96 Plymouth Neon wiring: problem with speakers, blinkers, gauges

I have a 1996 Plymouth Neon (2.0L SOHC), somewhere between 120K-150K. It's giving me some minor electrical trouble, and was hoping to get some advice here. Here's a brief history:

2003 and before:

- when applying brakes, the left blinker lights up (front, back, and console). Giggling the turn signal switch helps. This is still going on today.

2004

-the dash gauges started getting wonky. Now, the speedometer registers the correct speed about 25% of the time. Occasionally, none of the gauges work at all.

- right rear blinker/bright light was out. I went to put a new bulb in and found that part of the socket had melted and covered one of the contact wires. I popped the wire over the melted plastic and the original bulb worked fine.

2005

-the passenger side door was hit while the car was parked on the street. Right after the frame shop put a new old door on, I noticed that the front speakers did not work when the passenger door was closed. They worked fine when open. The shop said there's something wrong in the wiring under the console. Now, the front speakers don't work at all.

Do any of the above symptoms seem to be related? I've read a little about bad solder joints on these early models, and thought maybe that was the problem. If that's the case, I'm pretty comfortable with a soldering iron and could probably do myself. I just need to find out where the problem actual lies. Where should I look? Would I have to pull the dash off? This is an older car, and I don't necessarily want to spend a lot on "optional" repairs (after all, I have to save up to repair the leaky head gasket!).

Thanks for any advice.

Joseph

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Joseph O'Brien
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