Well on my car there is enough free play in the wiring to allow me to lift the gaiter away from the body and see the underside of it, which gives me some comfort that mine may not be "tight" and being pinched. Also that there is no sign to wearing of the gaiter itself, although the (bnw) paint has been rubbed away somewhat all the same.

My real concern is that the problem is not caused by wearing away from the outside in, but internally due to a lack of free play, so that the wires are constantly being stretched and rubbed against each other whenever the boot is opened or closed. John's excellent pictures earlier demonstrate that there is no easy way to see if that is happening without doing something pretty intrusive (and which your friendly local Fiat dealer will probably then claim is the source of any problems that are identified).

I guess it will just be a question of waiting and seeing.

Back from the dead.
Have the same issue here.
Interestingly sometimes, it doesnt blow the fuse immediately only after some minutes.
I counted the Amperage draw its normally 0.10-0.15 even when the brake lights work.
When it short circuits, goes off the scale and over 10amps...
Oh and the 3rd stop light doesnt work either.... It flahsed once before it burns the fuse again.
And it has burned the fuse with the 3rd brake light removed too...

Back from the dead for a quick note.
Ok it was the rear loom that comes from the top of the trunk.
He fixed it temporarily, worked for some months but now its broken again

olirip said:

my 500 is in the garage today and they've found that its one of the wires thats connected between the boot lid and the car body, which will cost 2.5 hours work to fix roughly looking at about £200 (if im lucky) so replacing bulbs was coincidence.
also drives side door handle came off yesterday woohoo.
contacted fiat customer services to help foot the bill waiting now 2 days or so for an answer.

Click to expand...

Hi did you find out what the problem was in having the same problem thanks

Was it the light blowing the fuse's

Just wanted to add to this thread in case anybody else runs across this gauge cluster not working problem...
I had this exact same problem, plus the f37 fuse kept blowing. I replaced the brake light switch and it didn't fix the problem. After troubleshooting a bit, I saw that the 3rd brake light wasn't working. Unplugged it and problem fixed. Turns out, there was a short inside the 3rd brake light assembly. I will fix the short later in the light assembly later.. Easy fix!