Took my Stilo Abarth in for its 12,000 mile service at Co-Op Fiat Derby yesterday. Gave them a small list of things that needed looking at, namely:-

Low-speed misfire on cold engine for first mile or so.

Occasional flashing up of 'Low oil pressure' on display.

Re-appearance of 'gunk' in radiator expansion tank - this was previously reported to them about 2 months ago, when it was cleaned out with 'no fault found' and told to keep an eye on it for any re-occurence, which it has.

Upshot of this was, was that the service manager came out to see me an hour later and informed me that the car's head gasket had gone. He admitted that I'd be right about my suspicions as to possible head gasket problems when I reported the gunk in the expansion tank two months ago.

I'm just pleased it didn't decide to fail 3 weeks ago when I was in deepest France.

He got me a Punto courtesy car, which I'm now having the 'pleasure' of driving around in whilst mine is off the road.

The cylinder head was due to be removed yesterday a few days ago[!] and sent away to a local firm for testing for cracks/warping etc. Depending on the result of that and also what my engine looks like with the head off, will depend on the course of action that will be taken:-

Replacing my existing head with a new gasket.

Replacing my cylinder head.

Replacing my engine.

In all honestly, I'd prefer the latter option, even if it takes longest to do. Having driven around with this problem existing for 2,000 miles with several 100MPH distance runs, I wonder as to whether any long-term damage has been caused to the engine - damage that will typically show itself 1 day out of warranty in a few years time.

If they don't replace the engine, whatever happens, I shall insist that they extend my warranty for a further year, to cover my intended ownership of the car. I really don't expect an engine to blow a head gasket at 12,800 miles and 9 months old

--
Neil Barker

I cannot see how you can expect a new engine when you repeatedly do 100mph in your car. I doubt if Fiat make a car that actually would not be effected by continual 100mph long journeys. This behaviour should only be
relegated to cars in the next specification bracket such as Audi or BMW.
This does not depricate Fiat as usually 100mph is not legal in many places.
john

sorry but i totally disagree with your comment johnturner.so your telling me fiat make different specs of engine tolerences for different countries relating to there speed limits?
fact is a modern engine doing only 12,000 miles with a blown head gasket shows a manufacturing fault/defect
regardless of how its driven,as long as the service intervals are maintained then by fiats own warrenty conditions then you would expect the engine not to blow the gasket.
unlikely to get a new engine but if i had a new car i would be wanting my engine'as new' and not be in the situation of having head work etc at such relativly low mileage

i have to strongly disagree 2...sorry..

i drove my 75elx punto doing 100mph every single time and is up ang going even after 150000 km on its dials...

concerning the development in the engine areas 100mph is fairly low...there is no way that this kind of speed woyld validate a cracked Head gasket..

I too will disagree - the Abarth unit has a top speed of 137mph or so - I regularly drive mine over legal limits, for great lengths of time - of course the engine can cope with it....

A 12k head gasket failure is very premature indeed.

Hold on guys, Neil Barker started this thread on 6th July, 2003.....Why has it been dug up again?

Have to agree with the others here, 100mph is about 4000 revs in the Abarth, I can't see any reason why that shouldn't be within the design limits for a modern engine. If Fiat wanted to restrict the engine speed they would lower red line or where the rev limiter kicks in.

Anyway, hope you get some luck with the garage, got to say I'd be gutted if mine blew up after such a short time...

Markio
(bright yellow Abarth, manual, 17" alloys, only a month old)

Stuart DemonD said:

Hold on guys, Neil Barker started this thread on 6th July, 2003.....Why has it been dug up again?

Click to expand...

nostalgia???

Bit odd though a HG going on a car with 12K on it ? - I wonder how hes doing now

johnturner said:

I cannot see how you can expect a new engine when you repeatedly do 100mph in your car. I doubt if Fiat make a car that actually would not be effected by continual 100mph long journeys. This behaviour should only be
relegated to cars in the next specification bracket such as Audi or BMW.
This does not depricate Fiat as usually 100mph is not legal in many places.
john

Click to expand...

WTF are you on about idiot ?

The car is listed as having a capability of doing 139MPH, legal on British roads or not. 100MPH is well within that and therefore the car is more than capable of doing that speed - all day long if necessary.

If it isn't, it's "not fit for the purpose" and can therefore be rejected under UK trading laws.

Prat.

Stuart DemonD said:

Hold on guys, Neil Barker started this thread on 6th July, 2003.....Why has it been dug up again?

Click to expand...

God knows, I've only just noticed.

Anyway, for those who don't know, the outcome was that a new engine was sourced from Italy and after several weeks, it finally arrived - I saw it in its crate.

This was then fitted and thus solved that particular problem. My car ended up off the road for 31 days - quite ridiculous.

I wasn't happy, though, with the performance of this engine - something just wasn't right and several mechanics at the garage agreed. They could find nothing wrong (but that's not exactly saying much....) and a few months later, after yet more aggro with other things (Selespeed box especially - leaving me with no gears, you'll know that one Stuart....), I changed it for a new one.

The deal was 'sweetened' somewhat by the car being bought as a 'staff' car and thus attracting approximately a 29% discount on list price. I was on their books as a 'technician' - well, at times I did seem to know more than them

I'm pleased to say that the Abarth I got last September hasn't missed a beat - this despite *cough* many 100MPH runs....

Neil Barker said:

This was then fitted and thus solved that particular problem. My car ended up off the road for 31 days - quite ridiculous....

Click to expand...

Hopefully my current debacle won't match this - at current rates, it may as well stay in there for its first MOT and 3rd year service.........

Noboby should be surprised at the lenght of stay for any car at the Fiat dealer in Derby.

My Punto had to have the pistons replaced (wrong size fitted in manufacture) and it took them 11 months to get round to getting the car in to do it and then had it for 38 days to do the job.

All together in 18 months my car has been in this dealership 54 days and a lot of those days I was told to take it away and re-book it as they always had to order parts and very often got the wrong parts.

And they call it service!!!

Ive had the same problems with my stilo 1.6 active sport, the car did 18,000 miles when i started to hear water during engine start, took to fiat in swansea and they were able to do my gasket in 2 days, still not happy with my car.

You know, I just had to pop back in and tell you a story....

I part-ex'd my Stilo Abarth in August 2008 and bought a 2.2TR D4D Toyota Avensis to replace it. OK, not as much 'fun', but your priorities in life tend to change as you get older (only 42 now!). It's basically been boringly reliable, with none of the 'little foibles' I had with the Stilo which necessitated almost weekly visits to a Fiat dealer....

Last August I had fault codes showing which ended up meaning the fuel injectors had to be changed - all under warranty and thank God too, as that would have been around £1600!

But, the real purpose of this update to this ancient thread, is that on Sunday I was driving north of Derby on the A38 when I noticed my car's temperature rising a little. The diesel engine in my car runs fairly cool and never climbs above half-way on the guage whatever you do. I turned back home to investigate and on opening the bonnet, could hear a small hiss between the engine block and radiator area with no obvious signs of a leak. I let it cool and topped the cooling system up - it took around 1.25 litres, which was a lot. This now explains why I've been hearing the cooling fan cutting in more, which I'd put down to it simply getting warmer.

I took it to Inchcape Toyota in Burton on Trent today and they quickly diagnosed it as head gasket failure!!!!

For those not aware, this isn't an uncommon thing with the Toyota 2.2 turbo diesel engine fitted to Avensises and the Lexus IS220.

My car is covered under an expensive Toyota extended warranty, but even if it wasn't they said that it would have been done FOC, as it's a known issue. This is good news, as replacing the head gasket on this engine is an engine-out job due to what's got to be moved. It may also affect other parts consequentially and they'll all be done too - thus it may end up with a new engine block, cylinder head, pistons etc.... They may also look at the clutch plate too, as oil can get blown onto it if the seal goes as a result of this happening apparently.

Thankfully, they're going to lend me an Auris HSD - hybrid electric car - when it goes in next Monday.

So, kind of ironic isn't it - I have head gasket problems with my previous Stilo and now I've got them with my Avensis. But I have to say, so far, this has been dealt with in an exemplary manner - not something I could ever accuse Fiat dealers of....