Here's the thing. I bought the (absurdly expensive) Fiat boot light for my new Panda 1.2 and fitted it following the excellent guide on this forum. It doesn't work! Here are the facts:
1. Light unit is ok, tested on 12v battery.
1. Light unit is ok, tested on 12v battery.
2. Testing across wiring harness plug (boot open) - 0 volts, until driver's door is opened, then 12 volts which remains even after driver's door is closed and main courtesy light darkens. In this condition the boot light still doesn't glow - this appears to be due to an extremely high resistance to earth. The 12v can only be detected with a digital multimeter, ordinary test lamps won't work because of the resistance in the earth path. If I apply a separate known earth to the orange/white wire at the plug then the light works but is of course permanently on.
3. At some point (can't say how long, I got fed-up waiting!) the 12v supply (red/green wire at plug) disappears if the car is left undisturbed. This would seem to indicate that switching is taking place in the Body Computer ECU -- but I fail to see the logic.
4. I've had the boot and tailgate trim pretty much apart and failed to find anything resembling a switch or sensor which might control the operation of a boot light -- so how is it done?
3. At some point (can't say how long, I got fed-up waiting!) the 12v supply (red/green wire at plug) disappears if the car is left undisturbed. This would seem to indicate that switching is taking place in the Body Computer ECU -- but I fail to see the logic.
4. I've had the boot and tailgate trim pretty much apart and failed to find anything resembling a switch or sensor which might control the operation of a boot light -- so how is it done?
Clearly I'm missing something here -- maybe a missing component or some sort of re-programming. If anyone can shed some light (ha!) on the subject I'd be most grateful.
:bang: