(T) Tyre wear update

After months of arguing with Fiat customer services and my garage about my rear tyres wearing on the outside and the fronts on the inside they have finally replaced the rear axle under warranty at a cost of £650 and after further arguing agreed to pay 50% of the cost of the 2 rear tyres but not the fronts as I don't have a receipt for them

The car has done 21k and is 2 1/2 years old. So for anyone out there with an early model don't let them hit you with the old arguement that your car is too old/ covered too many miles. If you keep at them you'll get there. The irony is even after the 50% discount for the 2 tyres it was still cheaper to go to costco and get Michelins! (£48 supplied and fitted for Michelin Energy E3a's - Brilliant deal). So I got 4 new tyres fitted at costco and thought sod Fiat and their offer - I'm never using a dealer again unless I have to.

Another cracker was that the dealer says that they don't stock or sell the standard 195/ 65/ R15 tyres - Fiat dealers not stocking the tyres for the cars they sell, funny that!

Anyway to cut a long story short, does anyone know if the new rear axle cures the issue with the front tyres as well or is there something else that needs to be done or is the faulty rear axle causing the front tyre issue to. I'd hate to think I've done all four corners for the same to happen again!

ps I picked up this flier at the dealer the other day. Call me cynical but is this not so ironic after all the carry on?

http://img3.exs.cx/img3/8096/Tyres.jpg

Cheers cmc

Hi
I have had the same problems as you,had the 4 wheel check which sorted the front and a few weeks ago had the rear axle replaced all on the third year warranty with no problems from the dealer or Fiat all done at first request. it seems to have sorted out the problems also improved the handling and they also replaced all 4 tyres without asking.
Mick

Mick

that's good to hear. At least there's still some good dealers out there! You wouldn't beleive the hassle I've had convincing my dealer that this is a genuine issue. Who's your dealer? - so everyone with the same problem knows. I had to take Whatcar? magazine down (which highighted the fault in the August issue) to demonstrate to them that it was a widespread design fault before thy beleived me!

cmc

Hi
My dealer is Middleton garage near Bognor regis its only a small place but you get good service from them, I have had most of the stilo glitches but all sorted at first go. My one will be 3 years old in March and it will be replaced with a new one even if they have taken off some of the standard kit.
Mick

regarding fromt tyre wear on inside,took my stilo to sidwell motor co in exeter yesterday,5/10/04they took car into garage adjusted upper and lower wishbones and retracked car tyres as parallel.steering doesnt pull to left anymore,and i get less noise from front.willadvise about tyre wear later.all work done under warrenty.

Hi all, Im on my 2nd set of fronts, due to inside edge wear.

The car was in for a day with Fiat Hayes back in june, and they assured me that the problem was corrected with new camber/tracking adjustments.
The chap at the garage said the prob should not occur again, but check the tyres in about 1000 miles.
Since June ive done 900 miles and guess what, they are still wearing on the inside edge(I must admit, not as bad as the first set, but still not right) and now ive noticed the back tyres are wearing on the outside edges.

Ive been reading through all the tyre problem threads and saw some pretty serious work done under warranty(back axle changed!) but I still cant figure out how to get the problem sorted once and for all.
My motor is in its third yr warranty.

Is it worth me phoning fiat H/O to moan or am I wasting my time, as the dealers ive visited(HAYES/THAMES SLOUGH) dont seem to have a solution.

Any feedback will be good.

Kaiton

Fiat customer services are pretty useless to be honest. There effectively a call centre with absoliutely no technical expertise. There is a technical bulletin out on this problem but there has been a bit of a debtate on here as to whether the modification actually works!

The faults should be covered under the third year but I wouldn't let it go unchecked outside of the 3rd year as despite the fact it's a design flaw I don't think you'll get much joy in getting it fixed - go back and complain I did time after time after and made a nuisance of myself until I got some action. I would suggest demanding to speak to the Fiat area rep or getting your garage foreman to do so if they won't let you. Every region has one of these guys and he should be aware of the problem or will know who exactly to speak to in Fiat technical to get an answer/ resolution. I've had a new axle and I've been assured the issue is no rectified, Im going to keep an eye on the tyres nevertheless. Good luck.

Hope this helps.

cmc

Cheers CMC, thats a great help, Ill post a a reply assoon as I have any action from fiat.

Thanks again.

Bought a stilo arbarth 2 months with 6500 miles its now at 10000. date of first reg mar 2003, after reading about rear axels needing replaced i am starting to have real misgivings about buying it in the first place as it seems to constantly need attention, not as powerful as expected and drinks fuel at an alarming rate conpared to performance, Can anyone let me know if my car is one of the early models with the axel problem?

have they sorted your sensor fault prob out yet or is it still ongoing

Hi,

I have just bought an 02 registered Stilo, so was a little concerned by this thread. Having checked the tread the wear seems fairly even. Is it a problem that only affected some cars, as I doubt the previous keeper would have had this rectified.

Thanks for any info.

As far as im aware this tyre wear issue affected all stilo's but in the main abarth's suffered the worst affects.

front tyre wear = adjustment of front lower arms and tracking to be re-calibrated(best results with new tyres)
rear tyre wear = new rear stub axle's first! then if this does not cure the fault then a new axle + tracking (again new boots for best results)

Hope this info helps

Andy

I never got the sensor fault sorted, gave up in the end after numerous new parts being replaced. I just fill it up from half empty now.

To date I've had about £1,300 of warranty work done on the car. new axle, new fuel pump, new fuel sensor, new glove box, new instrument panel etc, etc. Hopefully the tyre wear is now sorted that's my biggest worry.

cmc

I have an 02 Stilo which I bought second hand. I noticed excessive wear on the inside of the front tyres, after long discussions (arguments) between my Fiat garage and the Citreon dealer I got the car from, I had the front tyres changed and the car was tracked.

I had the knocking from the rear axle problem and the axle was changed. However, somehow I got an axle fitted that wore out the outside edge of the rear driver's (I think) tyre, another axle was fitted and all seemed well. The car certainly drove and cornered considerably better. And I got new tyres FOC which cannot be bad!

But, and I think there is always a but with Stilos, I had a puncture repaired on the rear passenger side yesterday and noticed the tread was really worn almost down to the TWIs, which I think is excessive for the 13K miles the tyre has done. The garage checked all the other tyres and it seems the NS front and rear tyres are wearing faster than the OS tyres and are wearing a little unevenly.

I've now done 36K and I will have a chat with the FIAT dealer and see what they say, they have been quite good so far, so we'll see.

Chris

my stilo (bought in march this year) already needs the front tyres changing after 13,000 miles. maybe this is normal and due to my driving style - but this does seem very little miles for a pair of tyres, if anyone agrees?