Technical Glowing warning lights

[MG David]

We have a 13 plate Fiat 500 that we have owned for a number of years now. It is used by my daughter, generally, for short journeys and lives outside.

2 of the warning lights have started to glow faintly. These are the hand brake warning light and general failure warning light.

The fault is intermittent but when it presents itself it is as follows:-

1) On opening the car door the 2 lights start to glow as the interior light comes on.
2) When the ignition is turned on the handbrake light comes on properly and the other continues to glow.
3) When the hand brake is disengaged the light reverts to glowing.
4) when the ignition is turned off and the key removed the 2 lights continue glowing for about 8 seconds. They stop as the interior light starts to fade out.
5) When the door is opened to get out they start to glow again as the interior light comes on.

While I mess with cars quite a bit, I have had to do very little to the 500 in the 7 years we have owned it.

My assumption is this is some kind of damp or earthing issue and I am hoping someone here may be able to point me in the correct direction.

Thanks in advance, David

 

[Baglady1990]

Hi David welcome to the forum
I suspect this is all to do with the cluster (Speedo) this is a widely reported failure
Someone will be along shortly to advise further
Though @typecastboy is an expert on this! I’m pretty sure he has covered this in one of his videos on YouTube love500

 

[MG David]

Hi Baglady, I have seen threads about instrument cluster issues when indicating right but indicating right does not seem to be associated with the problem we have.

Recently there was a problem in that the central display showed the message "Phone on" in place of its normal content. However, that reverted to normal after a few days.

 

[John202020]

Just a thought what happens if you remove the interior light bulb?
Report back?

 

[Baglady1990]

Ah forgive me ..it usually points to that issue looks like you may have a more in-depth issue

 

[Sparky29]

Just a thought what happens if you remove the interior light bulb?
Report back?

I'm currently tracing an earth fault on my daughter's 500 Twinair (see my post about Socket -what's this?) Her brake light and RH indicator light were glowing slightly all the time the ignition was on similar to the OP. I saw your post and switched the interior light to the central postion and lo and behold the fault seems to have gone. What do you think the issue is?

 

[John202020]

If you switch the light permanently on what happens?
You've checked the rear hatch loom?

 

[Sparky29]

The brake warning glows faintly

EDIT: I did some work on the rear hatch loom as it was faulty when we got the car - can't remember exactly what I did now - not a complete replace but enough to get rid of the warning

 

[John202020]

Would be interesting to see what the "voltage" on the earth wire is on the interior light ?

 

[Sparky29]

Ok. Will check that tomorrow.

I’ve just been out for a drive and the glowing brake warning is back. Interestingly when you switch the ignition off it fades in unison with the interior light so you are deffo onto something

 

[John202020]

Ok. Will check that tomorrow.

I’ve just been out for a drive and the glowing brake warning is back. Interestingly when you switch the ignition off it fades in unison with the interior light so you are deffo onto something

Hand brake ?