Hi everone

My car is a 1.4 active aircon revision model and its been ok up to now 17k on the clock 12k when i got it. My problem is the inside front lights keep coming on of there own accord (just the front not the back as well) some times when i start up sometimes when i am on the move. This can last from a couple to 30-40 minuets and you have no control of the dip or main beem when you put the lights on untill it puts its self right. I have also had an airbag warning and told to stop the engine when you do this and re-start all seems ok. The airbag warning has never happened unless the lights have put themselves on. the lights have done this for the last few months but the airbag warning has just started to happen has happend 3 times in the last couple of weeks. Is this common and is there anything i can check before i take the car in to the garrage. Hope someone out there can give me some advice.

Thanks in adv2ance fror anyone who replies.

John

The airbag light is a common problem don't hear it too much on the newer stilo's, try to disconnect the airbag sensor under the passenger seat and reconnect it.

Dan

As Dan has said the airbag warnings are a common problem under the seats there are connectors unplug and reconnect them quite often its just this and if your car is a 3dr it tends to be the passenger side this side causes the most problems because of the constant moving of the seat back and fore to let rear passengers in and with regards the interior light you need some of our electrical wizards that are on here where are Batman Decks and Robin Rroope

Thanks for the feed back ill try the connectors under the seats.

To clatify things my stilo is a 5 #door and its the front inner headlights that come on on there own

Thanks all for the very quick replys so far

John

efrules said:

To clatify things my stilo is a 5 #door and its the front inner headlights that come on on there own

Click to expand...

Inner headlights

The headlights come on on their own or the interior lights?

Inner headlights? You mean the small side lights? I need to go to my car and look.....

You have us confused John. What do you mean by "inner headlight?"

Nearside only? Dipped? Main beam? Parking light?
How do you tell when it's on?
Do you use Parking light push button to the right of the dashboard?
Have you done any mods like changing bulbs etc?



Air bag light is very different circuit and it's difficult to guess how the two faults could be related. Could be a pink mackerel

its the headlights not the side lights or the interior lights that come on. You have three main lights in th cluster main dipped and fog i dont know which is which off hand but its Its the two main lights nearest to the radiator that com on on there own accord but you get no lights on the dash to say there on i first niticed when i was behind a well polished car an saw the reflection and since then i look out for it.

Havent changed any bulbs

are there two on the bottom of the light cluster?

Which ever light it is, whenever something turns itself on without it being switched on it's almost always a poor earth on something nearby in the wiring circuit that would use the same earthing point. Electrics try to go to earth but can't find an easy route so it takes the next best option- think I'll go through this light. Weird to have the fault on headlights as they draw quite a bit of power

For the airbag light then i think everything's covered in a search and if not then just yell.

Do the two faults ALWAYS seem to happen together?
Has the car been damaged at the front?

Could the dusk sensor be set at it's most sensitive, switching on at the lowest level? assuming it's part of the spec?

It's good thinking Bozzy but the tail lights would come on too and John says they don't light up when this is happening.

The inboard lights (nearest the radiator) in the headlight cluster are the main beam headlights so they won't come on automatically- even the "follow me" headlights are the dipped beam

The only thing that comes to mind is the headlamp flasher- that's the only thing that will turn JUST the headlights on

Do they come on with full brightness i.e. not dim? I guess they're full on if you can see reflections in other cars. I'll bet your making the other driver's day too with full beam headlights on

Something shorting in the light switch seems to be the likely culprit especially as you're unable to select dipped or main beam when it's happening

Won't that be the follow me home feature that puts the main beam on in increments 30 secs upto 3-4 mins. Available for so long after removing the ignition key by flicking the headlight flasher... Stilo is fitted with this as standard (£200 odd option on the new Octavia and Skoda are shouting about it... even though a 4-5 year old Stilo has it as standard ) or maybe a malfunction of this feature?

Had this on mum's Stilo when we got it, it was coupled with "Engine Fault" messages to; turned out to be a faulty fuse box ontop of the battery that was letting dampness in and shorting out the relay's . . . warranty replacement cured that one!

This could be messing up the Airbag systems too . . . you havent steam cleaned the engine recently have you? Is your battery protector fitted? Either that or the body computer is to blame . . .

No - the "Follow me" operates the dipped headlights even though it's operated by the headlight flasher. They only stay on for a max of 2 mins or so - not the 30mins that John is getting

The Body Computor gives an earth signal to the headlight Relay to energise the Relay coil When relay is energized Relay gives + supply to both respective headlights via Fuses F12 & F13.
Two possible causes which may explain lights coming on but dashboard light not illuminating ( via computor )are :-

1, The negative earth wire from Computor to Relay is chaffed and shorting against chassis this would operate relay irrespective of the computors status.

2,Wiring from fuses F12 & F13 chaffed or overheated melting insulation and shorting against other + feed this would also illuminate headlights irrespective of Relay / Body computor.( moisture ingress also possible)
Two other suggestions for testing are
Remove headlight relay get some very fine multistrand insulated copper wire place it across the relay sockets which correspond to pins 85 & 86 on the relay and carefully reinsert the relay(ensuring wires have not shorted ) attach other ends to a multimeter( they are coppers to buy about 5 minuites FIAT dealer Labour) position multimeter in a safe position to observe when driving and see what voltage multimeter registers when you are driving and lights come on on thier own.

Also as you have a lot of daylight this time of year remove F12 & F13 (weather conditions permitting)and see if your lights come on this would also prove a + short circuit in loom to headlights or fusebox on the headlight side of relay etc.

My last post was for dipped headlights is this the problem ?

or is it main beam if so Ill have a look at wiring diagram for main beam

Tim_T, thats a pretty in depth analysis, may I ask what your background is? Have you some Fiat experience?

It's always comforting to see techies on here.

John says it's the lights nearest the radiator so that's main beam

It could have been very useful if John had sorted out and posted which lights were coming on otherwise it's Cluedo games