I own a Fiat Grande Punto 2010 (model 199, 1242cc ) for a few years. This car has DRLs which are basically the front fog lights. These used to come on automatically when the engine was switched on and would stay on until the ignition was off or the main headlights were switched on. The use of DRLs is compulsory in Central Europe where I am based. In November 2020 I took the car to Service to exchange the wheels from summer to winter tires which is also a legal requirement. On exiting the Service station I noticed the DRLs were off. I thought the bulbs or some fuse was blown. But then I noticed the DRLs would intermittently come on if the ignition was switched on but would always turn themselves off when the engine was running. I tried various ideas from the internet such as installing fuses in position 30 and a relay in position R13 in the engine bay fuse box (that were originally missing) on the basis that they were the original fog light requirements. Nothing worked. I took the car back to Service and the engineer (who is quite competent) tried everything including looking at the car computer but failed to fix this problem. I read in this forum that many members have the opposite problem from me i.e. they want the DRLs permanently off since they don’t need them (in the UK). Does anyone know how to reactivate them so they stay on when the engine is running? There is no menu item in the dashboard to switch them on like in the Fiat 500.

Puntos in the uk didn’t have DRLs till the Punto Evo appeared the Grande didn’t have them and what you describe sounds like the fog lights being on so wouldn’t be allowed in the uk.

With the Evo the DRL was a bulb in the main headlight cluster.

On the Evo they did have cornering lamps which turned on the fog light on the left or right depending if you turned left or right, Fiat being cheap basically hacked a couple of relays into the wiring looms to control this but the relays where not in the fuse box.

I don’t know for sure but it’s possible they did something similar with the Grande to add DRLs and what you have is a relay separate to everything else somewhere under the bonnet that’s gone bad. That’s what I would be looking for

Many thanks for responding to my question. Your theory sounds plausible. But if there is a relay somewhere in the engine bay that has gone nuts two questions remain:

1. Where could it be hiding and
2. Why does it work to switch the DRLs on (most of the time) with the ignition switched on but switches them off when the engine is running.
I will however investigate on this basis the engine bay at the earliest opportunity.

Many thanks

Michael

Hi everyone

I followed the advice given and I looked everywhere for that elusive relay without success. It is not in any of the fuse/relay boxes and nothing in the engine bay looks like a relay. The loom that connects the lights is going to the engine fusebox branching to several instruments on the way. Does anyone have an idea where to look for it? Could it be that there is some other connection not involving a relay? By the way the car may be the punto EVO one of the first ones as I see other puntos have a different light geometry