BMW Repair: fuse 23 keeps blowing in 98ti, amp fuse, fuel gauge

Question
Hi I have a 1998ti with sports package. It has about 120k miles on it.

Just recently when I turned on the car, the turn signals, rpm gauge, fuel gauge, temp gauge (i think), ac button, rear defrost button, and circulate air button all stopped working. However, the hazard lights, radio, head lights, and everything else seems to be fine.
I checked all the fuses and noticed fuse 23 was blown. Also a 15 amp fuse under the steering wheel had blown (not sure which fuse this is... 47 maybe?)
So I replaced both. The 15 amp fuse is fine now, but fuse 23 keeps blowing.
The first thing I tried was to unplug both turn signal lights. The fuse did not blow so I thought I had figured it out. I then plugged in the passenger side turn light only. Fuse was still ok. So I plugged in the driver side light and it blew the fuse. I thought I had it figured out at this point, but after cleaning up some potential trouble areas in the wire, fuse still blew. For sanity sake, I tried it again with both lights unplugged. Fuse still blows.
So now I am back to square one again.
I had washed the car 2 days prior to this incident so could something have gotten wet?
Also, I have an after market security system that has wires spliced to the wires leading to the turn signal lights. But the security system seems to be working fine.

Where should I look? Grounds, relays? And what exactly should I be looking for? What do bad wires generally look like? (Other then obvious bare wire touching metal, etc.)

Thanks

Answer
Fuse 47 is 15 amps and supplies power to Alpine alarm system via a Red/Green/Yellow wire. Unplug the aftermarket alarm and see what happens. Looks like Fuse 23 is a 5Amp fuse used mainly for backlighting switches. It supplies the following, Instrument cluster pin 4, light switch illumination, foglight switch illumination, terminal 15 unloader relay, rear defogger relay, turnsignal switch, via a Green/Blue wire, and supplies Climate control, Water valve, and Fresh air recirculation motor. I again would disconnect alarm first and then either pull pins out of connectors to isolate current draw and or unplug things like defroster relay, and water valve. Do the best you can but I think it will have to do with the alarm and molested wiring underdash.
-Evan