Hi,
I recently took my Bravo to a dealer as the keys needed recoding, only to be told by the dealer that I indeed needed a new head reader along with 2 new keys.
On paying the bill I noticed that I have been charged for a Ceiling Lamp rather than a head reader.
Could anybody tell me if they are the same thing ?

Is this for the Alarm or for the Immobiliser?

there is very little chance that both keys and the remote reciever (aka head reader) all needed replacing. thats about as likely as winning the lottery. any reciever can work with any remote key and vice versa. whats the chance that both your keys AND the receiver were broken? bloody small, and even if they were 9 times out of 10 a simple solder on the switch fixes a key. its such an unlikely scenario that i would think the dealer has told whopping great fibs.

did you try to program the keys yourself before you went to the dealer? you could have fitted a receiver from a scrapyard costing £5, its an easy 5min job. you simply replace the light/sunroof/alarm switch assembly. thats probably why the reciept says the ceiling lamp has been replaced. basically you could have taken the lamp from a scrapyard as long as it had an alarm (all hlx/hgt models). also if your keys were beyond repair (unlikely) you could have bought second hand keys for a fiver each on ebay or at scrapyards and then swapped the key blanks and immob chips over and then programmed them into your alarm yourself. programming is easy and takes 2 mins, the procedure is on this forum for all to see, and on many other websites. if you asked on this forum before you went to the dealer we could have helped you to get this problem sorted, and even if both keys and the receiver were broken the maximum cost would have been £20, although i really doubt that a replacement reciever and both keys was neccessary.

2 very important lessons to learn here;
1. NEVER go to the dealer
2. use forums such as fiatforum for advice BEFORE you do anything

those 2 rules will save you time, money and hassle.

how much did they do you for?

101% said:

Hi,
I recently took my Bravo to a dealer as the keys needed recoding, only to be told by the dealer that I indeed needed a new head reader along with 2 new keys.
On paying the bill I noticed that I have been charged for a Ceiling Lamp rather than a head reader.
Could anybody tell me if they are the same thing ?

Click to expand...

The head reader is one of the bulbs in your ceiling light. If you notice you can change either side and have both or just one side on. ie usefull when a passenger is reading maps on an unfamiliar journey, cause just the one side on is less likely to affect your night drivers view of the road as much as if the whole reading/curtosey light was on. Fancy name but typical really.......they (Fiat) call the timing belt a ' crankshaft drive'!

no thats a reading lamp lol

jug said:

no thats a reading lamp lol

Click to expand...

Ahh.....but on a receipt before me now I read 'head reader bulb n/s replaced'
so bulb would suggest for a light.....reader, for reading.......head,ie above/prominant.
So there! lol

haha i love it

a head reader bulb yes, because the head reader houses the courtesy lights which have bulbs, but the head reader is not the lights themselves. the head reader is where the alarm remote receiver is situated, and the courtesy lights (including reading lamps) and also the sunroof switch, and ultrasonic sensors, and the alarm remote programming button. they are all part of the head reader.

here's the same situation-

if you changed the bulb in your fridge you'd call it a fridge bulb, but that doesnt mean your fridge is a lamp, your fridge is cold storage for food that just so happens to have a fridge light as well.

if you changed the bulb in your head reader you'd call it a head reader bulb, but that doesnt mean the head reader is a lamp, the head reader houses the alarm reciever, remote programming button, ultrasonic sensors, sunroof switch and just so happens to have a map reading light as well.

does that make more sense now?