S14 Ignition Staying On. Help.

[ILiveToDrift]

Here is the issue. I have a 1995 240sx, I've never messed around with the wireing besides putting in a radio, and HIDs. Tonight when I got home from work I turn the car off and take the key out. However, the lights in the cluster stay on, not the black lighting but the warning lights, like airbag, brake, check eninge ect. The turn signals work without the key in too, but I'm too tired to remember if thats how it always is. But Other things like the blower motor, which I thought ran off the ignition will not turn on with the key out.

I'm confused to how these lights are staying on without the key in the cylinder. There is no issue when I start or stop the car with the key and it moves freely without force in the cylinder. My temporary solution was I pulled the cluster fuse.

The only other electrical issue I've experienced was my passenger side HID was flickering off and on on the way home, which I would assume is unrelated. The HIDs are ran on the previous wiring. I tried searching but I honestly don't know what I'm looking for.

[singlecamslam]

Try wiggling your ignition relay, or replacing it.

edit: 2 second google search http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=339939

[ILiveToDrift]

Unfortunatly all of my relays are fine, I pulled them and tested them. There was also no buzzing I could hear.

I did notice when I pulled my A/T CONT Fuse that the ligths whent off and the cluster functioned as normal. I wonder if it has somthing to do with my transmission. Anyone have any ideas?

[Z U L8R]

for what it's worth, do these quick things to help narrow this down.

1. turn the car off and unplug the 2 pin grey plug that plugs in the alternator, when you unplug it do the lights stay on or no?

2. if that doesn't cut it off, unscrew the bottom cover off the steering column and unplug the ignition switch, it's a pretty big 6 pin connector and will have a brown sheathing on the harness. it resides on the underside of the steering column. unplug that and see if your lights go off.

then we can deduce whether 1. your alternator has a bad diode or has a problem with the wiring goign to it, or 2. you have a bad ignition switch.

if neither of those tests have any effect then we'll move on, but these are 2 very simple tests that will get you 2 steps closer to isolating the culprit

please test, then update with the results and we'll do more tests till we find the problem

Dave

[ILiveToDrift]

Yesterday after work I was able to isolate the issue. In my first post I mentioned the flickering HID. Well it turns out that by the time I got home it must have went out because my whole passenger side light (high and low) and fog lights went out. I pulled the fuse and the problem has gone away. I rewired the headlights (just the low) last night and they are working fine. I was unable to track down the cause but at the moment I have ran a new constant off the battery and used a new relay off the switch (drivers side).

I also had unplugged the ignition switch and the lights stayed on. I didn't try the alternator. I'm guessing the passenger side was grounding out somewhere on that circuit. I don't know how that relates to back feeding turning ignition one on. I even metered the ignition switch and it seemed normal. So maybe my diagnosis was wrong about it being the ignition and I just assumed, I don't know.