here is a list of the current dash and electrical flaws in my murena
I will add some pictures later
any advice on any of the issues will be greatly appreciated
1 spot lamps work when I pull the light control stick towards me but not when I press the spot lamp button on the left.
As Peter has explained these driving lamps are used for flashing which saves having to wait for the head lamps to rise, and they are also the supplementary lamps for the head lamp main beam. They will only come on with main beam if the switch is pressed 'On'. They are not part of the M.o.T. so can be ignored from that point of view. They are too low to be used legally in any other situation so should not be wired to come on except with main beam, and they are not fog lamps so would not benefit being used in those conditions.
2. bottom heater slider is stuck and I can't get behind the matrix to see what's going on, really don't want to have to remove the whole dash
3 windows: passenger window works when controlled from the driver's door but not the passengers, all three have brand new switches. window lowers well but raises slowly.
drivers window doesn't work. there is a voltage drop when the raise/lower switch is depressed (don't know which one) but the window doesn't move
If it is the lowest one of the three heater sliders then it should be the temperature control. In your early car it should be attached to the water tap on one side of the heater box under the dash. You shouldn't need to remove the heater box at this stage. Disconnect the cable and see if the slider now works, if not, the slider and/or cable is stuck. If it is free the tap has become stuck and will need to be overhauled or replaced.
As for the windows your explanation is not too clear. You say the passenger one doesn't work from the passenger door switch but is O.K. from the drivers door, but then says it goes down O.K but only goes up slowly, so it does work. Although you say all three switches are new, you can get faulty new ones, so I would make sure the passenger door switch really is good - swap it for the drivers door switch which you say works and try again, but leave that faulty one out and fit the other switch because both switches must be good for the passenger door window to work. i.e both driver and passenger door switches must be good. The wiring to the passenger window must be fine otherwise it wouldn't work from the drivers door. There are two relays and two fuses but they are not wired as you might think, one for each window, so the drivers door uses one fuse and relay for both doors but the passenger switch uses the other fuse and relay - so that might be the area of the fault. If the drivers door window doesn't work at all it might be the fuse or relay or wiring. You really need to see and understand the wiring for this car. At this age you probably have a seized motor on the drivers door and a poor one on the passenger side, so they need to come out and sometimes you can overhaul and get them working again, but it is too long to go into here. You do *not* need to cut any glass fibre to get the motors out.
4 heater controls don't illuminate
As Peter pointed out it may be the contact strips for the bulbs or the bulbs themselves but they are 24v to keep them dimmer and this is another one you need to see to understand. It is very unusual.
5 new speakers installed but radio sounds bad at higher volume (I assume this is just reception but it could also be noise)
Radios were not standard fitted so it would depend on what has been fitted and how well. It needs to be examined to diagnose.
6 alarm doesn't work, can hear the switch inside the sensor when I move around but the alarm doesn't go off, solid red light when switched on. its a cobra alarm, I assume it's the factory one?
The Murena never had any alarm fitted so this is down to the particular unit fitted and how well it was installed.
7 there's an extra long white wire connected to a connection that leads nowhere.
8 there are some wires in the front bay that aren't connected, will add pictures later
As with many second hand cars that have been messed around by people who are not auto electricians, there can be all sorts of horrible wiring 'spaghetti' left in a mess. You should be able to tell what is original wiring and what is not. Original wiring has rubber covered terminals with a dot colour code. Anything not original and not connected - remove it. It is impossible to diagnose things remotely especially when it is no longer standard, and you don't know the condition of many items. These cars have edge connector terminals that often crack and loose tension so you get a poor contact. Unless you are familiar with these things you won't understand but these need to be checked first otherwise you could waste a lot of time elsewhere unnecessarily.
For the M.o.T. just concentrate on those items that are required and leave the others until you can come to a meeting where we can give experienced advice and show you things. If this still has an original circuit board, they were not good and may be part of the problem at this stage. It certainly needs to be examined.
Roy