what is going on with my car?! (electrical)

ok...so i was driving today and my temperature gauge shot up real quick then it went back down and it did this for a little while. then back to normal. then it did this again about 10 minutes later. not to mention, this may not have anything to do with this but my cigarette lighter kept shorting out and coming back on, because my radar detector kept going off and on periodically. the gauge went up and down a few times, so i noticed that when i hit the brakes, the gauge would either go up, or down. sometimes it does this when i hit the brakes, sometimes it doesnt. my headlights and gauge lights and clock short out when it does this too. i pulled over immediately, to chek if anything looked wrong. no leaks, no smoke nothing. this leads me to believe it is DEFINITELY electrical. on my way home, i wanted to listen to a cd, so i put one in and the volume seemed substantially lower than normal. i waitied a few minutes, then it was normal. now, last year (i dont drive my car in winter) every once in awhile when i hit my right turnsignal, i would blow a 10 amp fuse that controled my tursignals, my gas gauge, and my speedo gauge. (i had replaced my whole turnsignal/headlight control assembly) not sure if that has anything to do with it or not, but it doesnt do THAT anymore. so if you could tell me where to look for shorts....please help thanks...

I know I have had problems before with water leaking into my tail lights and causing them to pull more power and/or short out when I hit the brakes which might cause your problem with the brakes. I would check your battery connections, the battery it self and the charging system for over charging and undercharging. It could be one of those components going out. It's a good place to start at least.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing on the charging system. are you getting a battery light at all when the problems are occuring? It also sounds like you have a short somewhere as well with the temp guage going up when you hit the brakes. bascially you need to bust out a DMV and start testing for all the components you are having trouble with. it would also be a great help to you to get a wiring diagram for your car to find where all the circuits go. and what the voltages should be.