I had the lights in on the instrument panel, center stack and gear indicator working until yesterday. While driving home, I saw light smoke and some burning smell coming from behind the instrument cluster.

Turned the lights off and tried to turn them on again a few minutes later. No dice. The glove box lamps, the lights within the rocker switches (AC, hazard and defrost) on the center stack work and dome light and trunk light are all operational. Exterior lights all good as well. PS: My backup lights have never worked since the day I got the car.

Any hints where to start? Other accessories running off the fuse (Fuse 8 if I remember correctly) are working fine.

Now if I try to turn on the headlights, all lights on the outside come on and nothing on the inside. Within a few minutes, I get this faint burning smell again.

Took the instrument cluster off and did not see any burnt wires in the dash.

Any pointers where to start?

 

well, when the magic smoke gets out, you need to track down where the short happened, and repair any wiring damage it caused. I'd be pulling the instrument panel and digging around to find said burned stuff, its in there somewhere. 240 dashes are kind of a mess with relays positioned fairly randomly all over.

1 common cause of wiring problems is aftermarket stereo or alarm installations.

 

This is exactly what I was afraid of....having to dive around in a mess of wire harnesses.
FWIW, the central door locks also stopped working at the same time. Fuse is intact. I saw an old post of yours from 2011/12 talking about 2 relays - 1 each of locking and unlocking.

Can you point me to where they might be in the dash?

Car does not have alarm and has an old cassette player that has been there since I bought the car back in 2012. Thanks.

 

probably the same as a 1993, http://www.davebarton.com/pdf/relay_93_240.pdf

(and these relays were in the same position in 1987, although some others moved around)

 

The central door locks started to work by themselves. Odd....
I took the instrument cluster out and couldn't find any burnt wires.

Another hypothesis, the "fasten seat belt lights" don't work anymore. According to the relay diagram, its #94 and right by the bulb failure relay. Could this relay be busted and causing none of the other internal lights to work?

The magic smoke mentioned in my original post did seem to come from that area.

 

So I finally tore the dash and center console apart. No burnt wires and all relays except the blue seat belt fasten light/buzzer relay (couldn't really get to it because its buried so far into the dash but it buzzes) look ok.

Any suggestions now where to start? I am at a loss.[/left]

 

I was able to find a copy of the green book for 1991MY. However, it does not have pages 58 and up which according to the index is where the wiring diagram is.

Can someone please share or point me in the direction of appropriate wiring diagrams?