[Cliff8928]

Originally Posted by cherrington17

I'll do that, but first i want to find where the gray wire goes to (transaxle light power wire) since thats what caused the problem in the first place, so i'll trace that back and find out where it leads to. the problem must be some where along that run. Every few feet, i'll cut it, and see if its still shorted on each end.

and most of the bulbs in the location you listed are tiny halogens, so if they shorted, they'd just blow, and break the connection... so i don't think they can short and cause a permanent ground on both wires...

and w/ the dimmer module excluded from the issue, doesn't that mean the problem is somewhere in the dash? it can't be before the module, or that would have fixed the problem when it was disconnected...

That gray wire goes back to pin C of the dimmer module with all the other dimming wires. In order to rule out the module, you would have to probe for voltage at pin C (gray) at the module with the lights on.