I believe i have a short someplace.
Up until last night my problem was that my freakin door/seatbelt beeper would not stop beeping. (i took the liberty of ripping it out last night after a frustrating 2 hour drive home.

Now, how do i determine if i have a short or if i just have a faulty door chime or something else?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by C-RICKS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Now, how do i determine if i have a short or if i just have a faulty door chime or something else?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Unplug everything & measure resistance to ground. A short just means you have continuity to ground, somewhere along a wire that isn't supposed to have continuity to ground. But you may have an open circuit, too. People use the term 'short' kinda loosely. I'm pretty sure that the door switches are normally closed, and they open the circuit when you close the door. If that's true you are indeed looking for a short to ground.

You'll need a wiring drawing & a multi-meter. The troubleshooting procedures in the Helm book are for someone who doesn't need to understand how electricity works. It just tells you to jumper this, unplug that, and measure right there...

 

I'd be inclined to say faulty chime or if the thing is on a relayed circuit, a faulty relay. If you had en electrical short, you'd probably blow the fuse on that circuit rather than have the "load point" remain on non-stop.

 

I don't remember, but I'd guess the chime and its relay are both together inside the little plastic box that everybody calls a 'relay'. The chime/relay is actually the load, & it's still there. The door switches close the circuit to ground whenever the door is open.

So a short to ground in the wire from the chime to the door switch, will act EXACTLY like the door being open. That short can be located right inside the chime relay housing, or it can be a pinched wire under the carpet, or it can be a faulty door switch. You can only tell by unplugging stuff & checking with a multimeter. Or swap in a chime relay that you know is good.

A short to ground in the supply wire between the fuse and the relay, would blow fuses.

 

dood that annoying *** beeping must have drove you up the wall. i would have went F***ing CRAZY