1996 Neon Electrical Problem????

[kart18]

I purchased a 1996 Neon (110,000 miles) a year ago from a woman who drove the car everyday. I haven't driven the car except for once a month just to run it, maybe a mile or two. My daughter is ready to start driving and I am having a problem I can't figure out. A few months ago I noticed that when I turned the headlights lights on that the turn single lights and the high beam indicator on the instrument panel would stay on. The gages would stop working also. Everything seemed to work fine as long as the headlights were off. I replaced the head light switch and that seemed to correct the problem. Not so. When the drivers door is open everything seems to work fine. When you shut the door all the gages quit working and the turn single and high beam indicator lights come on and the instrument panel lights go out. We messed with the door jam switch and can reproduce this just by pushing the switch in and out. As long as the door is opened everything seems to work fine, when that switch is pushed in, that’s when there is a problem. I installed a new battery last night and the alternator has been checked and is working fine. I also had trouble with the car shutting off on the way to my friends to check out the electrical problem. It shut off maybe 5 times in a 12 mile trip. Always restarted but what a pain. I need some help with this one - it seems to be an electrical problem (ground) but I'm not to good with electrical. I drove home last night with the door just barely closed so that it didn't trigger the jam switch and it only shut off once. It even affects the trip odometer

[pegasus757]

sounds like a bad body ground ....take a jumper wire from ground side of battery to body ground...this may solve your problem. also the printed circuit board on the speedo head burns one of its traces (known problem easy to fix) keep us up to date

[kart18]

Resoldered the gage cluster - fixed all problems. Thank you, thank you, thank you.