problems continue for my lemon (metro)

the ongoing battle to get my car to good shape continues. i have posted recently about a random, small surge problem. yesterday my dad and i had the hood popped to try and see anything, and when i started the car up, a bright light appeared somewhere by the starter, almost like someone switched a light on and then off quickly. the car starts up fine, and my dad said i may have a short somewhere by the starter. how do i figure this out and, could this be the cause of my random surging problem? thanks again for helping me with my infinite problems lol

Logically you should locate the most obvious condition first. Take the air cleaner off and while you're looking at the area of the starter (at night while dark) have someone crank the engine over. Some conditions can be found while looking at an engine running in total darkness. You can see spark plug wires shorting or glowing in the darkness if they're overdue for replacement. You can see wires arcing or glowing. By carefully moving wire bundles, you can observe if there are loose connections if sparking is observed. Other than what I just mentioned, do a routine tune-up.