Hi,

Just noticed that every once in a while, although getting more often over the past days, I sometimes get the Brake Lamp failure on the dash.

I checked everything, even with the error on the brake lamp is working fine. Yesterday evening, at about 11:00 pm I went in the house to get my coat and left a girl friend, saying girl because she wanted to listen to some music so she just pushed the key until all the lights, climate control, etc, was on, working on the battery. When I came back, tried to start the engine and got the following errors:

1. brake lamp fail
2. rain sensor failure
3. daylight sensitivity sensor failure

I know the deal about the 3 clean starts-error gone, so I tried that but it wouldn't go away. Instead, after driving it for about an hour or so, stopped, did the 3 starts again, all errors gone.

Is it the bloody battery?

Im no expert but from reading quite alot on this forum i would suggest the battery is a good place to start with, if not then maybe the earthing points there is a guide i believe on how to clean them.

I will change the battery in the near future as I have a cheap ROMBAT (romanian brand) battery. Curiously enough, it hasn't given any errors anymore.

Thank you very much for your help.

Well, changed the battery and still get random BRKE Light Failure on the dash. Really annoying, don't know what do do anymore.

Thing is, brake lamp is working just fine, with or without the error on the dash. What's wrong?

EDIT: I wanted to go downstairs to take a picture of the dash with the error on, started the engine, error gone. What about the 3 clean starts policy? :slayer:

I used to get this my MW. Random left brake light failure messages but both brake lights were working. I replaced the left bulb and not had a failure message since. (so also replaced the right bulb)

I suspect the bulb filament resistance had changed over time, fooling the body computer into triggering the false messages.

Hi Davren, thing is it doesn't really say which one has a problem. Is the center LED brake light included in this error message or is there something special just for its little self?

EDIT: It does say Brake Lamp Failure, so it's the central one, right?

It doesn't say left in words, but there's an arrow pointing left (or right) in the top of the display.

No.. the center LED high level brake light doesn't trigger a warning message.

vladof said:

What about the 3 clean starts policy?

Click to expand...

Three clear starts is only for engine faults. It will clear a fault code from the engine ECU's memory after the fault has been fixed. It doesn't fix the fault and doesn't clear a fault that still exists.

Well thank you very much mate. I will change the light bulbs this week and see whether the fault will clear.

I know that the error needs to be fixed in order to clear the fault from the ECU. When the error first appeared, i stopped the engine, pushed to key to where the checking is made (without turning on the engine again), 3 times more, 4th time the error disappeared. That's why I was wondering as to why it was still faulty after doing the same thing about 10 times, but after coming downstairs to the car again in 15 minutes, everything was fine.

I will be more careful to see where the arrow is pointing.

Multumesc. (Thank you).

Just been out to the garage to check. This is what the warning looks like on my car with a right brake light bulb removed.

Cu placere.

Nope, not the same. I get BRKE lamp fail I think. I will keep the camera in the car and post a picture as soon as I get the error again.

Thanks a lot for all your help.

I don't get the bulb light on, I get the general warning message, the yellow triangular light in the middle of the dash.

The Stilo Manual says the following (please see attached picture):



None of these really show..

just change the bulb and clean up the terminals, i had one of these problems on a number plate light, it was a pain, in the end i changed the working bulb for a new one and the problem went away, im guessing the bulbs may have gone high resistance thus triggering the warning message,
roy

vladof said:

Nope, not the same. I get BRKE lamp fail I think. I will keep the camera in the car and post a picture as soon as I get the error again.

Thanks a lot for all your help.

I don't get the bulb light on, I get the general warning message, the yellow triangular light in the middle of the dash.

Click to expand...

Perhaps the warning format changed for some models and/or dates. Mine is a 2003 JTD MW.

Mine is a 2002 1.8 16V model.

@Roy: what was the error message you were getting? I would change the bulbs, but which ones to change? As soon as I know, I will proceed.

What is the twilight sensor, as described in the attachment of post #11?

vladof said:

What is the twilight sensor, as described in the attachment of post #11?

Click to expand...

Twilight sensor would be the auto headlamp sensor or "daylight sensitivity sensor" as you describe it in post #1

vladof said:

Well, changed the battery and still get random BRKE Light Failure on the dash. Really annoying, don't know what do do anymore.

Thing is, brake lamp is working just fine, with or without the error on the dash. What's wrong?
View attachment 81905

Click to expand...

I always get rear fog light failure under what some might call extreme breaking despite having never used the rear fog lights (other than checking the light did work after getting it the first time).

Good old Italian engineering

Usually it's a poor contact at the brake light cluster connector. Car is saying "brake light circuit failure" ie it fails the test.


I'd take the rear cluster out, clean the connector contacts with contact cleaner and check for poor spring contacts at the connector. They are quite weak spring contacts. Whilst you're there do a resistance test on the earth line for near zero ohms.

Electrics needs to find a way back to the battery earth so if you have a high resistance earth line there then when brake light is in use it may well find its journey through the fog light bulb is the easier route than the earth it should be using and then "bing" +"lamp circuit failure"

Stilo doesn't lie, it's saying there's a problem there and you just need to find it

I had the "stop lamp failure" problem once around 4 years ago but never since giving it some treatment

vladof said:

Hi,

Just noticed that every once in a while, although getting more often over the past days, I sometimes get the Brake Lamp failure on the dash.

I checked everything, even with the error on the brake lamp is working fine. Yesterday evening, at about 11:00 pm I went in the house to get my coat and left a girl friend, saying girl because she wanted to listen to some music so she just pushed the key until all the lights, climate control, etc, was on, working on the battery. When I came back, tried to start the engine and got the following errors:

1. brake lamp fail
2. rain sensor failure
3. daylight sensitivity sensor failure

I know the deal about the 3 clean starts-error gone, so I tried that but it wouldn't go away. Instead, after driving it for about an hour or so, stopped, did the 3 starts again, all errors gone.

Is it the bloody battery?

Click to expand...

Don't worry neighbour I got the same error from time to time, the brake light work well, so i guess it's some poor connection somewhere i'll never find. The stilos seem to have poor electrics, one day i couldn't operate windows/doors from the driver's door, cleaned it with some contact spray and is wokring fine now. My auxilary temp gauge isn't working either..

Hi

Thank you for your reply. I do intend to change all the bulbs and check the earth on it as well, contact spray, etc. If I still get the error, I will buy a decent hammer :devil:

Anyway, I will keep you guys updated.

Thank you!

Hi all,

Pleased to say problem is gone. Thankfully a simple respray was enough to get rid of it. Hasn't been on for more than 1 week. (used to get it every day once or twice).

Curious me managed to get my hands on a romanian version of the Stilo Handbook (earlier version than the one on the downloads section). Started browsing it, got to page 118, and presto, found the error.

However, the curious thing is that the manual describes this error as not being an error in bulb itself but an error in the warning light or warning sensor. What the bloody mug do they mean? There's an error in the error detection system?

Please see attached.



The translation goes:

"The general warning lamp on the dash (if provided) will be lit together with the message on the display in case of a warning light fail. Contact the Fiat dealer as soon as possible to solve the problem."

Best regards,

Vlad