I noticed today that Grimwau had a bit of a false alarm with his DRL's reporting that they were blown. The other day I had the same thing with my numberplate light reporting that it was out when it wasn't. Has anyone else ever had this issue where the car reports it's got a blown bulb but the bulb is fine? This is about the third time the numberplate light has said it's blown but every freaking time I turn the car off the problem magicall sorts itself.

Bah I hate Fiat's crappy quality should have bought a Lada etc etc

No - my old Vectra used to do this all the time - and each time, the bulb was fine.

Do all 500's have a bulb sensor?

We've had a few on various models. It's due to the bulb being faulty/on it's way out and drawing slightly too much/too little current compared to what the Body Computer thinks it should do.

If you whip the affected bulbs out, you'll probably find the filament has started to fail and is making and breaking contact, causing the error message.

D4nny8oy said:

We've had a few on various models. It's due to the bulb being faulty/on it's way out and drawing slightly too much/too little current compared to what the Body Computer thinks it should do.

If you whip the affected bulbs out, you'll probably find the filament has started to fail and is making and breaking contact, causing the error message.

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Might give it a go next time I get the error message as I carry a spare bulb kit in the car.

Mine always says "check running lights" and sometimes one of the rear lights is out. You literally have to give it a mild tap and it comes back on. Loose connections?

take the cluster out clean the contact and put a bit of vasaline on the metal then refit bulb would be my first suggestion..

Dnny is right, stick new bulbs in a will cost less than a quid

T14086 said:

Dnny is right, stick new bulbs in a will cost less than a quid

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I will try that next time. The strange thing is that the first time it came up with the message was back in January.

306maxi said:

I will try that next time. The strange thing is that the first time it came up with the message was back in January.

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yes thats correct, it normally happens every 5 months. Was it high tide aswell as gravitational pull can have a effect.

T14086 said:

yes thats correct, it normally happens every 5 months. Was it high tide aswell as gravitational pull can have a effect.

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[dozey 500 owner]Cheers for the advice, I shall avoid driving the car during spring tides[/dozey 500 owner]

306maxi said:

[dozey 500 owner]Cheers for the advice, I shall avoid driving the car during spring tides[/dozey 500 owner]

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Although I have had several warning messages regarding bulbs (3 stop and 1 rear indicator) and just recently my NS DRL every time the warning has been correct, no false alarms, so in my case at least the system is working correctly.

With the exception of the DRL all the other bulbs had blown, the DRL must have been either a bad connection or perhaps a filament is on it's way out and removing and refitting the bulb might prove to be just a temporary solution 'til I get the fault message again.

DraigFlag87 said:

Mine always says "check running lights" and sometimes one of the rear lights is out. You literally have to give it a mild tap and it comes back on. Loose connections?

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No it's the bulb.

If the filament breaks at one end of the two posts, a vibration can make it touch the post again, and the voltage jumping across temporarily 'welds' the filament back on.

Next time it cools down or hits another bump, the filament breaks again, and the fault reoccurs.

I had this message come on the one and only time I wanted to use the rear fog light. I finally got around to sorting it out a couple of weeks ago and the light was working so I didn't bother!