I have a 98 SSEi and some weird stuff has been going on. The warning bell that dings when you pt the E-Brake on or are low on gas dings in a slow sequence of three. A little while after this, the doors continuously lock themselves. Finally, when I park and get out the dome lights get dim, start flashing and eventually go out. Anyone know what'* going on?????? Thank you for reading...

to put it simply your car has been possessed by the devil j/k man. i cant tell ya whats wrong but the gurus will be here shortly....*looks at watch*...*whistles* any minute now

Fuddy will be here soon

I would start by monitoring the voltage in the car when these strange things happen. Also we need someone with a 98 service manual to see which module all of these things have in common - like an RAC module in the earlier years.

Well, the three dings and then lock is supposed to happen only when the door is open and the key is out. It'* a delayed locking feature. (When you're getting out, you hit the lock button, it goes "ding, ding, ding" and a few seconds after you close the door, they lock.)

From what I can tell, I'd start at the security/lock circuit.

Seven seconds later, I think it is. Anyhow, that _should_ be happening only if you press the power locks while a door is open; the triple-chime is telling you that delayed locking is enabled (so you can do things like close a door, walk around and open another one to get a coat out or something before it all locks). Exactly when does this happen? And what does "continuously" mean; the solenoids keep clunking in the doors? When does it stop?

If it'* doing that to you while you're driving, I'd say the car thinks that (1) you have a door open, and (2) somebody pressed the Lock switch. Kind of hard to say anything further from this distance. Had any significant wiring work done recently? All your fuses good? Any dead accessories that you know of?

That sounds like the dome-light protection, that turns the lights out after a door is left open for 10 minutes, only from what you're saying it sounds like it'* taking effect immediately.

I guess I would start by checking each door individually to see if it turns the interior lights when it'* supposed to. I'm thinking there'* a bad door switch someplace.