odd ticking noise and running light flash when put in gear?

[eliminator]

here's an odd problem on my daughters 2000 z24. when you start the car its fine, when you put it into reverse or drive the running light dash light starts to blink and make a "ticking" noise then the service "wrench" light comes on. the car does not throw any codes when it does this. when my daughter gets home from college I want to address this problem, all I can think is its an electrical glitch or fuse with the running lights? anyone ever encounter this issue?

 

[zora]

Page 6-61 of the owners manual shows the big DRL relay, have you tried replacing it or swapping it with another relay with the same markings?
http://www.vadengmpp.com/owners-manual/chevrolet/2000-Chevrolet-Cavalier.pdf

 

[eliminator]

well after I posted the question I googled the problem and and got all kinds of horror stories , with the same symptoms, about the front light wire harness being melted away from battery acid as its under the battery tray, cut or corroded wires inside the same harness somewhere between the battery tray and the passenger side head light etc. so like a dumb ass first thing I did was tear out the battery & air box and found an pefectly fine and intact wire harness. no corrosion or melted plug etc. so I moved on to inspecting the harness from that point up to both headlights (after taking off the front plastic top cover and looms of course) and found no broken or corroded wires. so I went back to the fuse box and check the left and right headlight fuse's as well as the fog lamp fuses, all ok. I pulled the relay for the DRL and it checked out fine but I had a new relay (same type) so I swapped it out and reassembled the front of the car and restrated the car and put it in gear and had the same result, flashing light icon and ticking then the service light.
so I get my wife in the car to do the same proceedure while I'm on the outside and notice the passenger side low beam is out and when she puts the car in gear the other one dim's. I pull both headlights and bulbs , run to the store to get a new pair and replace them.....and "Presto" no more problem.
I feel like a dumb ass for not checking the obvious and going to look for the worst possible senerio. so I decided to post this response to let everyone know it's not always what people say it is on the internet, always check the obvious culprits first.

 

[zora]

sorry to hear you put all that effort in to tracing the problem but good to hear the fix was that simple.