Creating a Members motor's thread, so copied from the Stilo section!

11th May 2013:
Hi Everyone,

Long time lurker and general "taker" from the Fiat Forum so I thought I could give something back in the form of a project.
The project will be a reasonably slow one, due to me being in the process of buying my first house & having an uphill struggle with my better half, convincing her we don't need to sell the car to fund the conveyancing!

The car is a 2002, 3 door Stilo JTD. The aim of the game is to initially refurbish and service the whole thing, then move onto upgrading the head unit to the Connect Nav+, the Abarth clocks and the climate thing, throw in some leather for good measure and then when all is said and done, give the thing a respray and hope to have the best OEM Stilo for miles around (that's the plan)

Jobs list looks like this:
1. Cam belt kit
2. Gearbox mount
3. Make the air con work
4. New disks and pads + full fluid change
5. General service with high end consumables (especially now I'm feeding him Shell V-Power Nitro Diesel, as opposed to Tesco finest)
6. Eliminate as many squeaks, rattles and vibrations as possible
7. Find & Exterminate as many electrical gremlins as is humanly possible
8. Fit Abarth interior + cruise control. Then throw a Subwoofer in
9. Source and fit leather seats
10. Refurbish wheels and fit premium tyres
10. Panel by panel replace if necessary and respray (probably 1 per month based on budget)

Pictures to follow

11th May 2013:
first of many questions!

The car rides lovely - on perfect tarmac. Add potholes to the equation and the ride becomes a lot less pleasurable.

When the car hits a pot hole, there is a large thud that translates to lots of vibration through out the car. As far as i know it's on the original springs/dampers.

Are the original springs/dampers the only set up available that keep the same ride height and rebound rate? The car is by no means a track car, and spends its time wafting up and down the M5 & around town, so I want to make this as comfortable as enjoyable as possible.

What else translates to vibration reduction and a softer ride?
I will be doing the gearbox mount. I've heard powerflex bushes are not the best for comfort, so is there a brand that does comfort, or am i better off with new Fiat bushes?

13th May 2013:

After many nights of hoping and praying, I have not succeeded in making my Stilo predisposed with Cruise control.

Having brought a Alfa stalk I was hoping it would be plain sailing, however it seems not.
Had a quick look under the batter cover, couldn't see the brown cable... try again when its not hanking down with hail.
Crossed fingers for being at least semi predisposed.

27th May 2013:

Cruise control fitted

Really happy with it, wasn't believing everyone when they said "It'll surprise you when you first switch it on" but blimey it is a strange sensation!

Mine was probably one of the more awkward ones, it was a semi, all wired up to the brown D4 connector but still had to put a 12v to the black D4!

Need to decide on job number 2 now...

Update 10th July 2013:

Not much has happened since the last updates, on the plus side my girlfriend and I have just exchanged contracts on our first house, so funds are tight!

Since the last update I've been driving the car a lot, really enjoying the cruise control!
The car is due an MOT in August so i need to prepare for that soon, the car will also want a service too in 1200miles.

Today I tried to change my rear wiper... My Oh My what a job. I thought "I can manage this without a extractor". No, I couldn't!

Here's a picture of my old wiper:


In the end I separated the wiper at the joint and fitted the new section with the new blade, picture here to explain:


And here is a picture having wiped it's first wipe:


I also thought that I would include a few up to date pictures, to show just how much of a state the car is in to inspire me to crack on!

Left:



Right:


I've got terribly flat & filthy paint, the car needs a good detail, but the calender is looking terribly full at the moment :


Need a new cluster:


Boot lock is totally seized, unable to insert a key. It also seems there is rust under the paint:


Anyone know how to stop these 'tears' from the wing mirrors?:



Nice dent from my local recycling lorry:


Bonnet is more rippled and lumpy than the Malverns:


Car park dings/dents:


Wheels faring well however!:


Spoiler not so:


Buttons collapsing in on themselves:


Anyone know the best course of action for poor condition MyCar buttons?:


ICE before I fit the CN+:


And my best addition so far:


Just wish I could get this bugger back on:


Thanks for looking!

Looking nice dude! Love the wheels

I'll sell you my spare My Car buttons if you want them, the plastic is carbon wrapped

I like the front bumper addition, did you add that or did yours come with it?

Mark

MarkThompson4 said:

Looking nice dude! Love the wheels

I'll sell you my spare My Car buttons if you want them, the plastic is carbon wrapped

I like the front bumper addition, did you add that or did yours come with it?

Mark

Click to expand...

Thanks mate!

I will leave the buttons for now, i'm am skinted at the moment!

I was hoping somebody would be able to tell me what front bumper it is actually? I brought it off some πkey in Liverpool.


On another note. I'm intending to change the cambelt as soon as funds allow, so what should I do in conjunction with it to make it last as long as possible?
Belt, Tensioner, Waterpump, what else?

Thanks!

Right, havent updated this in a while so time for an update.

September, October and November were busy months, mainly with moving house etc but the car was due it's MOT so I knew i would be kept busy with the car!

The car had new rear calipers, disk's and pads as well as 2 new handbrake cables and a full brake fluid flush. Wouldn't like to say how much it cost, but it all added up getting the correct tools for doing it again in the future.

It failed it's MOT on a few bulbs, airbag warning light and loose battery cable.

Corrected the warning light with a registered copy of MES, a soldering iron and a OCS emulator. Bulbs, easy and battery cable was a case of a strip of metal around the terminal to make things "snug"

So, my to do list is looking like this:

1. Cam belt kit
2. Gearbox mount
3. Make the air con work
4. New disks and pads + full fluid change √
5. General service with high end consumables (especially now I'm feeding him Shell V-Power Nitro Diesel, as opposed to Tesco finest) √
6. Eliminate as many squeaks, rattles and vibrations as possible
7. Find & Exterminate as many electrical gremlins as is humanly possible √
8. Fit Abarth interior - Then throw a Subwoofer in
9. Source and fit leather seats
10. Refurbish wheels and fit premium tyres
10. Panel by panel replace if necessary and respray (probably 1 per month based on budget)
11. Cruise control √

The wipers failed the other day, so i have just fixed that with the new pushrods from Wipex. Lovely 20 minute job - be nice if they were all so easy.

I appear to have a small oil leak too that needs investigating... hopefully that can wait until the new year :worship:

Dude, my buttons are doing the same thing.

It's so annoying! Have you found a solution yet?

Would it be easy to replace the buttons do you think?

stilostilo said:

Dude, my buttons are doing the same thing.

It's so annoying! Have you found a solution yet?

Would it be easy to replace the buttons do you think?

Click to expand...

It's straightforward to replace the buttons, remove the fusebox cover by removing the four screws holding it on then pull it out the way. You'll see the screws holding the buttons in place once it's out the way I'll sell you mine as I'm breaking my Stilo, I have two sets of the button controls, PM if you're interested.