Hi everyone!
My Grande Punto 2007 has just failed the MOT and one of the issues is that the stop lights are not working! The high level (the 3rd) brake light is working perfect, however, the low level (both rear sides) brake lights are not on when I brake. The silly thing is that it turns on when the dipped lights are on! Bulbs are newly replaced, fixed the ground cable problem, checked the fuse is okay, only thing is not sure about the brake switch. Do you guys have any ideas what else it can be????


My MOT is expiring on 27th but I am going away from the 21st so I have to get it done soon!

99% for bad ground ...

The left rear lights were flasing before but I tooked them apart, fix the ground cable and cleaned the pin tips. Then the flshing stopped but the brake lights still won’t turn on when I brake. But those brake lights stay on when the dipped lights are on?

The correct bulbs will have dual filaments, one that is used for rear lights when side/main front lights are on, the other when the brakes are used. If the brake lights aren't activating at all, I'd suspect the brake light switch.

Hi Jennifer,

Are you sure you installed the correct bulb at the correct place ? A said above one of the bulb gets two filaments: one for the main/side light and one for the stop, this is actually astandard configuration on most cars; Fiat has just Added another single filament bulb for main/side light (as a safety featur ?).

The brake switch inform the Body Computer that the pedal has been pressed, the BCM then send the stop light signal ON 3 SEPARATE LINES to both lateral clusters and the top "3rd" stop light.

Almost EVERY time you get strange electrical gremlin showing-up on simple electrical devices surch as lamps, it is due to bad grounding / connection, there is really nothing in those clusters: bulbs, contact points, wiring …

A digital multi-meter, wire-brush, sand paper and some contact cleaner (CRC) will help you solve your issue …

BRs, Bernie

If someone here helped You fix -or better, understand- your issue, hit the thanks icon @ bottom right corner, it's free and makes us feel helpy ;-)

I managed to take 2 photos for the brake light switch, is there anything wrong with it??

Once again, the switch send one SINGLE signal to BCM to tell the pedal is depressed. The BCM then send THREE signals on different lines to activate the rear brake lights.
If the switch was at fault NO brake light would lit AT ALL 8 You said the top light was working ok, therefore the switch is working correctly. No need to make more contorsionism to worry about that switch !

BRs, Bernie

If someone here helped You fix -or better, understand- your issue, hit the thanks icon @ bottom right corner, it's free and makes us feel helpy ;-)

As above my money's on the bulbs. Can you post a close-up photo of the front and back of one of those?

DGPunto said:

As above my money's on the bulbs. Can you post a close-up photo of the front and back of one of those?

Click to expand...

Picture of the bulbs you mean?

Yes - bulbs from the glass side and the terminals

Bernievarian said:

Hi Jennifer,

Are you sure you installed the correct bulb at the correct place ? A said above one of the bulb gets two filaments: one for the main/side light and one for the stop, this is actually astandard configuration on most cars; Fiat has just Added another single filament bulb for main/side light (as a safety featur ?).

The brake switch inform the Body Computer that the pedal has been pressed, the BCM then send the stop light signal ON 3 SEPARATE LINES to both lateral clusters and the top "3rd" stop light.

Almost EVERY time you get strange electrical gremlin showing-up on simple electrical devices surch as lamps, it is due to bad grounding / connection, there is really nothing in those clusters: bulbs, contact points, wiring …

A digital multi-meter, wire-brush, sand paper and some contact cleaner (CRC) will help you solve your issue …

BRs, Bernie

If someone here helped You fix -or better, understand- your issue, hit the thanks icon @ bottom right corner, it's free and makes us feel helpy ;-)

Click to expand...

My boyfriend have bought a circuit tester. Can you recommend or explain where we should check along? From the fuse to the plug of the light??

jenniferlamyt said:

My boyfriend have bought a circuit tester. Can you recommend or explain where we should check along? From the fuse to the plug of the light??

Click to expand...

I also managed to get a wire diagram

As above,take pictures before and after you take the rear bulbs out.

Re: Urgent Help! Grande Punto lowThe level brake lights not working

The stop lamp also received a feed from the sidelight and this seems to be the common thing here,I would check you have the right bulbs fitted and I tell you why,I have a Grande punto and a brake light went out so I went to a very well known motor factors,SDL ltd gave them the redgistration number of the car and when I got home they had sold me the totally wrong bulb even despite me giving the car redgistration number.????

Set your tester to volts DC Usually a V symbol and a horizontal, straight and dotted line next to it.

Put the black lead on the battery connector for the black wire and the red lead on the battery red wire the meter should read 12.5ish volts with the engine not running.
Once you're happy with that and you get the right reading head to the boot.

Take out the rear tail lights, I won't talk you through it, couple of screws and lift them off i'm sure you can work that out.

disconnect the multi plugs and then you can start testing.

Black lead from your circuit tester on a metal part of the car, a bolt or a boot hinge. wedge it in so that it can't move or fall out and has a good connection to something bare metal,

With the red lead put it into each of the connectors in turn, with the engine off and no lights switched on you should have no readings at all on any of the connections,

Turn on the ignition (without starting the car) making sure all the lights are off, get someone to push the brake pedal or use something to wedge the pedal so that the third brake light is on, then perform the same test on all of the connections.

You should find that one of them on each side of the car will measure bout 12.5 ish volts If not then you have no power getting to the brake lights. this is when you would check the fuses and relays. Also check there are no broken wires around the plugs. also make sure if the car is or has been fitted with a tow bar at any point that someone hasn't chopped the wiring about in the boot usually somewhere behind the trim and carpets in the boot there would be a relay box to send power to trailer lights if a tow bar had been fitted.

If your not sure you could put on the indicators and probe the connections in the same way as above you should find an intermittent 12.5 ish volts on one of the connections as the indicators flash.
You could also put the lights on and look for a 12.5 volts etc.

The important thing with no other lights on, do you get 12 volts somewhere in those connectors to the back lights.

If you do have power to the lights then look at all the bulbs carefully in the back lights.

Get back to us once you've investigated and let us know how you get on, or drop more questions if you're still unsure.