1996 Buick Regal electrical issues

[buickregaldude]

Hello, we have a 1996 Buick Regal Custom which up to this point has had no problems.

Mechanically, it's on point. Everything's fine.

Electrically, though, there's an issue that neither my wife or I can seem to fix. What happened, as near as I can tell, is that the passenger side headlight blew. After that happened, things went haywire electrically. What happens is that while we drive the car, the power locks keep trying to trigger, even though they're locked. They no longer automatically lock when shifting into gear. Also, the lights under the rear view mirror and at foot level stay on for the entire time the car is operating, and up to 10 minutes after turning off the ignition.

Another possible cause is I got sideswiped by some idiot, and it took out my driver's side mirror. I cut off the mirror as it was a safety hazard in high winds, leaving the wires exposed. But this was back in January, and we were problem free up until a couple weeks or so ago.

I am thinking of taking out the fuses that control the optional lights and the power locks. Would this be good? We are tight money-wise, so I can't drop $500 on a mechanic.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[stripe]

Originally Posted by buickregaldude

Hello, we have a 1996 Buick Regal Custom which up to this point has had no problems.

Mechanically, it's on point. Everything's fine.

Electrically, though, there's an issue that neither my wife or I can seem to fix. What happened, as near as I can tell, is that the passenger side headlight blew. After that happened, things went haywire electrically. What happens is that while we drive the car, the power locks keep trying to trigger, even though they're locked. They no longer automatically lock when shifting into gear. Also, the lights under the rear view mirror and at foot level stay on for the entire time the car is operating, and up to 10 minutes after turning off the ignition.

Another possible cause is I got sideswiped by some idiot, and it took out my driver's side mirror. I cut off the mirror as it was a safety hazard in high winds, leaving the wires exposed. But this was back in January, and we were problem free up until a couple weeks or so ago.

I am thinking of taking out the fuses that control the optional lights and the power locks. Would this be good? We are tight money-wise, so I can't drop $500 on a mechanic.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

My 96 did that too for a while. Quite the sound with the locks going off and on.I just let it wear itself out.lol(the car is gone now but it was a nice car)
If you have heated mirrors you might have a wire touching metal once in a while.

Cheers
Stripe

[buickregaldude]

Originally Posted by stripe

My 96 did that too for a while. Quite the sound with the locks going off and on.I just let it wear itself out.lol(the car is gone now but it was a nice car)
If you have heated mirrors you might have a wire touching metal once in a while.

Cheers
Stripe

Cool, thanks. I guess I'll just have to let the problem die on its own. What's weird is that the problem gets really bad when going over bumps or simply driving.

I don't have heated mirrors, but I did cut off the driver's side mirror, which may have caused a short, but that was back in January, and this new problem only goes back a couple weeks.

I may try to find the fuse to kill the power locks, just because it's so darn frustrating.

Thanks again!