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Hello all...  normally I'm the one who could help with this kind of thing, but I'm really stumped right now.  The problem is with my winter car- '88 2.0 Corsica (auto)

I was driving the car at night, and suddenly the warning sound started wailing (like when you leave the keys in the ig...).  Car was running fine, no dummy lights on the dash (no gauges).  When I dimmed the dashboard lights to off, it stopped making noise.  Car still ran fine.  So I operated under the assumption that the stupid noisemaker was goofy and just went on my way.  Couple of days later (it sat over the weekend), I took it to work.  After work, battery was dead...  Got jumped and discovered very soon that the battery was not getting charged by alternator.  Replaced alternator (in a parking lot in 10 degree weather   )  Did not solve the problem.  Still running off battery.  I got the car home on a freshly charged battery courtesy of the stored GTZ.  On the way home I noticed something...  no rear defrost.  So it occurred to me that this thing is kind of operating as if the key were off?!  (headlights cause noise when key is off and they are turned on)  Could this be something funny with the ignition switch?  Everything checks out fine in the fuse box.  I'm not looking forward to tearing into the column right now when it is cold, so I've just been daily driving the autox GTZ (rough ride   )  Anyone have suggestions/experience with something like this?!?!?!

Sounds like a bad ignition switch to me.   Or some wiring has gone amuck.  Has anything else happened around the time this started?  Does the key turn like normal or does it turn differently?   If you switch it to "on" without starting it, does the dinging stop?  Usually they ding slower for a few chimes then quit.  After you start it, the dinging should not continue.

That or you have a short in the charging system, causing a major power drain.  I would go over the wiring real carefully, check it all out.

Does the heater work fine?

Turn signals?

The gauges all work?

Brake lights?

Cooling fan?

Only thing in that list I didn't check was the cooling fan.  Everything else works, just slower because it draws off the battery.  The weird thing about it was that it happened instantly- oh and in that car its a constant beep, not a dinging     we're talking old school here!

That's strange...  Do you have any sorts of electrical testing stuff (test light, multi-meter, etc..)

I just have a dumb test light.  I can always borrow a multimeter from Seth or Andy though....  It just weird because it starts and runs just fine.

Fixed.... After checking all fusible links for the alternator, checking alternator, and checking ignition switch... I found that the fuse was blown for the audible tone (beeper). I had checked fuses before, but never for the beeper as I thought the problem was somewhere else. I then started it, and the battery draw was gone, rear defrost worked, and headlights were normal. BUT- beeper was constant on. I switched it with the one from the autox car, and its normal. So, in the end it was the beeper that failed, blowing the fuse and causing a short that caused everything else! A new fuse, and a $1 beeper from the JY later and she's back on the road. Which reminds me- I'm selling this thing this year... any takers for $500? I'm serious, as I need a bigger vehicle for next winter...

Better late than never.
This is the diagram for the 90 GTZ but I will assume they are all the same up to 92-93 i think.