Electrical gremlin, Flashing lights & clicking relay Options

[IllIllIll]

I have a electrical problem with my 97 Celica GT convertible. It has a 2.2L engine & a manual trans if that matters. When I turn the key to the ignition position I hear a relay clicking in the panel under the dash were the fuses are. This clicking relay eventually makes my clock and gauge lights to flash dim & bright, my interior lights, brake lights, license plate light & parking lights flash on & off. It is like I was turning the headlight switch between the first click & off. It doesn't happen right away or all the time, so I don't think my switch is sticking.

I'm bad at reading schematics, so could someone explain to me what is happening, & what I what I need to do to fix it. Is it a short? A bad relay or what? I am really limited on time to work on the car, & I need to drive it to work every day now. I have the green Chiltons 94-98 manual & I think the proper schematic is on page 6-35, but I don't see or can't understand what the problem is.

EDIT: I know this is an old post but I finally figured out the problem with this after I bought the Toyota Factory wiring manual. The previous owner had a car alarm that they didn't tell me about. The lights were flashing on & off because the car alarm was going off, while I was driving. The relay was just having a fit. It didn't do it all the time, & the since horn was disconnected from the alarm system, I didn't even know the car had an alarm.

The wiring was a complete hack job. Previous owner used wire nuts, crimp connectors, vampire taps, cut wires wrapped twisted together with electrical tape, & solder joints with like 30 feet of electrical tape. The wires were intentionally tangled all over the place up under the dash. The wiring was such a hack job that I had to spend 20 minutes trying to untangle the mess when I removed my dash. I finally had to cut a couple wires because they were soldered in place AFTER the wires were wrapped around the main dash support beam. I removed all that car alarm crap.

I figured if anyone else has a similar problem going on, that they check for a car alarm.
SgEtv

This post has been edited by IllIllIll: Sep 1, 2012 - 10:48 AM

[My2Celi]

I heard when a relay click it means that its bad. So find out which one is clicking and just try replaceing it. If you can find out which one let me know I have a couple spares.