Dash Wiring problems of the 2000 Chevrolet Venture

Melted/burned plastic where brake light & turn-signal wires connect to rear brake/turn-signal housings. Also melted plastic near contacts where some brake lamps plug into that housing. Cause a dangerous condition for driving at the least, and possibly a fire hazard. Background & specifics: brake lamps burn out frequently. Upon changing them I see burned plastic around the area where bulb leads connect to brake light housing. Also have seen several instances where dashboard light indicators for brakes do not work properly, because of poor grounding/wiring/contacts between brake wires and brake light housings. When they fail, specific result is the following: when ignition turned on, both brake signal lights on the dashboard light up--even though turn signals lever is not on. If I set turn signal on, both dashboard turn signal indicator lights stay on. Then the dashboard turn-signal lights will blink fast if I have my foot on the brake pedal, and at normal speed when I am off the brake pedal. I removed brake light housings again and removed connector that plugs into them. They both smell of burned plastic, and you can see the plastic is badly burned away around one (ground) wire within the connector. I looked on forums online and many many people have had the same problems with this model car. I feel this presents a dangerous situation--that may either cause an accident, or a electrical fire within the car. The car failed inspection and I felt it was dangerous to drive. Because others online indicated the same problems I figured that replacing the brake/tail light housings with more oem housings would risk having the same problem. So I drilled out the plastic and manually soldered a proper ground wire to the proper place in order to maintain proper ground contact. I don't feel this is a good solution but many others who indicated this problem said the dealer would not honor repair of this obvious design or manufacturers defect.

Can send a more readable version on request. I'd like to point out a very real and dangerous issue with Chevrolet Ventures. We bought a 2000 model this spring. While traveling one day, my wife and I, in the front seats, thought we smelled smoke. We figured that a vehicle that passed us on the interstate was spewing fumes, so we didn't really think it was anything serious. A few seconds later, smoke starting pouring out of the front passenger seat! I yelled at my wife to pull over, and she and our three children immediately evacuated the vehicle. I stood by the passenger door, trying to find the source of this smoke, which was pouring out from the front and the back of the seat. I pulled out the storage drawer under the seat, expecting something there. It was at that point that I looked behind the seat, so see the entire bottom of the seat glowing bright orange from open flames. Instinct took over at that point, and I very quickly pulled out the contents under the seat - a child's book, a spiral-bound notebook, and a nylon seat-belt cover designed for children. I then began stamping out the items and the burning carpet with my shoes and bare hands. All of this took, at most, 15-20 seconds. My wife successfully pulled the children very far away from the vehicle, for fear of the fire spreading, and maybe even causing an explosion. Had I thought about my actions rather than reacting by instinct, I probably should have left the vehicle as well. The cause? there are several connectors under the front seats of the chevy Venture. On our van, the sets of black connectors are not used. (I would guess they are for power seats, which we do not have). At any rate, these connectors are "hot" (meaning there is a voltage present on the pins of the connectors) and not covered in any way. When my daughter stopped drawing in her spiral-bound notebook, it fell off the seat, and landed under the front seat. The wire in the notebook created a short between the unpr.