This has been happening on and off for a few months - up till today probably 3 or 4 times approximately under no unique circumstance then getting in the car and driving. Usually happens when someone gets in the front passenger seat from what I noticed - or at least whenever my wife drives in the car with me. But not all the time and not continuosuly. Today, though, it'* a full blown problem for my 92 SE and never corrected itself like in the past.

1. The power door locks won't work, and usually always when the passenger side door panel courtesy lights (front and back) won't come on when the doors are opened. The door panel lights will go on if I use the light control on the dash or if the drivers side happens to be working, which is usually all of the time but sometimes they don't when the passenger side goes out.

2. If the driver door is opened and the passenger door is opened the door locks will work when the power lock switch is pushed. The minute either of the actual door lock mechanism touches the striker when closing, the locks stop working and have to be operated manually - but I can hear a clicking noise when the power lock switch is pushed (but locks aren't working) coming from under the glove compartment over in the corner of the passenger side kick panel and footwell.

Either way I'm having this thing checked out ASAP, but just wanted to know if anyone had any suggestions as to what the cause might be, how to fix it, and whether or not I should have it done by a garage or at a dealer.

I thought I saw that DeathRat had posted a TSB on this one once. Send him a PM and see.

I'm going to guess a bad ground here. Something is using another circuit as a ground path. The fact that the operation stops when the door lock touches the striker leads me to think that the door itself might not be grounded either -- when the lock touches the striker and completes a ground path from the door to the body, then you get a different set of symptoms.

You might want to check the wiring bundles where they jump the gap from the door pillar to the driver'* and/or passenger'* door. You may have some broken and possibly cross-connected wires in there, from the years of flexing back and forth whenever a door opened.