMMEDIATELY after the driving light wire touched the bumper.

Now, last night, a new issue developed... When I use the turn signal to indicate left, the blinkers work and the light on the tach blinks normal. When I indicate right, the blinkers work, the light on the tach blinks 1-2 times, then the tach light stops blinking. The turn signals both continue to blink.

Things seem to be going downhill, so I'm wondering what common touch points there are (if any) that could affect all of these things like this. Any ideas on where to start?

All of your lights, etc are powered off the smaller wires attached at the positive batt post ( I think) . Never traced it out, but the fuse block has to get power from somewhere and it does not come from the large wire to the starter. I would check that connection and any of the fuses in the fuse block , also grounds in the pass compartment, left side near fuse block on inner fender.
Tom

When you get a chance call me. we can fix those problems for you!

Thanks Larry. Rainy day today and thought I might poke around in the garage and see what I come up with...

I'll make sure to call before I do anything.

Make sure they didn't spray over the ground points.

are the pilot lights wired into the normal fog lamp cct or have they been separately wired. What should have happened there is that a fuse popped. Since the entire car died I'm wondering if the pilot lights might be unfused in which case all manner of bad things could have happened.

When you arc a power wire to ground it will put a load on the entire circuit all the way back to the connection at the battery. As someone said earlier check the connection at the battery, but you will need to check in others in the circuit for burned or loose connectors. I don't see a connection between the dash indicators and the driving lights unless thats where the driving lights were wired into for their power.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I traced the Pilot Lights back to a bad relay the PO had put in to take some of the voltage off the dash switch. What a PITA to find one... Finally found what I needed at PepBoys. Cross referencing the BOSCH part number of what I started with only gave me a completely different part.

Now, back to the Oil Pressure Light and Temperature gauge... Still working those out. Are there any grounds that might be under the passenger seat I should check? Everything else I can see looks good. Also checked the fuses on the fog lights that go back to the battery and they are all good. everything works and runs great except the annoying green oil light and temperature gauge.

Is it possible any of this runs through the relay board in the engine bay? From what I can see, both leads go direct to the light and the gauge, but there are some hidden areas I can't see that the wiring goes...

Thanks everyone for your help and patience!

Jason, check that the oil light socket is a two terminal type, it should have red/white wire on one terminal and green/red on the other.

Is your oil tempture gauge in the console or is it build in to the gas gauge?

Hi Larry,

I have a temperature gauge in the dash and in the center console. Wiring looks good (best I can tell). the gauge "powers up" when the ignition is on. I can see it move slightly to the "0" position. This goes for both of the gauges.

I'm assuming the ground comes off the temperature sensor on the bottom of the engine. I tried to trace it last night but lost it when it comes up through the engine tin. I really don't want to have to drop the engine to find this wire...

I'm wondering if both the oil pressure light and the temperature wiring are grouped together somewhere and maybe have "melted or something, causing the false ground?

Sounds like you have good solid local help, You did not state the year/model of your car, but you did mention "under the passenger seat". My 74 had the selt belt interlock
relay and excessive wiring there. When taking it out I accidently disabled the oil dummy light, so inshort just a heads up that it does pass through that ugly confunction. On you temp gauges your getting resistance but too much, If not the needles would be peged at max the other way. Do you have the ground and sender wires reveresed?

Jason you can only use 1 temperature gauge, with 2 wired in parallel you will only read half the temperature The wire for the temp gauge is a Green/Black wire which
runs from the temp sender to a connection under the battery box To the harness
ass'y up the tunnel to connectors by the shifter, if you have a temp gauge mounted
on the dash you have to splice into this connector a run a wire to the dash mounted gauge and disconnect the console gauge.

Been there done that, running 2 gauges off one wire will give you half reading at best when it works and none when the splice is to heavy or the gauge of your jumper wire is thick or long.. You can play with smaller gauge and different lengths and when it seems working best the reading will still be off on an already impercise gauge/sender set up from factory.