Hi fellow Fiat-fans!

I own a 2010 Grande Punto 1,3 Diesel Multijet, which I am very pleased with so far.

However, sometimes a yellow warning light comes up, it's the generic failure sign with an exclamation mark inside a triangle. In addition to this the display shows this message: "Check running lights". Now this may be a stupid question, but does that mean to check the cars exterior driving lights, or is that just to notify me that the warning light is on?

All exterior lights are working just fine.

If the message is just to remind me that the warning light is on, is there any way that I can check what the problem is myself?

Also the car is making a slight "whining" noise, when the gas throttle is pushed down, and for a bit when you put down the clutch between shifting gears. Could this be related to the warning sign being on, or is this something else alltogether?

Have a nice day

You got access to multiecuscan? This should help you pin point why its light is coming on. If anything like the mk2 punto then means that its short circuit somewhere. Usually wire loose on bulb. You changed the bulbs lately?

Whining can be number off things really but i couldn't say what. Best bet is diagnostics and look around under engine less one the clever people from here know off by hand what may be.

its usually the little 5w side light bulb built into the headlight, while the headlights are switched on its not always obvious but knock it back one setting on the stalk so only the side lights are on and you'll be able to see which bulb it is

I'll put my money on one of two things.

You have an intermittent failure on a bulb, so it's just a matter of catching which one............ Don't forget about number plate lights.

Or, dirty/corroded contacts between the wiring loom and rear light clusters.
Very likely.

You'll need two people to try this, one to operate the lights and someone else to record the results..

In the dark with the ignition on, but engine not running.
Try multiple different combinations of sidelights, brake lights, reverse lights and indicators.
If you have a corroded connector, strange things will happen, like when you indicate, you may find the reverse light illuminates very faintly.
Or when you brake, the indicator bulb illuminates very faintly.
Bulbs lighting up very faintly which shouldn't.

You'd really have to do this when it's dark to spot it.

I've even seen stop & tail lights send power down the brake light circuit, when the side lights are on.
This is really difficult to spot.

The fault is easy enough to fix, with a little wet n dry.

which reminds me.

Many years ago, a mate said his car continued running after he'd taken the ignition key out.
Believe it or not, it was caused by an incorrectly fitted stop/tail bulb.

My mk2 punto used to make my rear lights flash with indicator on and sometimes breaking. This was due to bad wire. Got a guy out who cleaned it and all fine afterwords.

I had this problem with mine, warning light and "check running lights" checked my lights and all seemed fine! Looked at a few pics of grande punto lights online and noticed that on the rears the sidelights actually have 2 bulbs in each side, one sidelight in the middle and one stop and tail at the bottom. On mine both the middle sidelights had gone together but I still had the bottom ones working, which is why at first all seemed ok. Might not be the issue with yours but its one of them things that could well be over looked.

Thanks for your help

Apparently it was one of the front lights, which seemed to work fine the first time I checked it out, but now it's definetely out, so I'm getting that fixed on monday.

Have a nice weekend, and drive carefully