bravo hgt 1997 headlight failure

[leedslad21]

I first noticed a problem about 4 days ago as when i used indicator or full beam the head lights seemed to go off then straight back on within a second. It then just stopped doing it over weekend, my partner now has the car for the week whilst im away down south and she has called me to say the headlights will not work at all nor will the wipers? the rear lights work fine so i asked her to try the front fogs and they work fine but the front fogs on there own are not bright enough to be drivin with plus the fact if it rains she is screwed. Can anyone help with this as I dont really want more costly repairs on this bloody car :-(

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Sounds like earths.

Clean up all earthing points in engine bay and at the rear of car, should hopfully solve it

Jon.

 

[leedslad21]

im not very mechanically minded how many earthing points are there and can you direct me to them, is it just a case of un bolting the earth wires and re-attaching them? cheers

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

I'm not that familiar with Punto's unfortunatly.

Normally under the bonnet there will be 2 or 3. One on the inside of each wing, and another along the bulkhead, and at the back they're normally behind one or both of the rear lamps.

Will need to remove (normally a bolt) and clean area of bodywork where its connected aswell as the earthing point, so it all makes a good clean connection

Hope this helps.

Jon.

 

[leedslad21]

Right thought i would make use of my free RAC cover so called em out tonight, it turns out there was more not working on the car than previously thought, the rear lights work and interior light, front fogs work and indicators, just about everything else doesnt, like blowers, cig lighter, wipers, headlights e.t.c, the mechanic checked the earthing points and they were fine, after ages of trying to figure out the problem he suspects I need a new fuseboard, he has managed to attach a 3 way wire from the main power supply that feeds the fuse board (i think) then the 2 wires lead to where a fuse ounce was that he removed. so everything now works, when I turn the car off and remove the key the lights stay on so i have to remove the tempoary wire he put in for me. The mechanic has said hes 90% certain its the fuse board and 10% its something to do with ignition, im struggling to find any posts on this site for similar problems so just wanted a second opinion as iv searched on net to buy a fuse board and cant find 1, whats more the mechanic wasnt certain if the fuse board on any other model would fit my car and its not likley im gunna find a bravo hgt locally in a scrap yard. Please help. Cheers

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Right. I personally highly doubt that its the fuse board.

Sounds to me like the ignition barrel, as nearly everything on Fiats is ignition switched and there are about 4 switched circuits iirc.

Its not unknown for the internal switch in the ignition barrel to go.

I'd look at changing that next.

Get one from a scrappy fairly cheap I would have thought.

Should also be able to transfer lock barrel over to new igntion switch also so you can keep using the same key

Jon.

 

[leedslad21]

right just to make things a little more complicated, i found quite a few other posts on here about a fiat tipo having this problem due to leaking sunroof and i just realised my bird left sunroof open slightly few weeks ago and i could see that water must have gathered under fabric roofy bit then its run along inside of windscreen then down behind the dashboard directly above where the fuse board is, seems chances of this unlickley due to small ammount of water but think i might risk it been fuse board as i can now get hold of one for 15 quid or so. as im not an electrician do you think that if it had of been the ignition the 3 way wire the mechanic used not of worked as all he has done is routed power from wire that comes from ignition and diverted it to a different point on the fuse board? Shall i take a picture to show you what i mean?

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

If you could upload a pic it would be great in try to help

Although with what you've just said it does sound more like the fuse board now

 

[leedslad21]

got a new fuse board and still the same problem, had it with this car now, just gunna leave it wired dodgy and put a permenant switch to use each time i use car.