Thanks in advance guys....
Heres, the deal; 2001 cav, auto, 67k--the problems are;
1) Both tail lights continually have the plastic around the 'u' shaped wires on the bulbs melted only after 1 day of being installed.
2) The car will not start sometimes...(you can always tell in advance of it not going to start by the fuel and temp guages not returning to their off postions when the switch is turned off) the guages will remain in the position they are at when the car was running. Yet, you can go under the hood and pull the fuses and the car will then start....(most of the time)

These problems may be related???Thanks Jim

Welcome to AF Jim. Do you ever have issue with the battery going dead? and by switch, do you mean ignition switch?

Welcome to AF Jim. Do you ever have issue with the battery going dead? and by switch, do you mean ignition switch?
Thank you, I'm glad to have found AF. To answer your questions;
-This battery is quite new (>2mths), the previous battery was weak so I replaced it, but neither ever went dead.
-Sorry,,,yes I do mean ignition (switch)..
Again thank you in advance for your help..Jim

Sounds like you have a short in the under hood fuse box. I would pull the box out and look at the back for a damaged hot in run wire (Usually pink). Most likely its touching something it shouldn't be. Good Luck

John