Technical Stop lights come on when headlights are on, bulb failure warning and some rust.

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Technical Stop lights come on when headlights are on, bulb failure warning and some rust.

Mega Maniac

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Hello everyone,

Purchased a Stilo a few months back and have had a fair few problems with it since then. These forums have been great and have so far helped me cure an airbag failure warning and replace my pollen filter (never seen something so grimey). Also had a crack at trying to fix a broken skyroof but its pretty jammed shut.

Anyway, my problem for today is as follows:

When I switch on the engine I get a warning that flashes "bulb failure>front>stop lamp".

When I first checked this I had my headlights on and noticed there didnt seem to be any rear stop lights other than the top centre light which worked ok. Upon further investigation it turned out that BOTH stop lights were on even when no brake was applied.

I then turned off the lights, and applied the brake. Now the offside brake light was working and the nearside was not. But remember that BOTH brake lights come on when the lights are turned on, so it cant be the bulb as there is only the one.

So I'm guessing its some kind of electrical fault here, but I wouldn't know where to start to look to make sure the wiring is correct. I have a basic electrical knowledge so I should be able to understand how to fix it if someone can point me in the right direction.


Also when I was replacing the headlight, I did it via removing the battery and below the battery was this rather nasty sight:
IMAG0245.jpg


its obviously been rusting away for a while under there. What part of the engine bay is this, how important is it etc? Does it need to be repaired and how much does such a thing cost if so?

Thanks in advance (y)
 
Use a wire cup brush on a drill to remove the rust and a rust killing paint. You should be able to tell if it's strong enough.

The electrical problems probably an earthing fault. Remove the rear clusters and separate the plugs. Clean the contacts.
Look here https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/325648-cleaning-contacts.html

or use following technique
Use Cotton buds
-metal polish
-clean off with contact cleaner
-use dielectric grease to prevent further corrosion

I would not recommend something highly abrasive
 
Thanks for the reply, I'm not quite with you on "removing the rear clusters and separating the plugs" could you explain that for me?
 
The rear light clusters are held in by three nuts which are accessible by pulling back the trim at either side of the boot. Once the nuts are off you can pull the cluster out, the lightbulbs are housed on the rear of the cluster, there is a panel on the back of the cluster that's clipped on, once it's off you can see the bulbs and you can then remove them to inspect the connections for them.
 
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