Top rear brake light not working. It may not be an MOT fail, but I feel more secure with the top light working, so I got it fixed.

The bulb was fine (as i had suspected as it is not normal for all bulbs to fail at once), as usual the rear boot wiring loom was the culprit. Here's a picture.


Got it fixed at my usual garage for 18 EUR, so decent result in the end.

And no guys, not opening the boot is not a solution for me ! = )

Seems to be a common problem on these cars. my daughters 500 (2009 reg) had similar loom damage, number plate light was not working, but other wires were damaged as well.
There is a sharp edge inside the roof that caused the problem. I fixed a layer of plastic over it to protect the wiring. Been OK for last 2 years.

I'm reliably informed that this problem has been known by Fiat (reported by Fiat technicians) but the best Fiat have come up with is an "expensive repair wiring kit" and have failed to make a design change to eliminate the problem.

More reputable Fiat dealers I gather do their own repairs, bypassing the expensive Fiat repair kit, thus saving customers precious money.

Loads of stuff on this forum about it. The problem seems to be a combination of two factors.
1. The insulation on the wires is not very flexible, and fatigues after lots of bending.
2. The loom is bent through quite a large angle each time the tailgate is opened.
Studying my wife's Suzuki, and the 500X I have now, the loom emerges from the body several inches from where it goes into the tailgate, and the gaitor guides it along the hinge axis. This means the wires twist rather than bend, which stresses everything less.
There is a repair kit available, from Germany I think. If it had happened on mine, I would have replaced the damaged section of loom with lengths of silicone sleeved flexible wire - I have the appropriate soldering gear and experience.
As ever with these manufacturing issues, you never know how common they actually are. I never suffered from it in 6 years, and neither did the other two belonging to people I know, but plenty of reports of it on this forum.

TrevC said:

Loads of stuff on this forum about it. The problem seems to be a combination of two factors.
1. The insulation on the wires is not very flexible, and fatigues after lots of bending.
2. The loom is bent through quite a large angle each time the tailgate is opened.
Studying my wife's Suzuki, and the 500X I have now, the loom emerges from the body several inches from where it goes into the tailgate, and the gaitor guides it along the hinge axis. This means the wires twist rather than bend, which stresses everything less.
There is a repair kit available, from Germany I think. If it had happened on mine, I would have replaced the damaged section of loom with lengths of silicone sleeved flexible wire - I have the appropriate soldering gear and experience.
As ever with these manufacturing issues, you never know how common they actually are. I never suffered from it in 6 years, and neither did the other two belonging to people I know, but plenty of reports of it on this forum.

Click to expand...

Do you use the boot often?

I use it several times a day, so I think obviously the more you use it, the higher the chance of it happening.

After daily use for 5 years, it started having problems before getting so bad I had no choice but to fix it.

Probably only used it a couple of times a day. Your warm Greek climate may have helped preserve yours this far by making the insulation more flexible!
Your repair cost was very reasonable. If he only repaired one wire, it's probably worth getting him to do a permanent fix on all the conductors when you can spare the car.

Sorry for jumping into this old thread but looking for help.
We have a 2010 1.4 Lounge. My wife has owned from new and she has just over 44600 kilometres on the clock.
A few days ago I noticed the top (3rd) brake light was not working. I thought this was a simple bulb change. I was very wrong.
I dismantled the fitting to find that there are five small 5v bulbs. All look in perfect order so I started my research on this site.
I now see that there appears as detailed in this thread a known problem with the wiring that threads through a rubber “gator” to the boot lid. Continued opening and closing over time of the boot leaves to damage to the wires (loom) contained in this casing.
Other threads have discussed this and possible fixes. However none of the threads contain the fix details or even if it has been repaired by a Fiat dealer.
Before I book the car in with the local Fiat garage I would like to know wether others have been through this recently and how much does it cost and any tips. Repairing it myself is not an option sadly.
Thank you.

Do not let fiat 'fix' this as it will be with the same standard of wire ( that has failed!)
You need to look on eBay for the repair kit and if not competent to do it your self pay an Auto Electrician a couple of hours and show him the info from this forum.
Like here https://www.fiatforum.com/500/471804-fiat-500-tailgate-wiring-fixed.html
And here https://www.fiatforum.com/500/423837-maybelline-has-thrown-hissy-fit.html?423837=#post4063061
Paul m.