after accident issues

[jakegday]

hello, as a few of you may remember (from one of my previous threads) i was involved in an accident, i was casually driving down one of my towns bussiest streets when someone tried crossing the street, they didnt see me, i didnt see them, so i t boned them. when i hit them my air bags went off.

as you may remember shortly after the accident my horn started blaring and would not shut off, turns out it WAS indeed the horn switch in the steering wheel being affected by the air bag, i cut the air bags out and solved this issue

now on to the tricky part........

whenever i drive the car now there is a huge power (battery, not engine) loss coming from somewhere, my dome lights barely light up, my head lights barely light up, and the fan on my heater/a/c barely blows when its on high, there is a huge battery drain coming from somewhere. HOWEVER, when i go to start the car, the starter cranks GREAT, it cranks perfect like i have a brand new battery

i have LOTS of dash lights on now too. the abs, the e brake, the theft system, the air bag, and the seatbelt lights are constantly lit up, they dont shut off, and occasionally the battery, oil, and low coolant lights will come on and off throughout the drive, when those last 3 lights light up the temperature guage quits working, when those 3 lights shut off the guage comes back

in regards to the seat belt light, the entire time ive owned the car i never wear my seatbelt, the light would stay lit up for the first few minutes of the drive then it would shut off, thats it. now my dash starts chiming if my seatbelt isnt on within a few seconds after taking off, it will chime (like the open door chime) constantly until i put my seatbelt on. it has never done that before.

in regards to the battery, now i THINK this MIGHT have something to do with the issue but i really really doubt it. after the accidnet my horn started blaring and at the time i couldnt figure it out, so when the fire dept arrived they cut EVERY battery cable. instead of replacing them i spliced about an inch off each end of the 2 main (negative, and the positive to the starter) cables and pushed the 2 spliced ends together and wrapped electrcal tape around them for the drive home from the tow lot. the positive cable that goes to the under hood fuse box is reconnected the same as it was before, no splicing there, it was long enough to splice the one long end and just throw the short end still connected to the battery away. one other think ill mention is on the negative cable, about 8-10 inches after the battery, the cable goes through a little metal piece that is bolted down to the battery tray, that piece is no longer bolted down

i have checked ALL fuses, both under hood and inside, all the fuses are good

any help/suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated

[jakegday]

well i just figured it out, i fixed everything. well i still have the air bag light, and the seat belt light just stays on constantly now, instead of shutting off after a minute or 2. i mentioned it would chime constantly now until i put my seatbelt on, i took out the "alarm" fuse and that stopped that, i have also to this point noticed no other side effects from removing that fuse. if you know of any side effects that it may/will cause, let me know

overall it was a bad ground, that piece of metal i mentioned on the negative battery cable about 8-10 inches from the battery terminal, well i reconnected that to where it was supposed to go and everything is fine now

all dash lights remain off, except the 2 i mentioned, and the lights are no longer dim, the heater blower no longer goes up and down with the RPMs. all is good

since the car was "totalled" the insurance company is giving me a $2136 check for it plus they're "making" me keep it, they refuse to buy it back

ive got my eye on an 05 malibu that ive already been approved for, im gonna keep looking for a little while longer though