My girlfriends 2010 fiat 500 licence plate lights stopped working a few days ago, indicated on the dash and visibly were not on, we replaced the bulbs and seemed to work, however she has said the warning has come up in the past and disappeared before, then the next day after replacing the bulbs the warning was back.

Meanwhile all this was happening her boot started to play up and was being temperamental whether it was going to open or not without using the emergency catch from the inside.

Once the lights warning came back again, we came to the conclusion that there must be a wiring fault or something somewhere, also we cannot open the boot at all now by the button.

I thought it wasn’t likely to be a fuse as it was on and off at first whereas if it was a fuse it just flat out wouldn’t work at all?

Ive recently had a look at the loom behind the C pillar and in the actual tailgate, all connections seem fine and no broken wires, also had the silver bar (with the licence plate lights on and the button to open boot) off to check that but all seems intact.

I’m unsure what the next step could be, any suggestions? Thanks in advanced, Josh.

Now the instrument cluster has stopped working and new fuses hasn’t fixed the problem, really stuck now!!

I was going to suggest tailgate wiring as mine went on me with similar issues.... but if you have checked that throughly and they are [emoji817] ok then you must have a fault somewhere... someone will pop up shortly to give you a better idea! Possibly typecastboy chin up it can always be worse! My head gasket has prob gone on me ?

How did you check the wiring in the rubber sleeve on the top left of the tailgate ?

I guarantee it's the tailgate wiring issue, and it will get worse, there's a repair kit on EBay for about £70 If you can diy

So the checks I’ve done have basically just been what I can get off with a socket set and my hands, not extremely thorough, couldn’t fully check the whole rubber sleeve but check either end of it! Do you think it’s something to do with the instrument cluster not having power now then? I’ve changed fuses and they haven’t work, however after reasearching, f37 should have 5 amp in but has a 20amp in, after putting another 5 in this doesn’t help, is it worth trying a 20 amp or am i in the wrong place entirely? Thanks for the help everyone!

Tailgate wiring issue!!! You need to cut (carefully) the rubber apart like John says you will have broken wires .... I had 6 broken wires out of 8 I believe

Oakesj103 said:

So the checks I’ve done have basically just been what I can get off with a socket set and my hands, not extremely thorough, couldn’t fully check the whole rubber sleeve but check either end of it! Do you think it’s something to do with the instrument cluster not having power now then? I’ve changed fuses and they haven’t work, however after reasearching, f37 should have 5 amp in but has a 20amp in, after putting another 5 in this doesn’t help, is it worth trying a 20 amp or am i in the wrong place entirely? Thanks for the help everyone!

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NEVER EVER put the wrong size fuse in, the fuse is there to protect first the wiring then the item, given how thin some of the wires are it's a really bad idea. The wrong size probably ended up there due to all the other spares being used up with the same issue.
You need to pull out the rubber flexible where it goes onto the car body, pull back over itself the rubber cover, remove the furry tape and inspect the broken wires no easy task in the cold, nor fixing it.
Try not to open the boot lid on the freezing cold the insulation breaks even more easily, I've just had to 're visit my fix from 3 years ago as I left 2 of the 20 or so wires original replacing all the others with ultra flexible wire, I left the two thick ones for the rear screen guess what broke.

John202020 said:

I've just had to 're visit my fix from 3 years ago as I left 2 of the 20 or so wires original replacing all the others with ultra flexible wire, I left the two thick ones for the rear screen guess what broke.

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If you don't have sufficiently heavy duty ultra flexible cable, there's nothing to stop you 'doubling up' with what you do have on the patched section.

jrkitching said:

If you don't have sufficiently heavy duty ultra flexible cable, there's nothing to stop you 'doubling up' with what you do have on the patched section.

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True, the new piece is far more flexible for the same gauge even though it's not new, lying in my scrap pile, the Fiat insulation seems very hard and brittle.