I've had a look around and couldn't find anything that quite fits in with the problems I'm having.

Where to begin...

Back in July I was driving along got my ECU light came on with a miss fire the AA tuned up diagnosed a faulty coil (No.3 I think) car was taken away to my local garage and new coil was fitted got the car back but it still wasn't driving right not giving full power while driving. Took it back to the garage they couldn't find any thing but I could hear a faint whistle while trying to accelerate but then before I took it back again a break light went out and after changing that and the light resetting itself on the dash the car went back to driving like normal.

2 Weeks ago while driving to work the ECU light came on but no change in the driving of the car.. The AA have been out again this time the fault showing up was fuel injector No.3 open circuit, Again car taken to local garage injector replaced they then test drove with the new injector no lights come on but I took the car home then on my journey the next morning I'd done approx 1.5miles ECU light comes on with major missfires car taken back into garage, they read error code which is now showing injector 1 with a fault they have now changed this and the faults jumped to number 4, number 4 has now been changed but the faults back on number 3.

I had the ECU replaced due to a dead short caused last time I had a coil go last Easter but that took the local Fiat dealer best part of a week to find.

Has any one had this kind of problem before or is it some form of demon whos taken to live in my cars electrics? any advice would be appreciated

You should be losing faith in your local garage and not so much with the Stilo as your car is accurately telling what is wrong but the garage is misdiagnosing or just plain guessing, changing components and hoping for the best and that's very expensive for you but very nice for the local garage. They are misdiagnosing ( if there is any diagnosis going on at all) and changing components that don't need changing

An injector open circuit is a starting point to find out why there is an open circuit and not to simply change injectors. The reason it's going from one injector to another is because it's not the injector that is at fault. When they change the injector and clear the codes then it's just a matter of time before it happens again

It sounds much more like an ECU related fault so first step is get the actual fault codes numbers

I had something similar on my 1.4 Stilo, It was more prominent during the winter months though. For months, every time I started the car up from cold, the car would misfire from anywhere around 10 to 40 seconds, and would occasionally prompt a flashing ECU warning light on the dash, this would flash for a further 10 seconds after the misfire had disappeared. I never got this checked out, as at the time, my partner and I were purchasing essentials for a newborn. I put this fault down to a head gasket failure as at the time I was loosing coolant.

This problem persisted for at least 3 months, and occasionally would produce a solid ECU warning light (along with the flashing) but by Feb this year, It seemed to clear itself, even though I was still loosing coolant.

Hope you get this issue sorted soon.

Little update on this though really im no further forward, Thursday night I decided to take it out from the local garage and put it in with the fiat garage.

Yet more problems they had to take and injector back out as the aa or me hadn't authorised that work to be done so i was told that it would be ready for collection on Friday morning, morning comes and goes. Friday afternoon still nothing give them a call oh yes its his next job will be ready for you to collect this afternoon still gets very close to closing time still nothing another phone call and the car is still in some kind of dismantled state as it now wont start!!

Today one way or another even if I have to have it towed from this garage I will be getting it back and taken away again..

Two weeks on I miss my car, causes no end of problems with getting to and from work.

I'm covered with breakdown repair cover with the AA so so far this has cost me only £25 but its cost the AA £250 + should they really have to pay if the works done haven't cured the original problem and in fact have made it worse? I know this is where I ask about my car but is this now getting beyond just being about my car but being about a ethics and workman ship? they are a franchised garage for quite a large company should I be complaining to the company whose name they are working for?

I will be getting the documentation today with the fault codes that the AA had read when they first inspected I'll post them up later today

Got my car from the local garage told that it was running and I could drive it to the Fiat garage...

Or maybe not less than 300yards from the garage engine managmant light pops back up and missfires so so bad. The AA have been and recovered me again (they are my 1st emergency service at the minute not 4th)

They have read the fault codes again before towing me off to the fiat dealer and fault code P0203 came up i think he said injector number 3 again.

Any one have any info on this code? hopfully I will be able to give a positive bit of news monday after the dealers had a chance to diagnose what tehy find is up with it.

Ok you are off first base, you have the fault code P0203 Injector Circuit Malfunction - Cylinder 3

But bear in mind this is an injector CIRCUIT malfunction and not necessarily an injector fault


First thing I would do is get to injectors connector D81 (black one shown above)
12v is supplied with ign on to all injectors and ECU supplies earth to each injector to make it operate. DisconnectD81, clean contacts with electrical contact cleaner (nothing else) let dry and reconnect

12v is supplied with ignition on to all injectors via D81 pin 3 (that's the big one in the middle) from fuse F17 7.5A. Then ECU triggers an earth to each injector to make it pulse

So if the ECU has a poor connection to earth then the injector circuit will also suffer

Have a look in the Stilo Guides as I made a guide in there of how to check your injector circuits

Thanks for the info and guide, My car was taken away to the Fiat dealer so I did not get a chance to have a look but should it re-appear I will look there first.

Not sure how but turns out by Fiat changing my coill number 4 everything is running smoothly again and getting power when powers needed happy days

However they did carry out a health check on my car while it was in and there is still some work to be done Drivers side ball joint and passengers side track rod end need replacing. £366 for them to do both seems expensive I have had a search through the forums and materials wise looks quite inexpensive are they hard jobs to DIY it? And should both sides be done at the same time or is it just the ones that I have been ? im needing new tyres soon so could get the tracking done then?

One other thing they did bring up were my springs they say the either look like the wrong ones have been fitted or they are upside down based on the shape of them any one heard of this before? Im going to try and get some photos tonight if im home before it gets too dark

Thank you all so far for your help in this its been great!!

Not surprised, faulty coils can throw up some wierd faults.

Odd, or wrongly installed springs is quite possible. Stilos have had a problem with breaking springs and a previous owner may have made a bodge job of replacing.

On your need for new suspension parts, think about buying genuine FIAT parts. Several people on here have had issues with so-called 'cheap' alternatives that turn out not to do the job. Shop4parts supply OEM stuff and give a discount to forum members.

Quick further update,

I think im going to need to go back to deckchairs post re the signal from the injector number 3 as I have had this come up again since having it back but the car seems to drive as it should still, I did have one code come up on Saturday which caused the revs to go up and down between 400-1300 revs but again the car went back to normal I did read the code off but my girlfriend seems to have lost the paper it was written down on (I think it was p0408 but that's just a guess) Its description was a sensor related the the cat but again loosing the paper I cant give any more info must just hope either it doesn't come back or I take it down fully the next time.

Got all parts for the front end everything seemed to go well, apart from the issue with my nearside rear caliper wont hold with the handbrake on, I took it into the garage who advised me that originally the thought it was the cable that was suspect but on stripping it down found the cable was operating fine and it was the caliper itself that's suspect, but this is now changed still its having an issue. This is what I have had explained to me it pulls on square but when releasing one side is not fully releasing leaving the 'T' section not at a right angle as it should be? does any one have any suggestions as im due to MOT this at the weekend and have a feeling as its not holding fully on 6 clicks im up to about 9 or 10 to get it to hold and been advised this is a failure, also im pretty suire this isnt going to be healthy for the car either.

Once again many thanks
Ben

I don't know what work you've had done on the rear brakes but a common mistake is when a rear cable needs replacing is to only replace one side, they stretch a lot over time and need to be both replaced at the same time otherwise you end up with the T force balancing bar connection all one sided and very uneven handbrake force. As a temporary measure you could put a spacer in there to even up the forces but if one side cable has snapped or has been replaced then you need to get another new cable in the other side too


The other common mistake which affects the handbrake efficiency is when replacing brake pads or discs or calipers etc that you need to back off the handbrake tensioning nut at the rear of the handbrake lever and then start the engine and stomp on the brakes quite a few times to ratchet up the brakes to the discs THEN tighten the handbrake tensioner so both rear brakes act together

With evenly stretched cables, footbrake used to adjust up the pads to the discs and the correct retensioning then both sides should feel like new

Thanks for this not so long ago I had the rear pads done when I had asked for the handbrake to be adjusted. And just yesterday the NSR calliper was changed it had been over tightened in the adjustment but still they couldn't get the rear calliper to operate as it should,

This is with the handbrake on


This is with the handbrake released



Im no mechanic but I would like to try to sort this myself if possibly to save on a little money as its cost me quite a bit recently from the previous post is my understanding correct.
1 Have the car on a level surface of chocked so it wont roll
2 Release the handbrake?
3 Loosen the tensioning nut (3turns?)
5 Start the engine pump brakes firmly 15(ish) times
6 Re tighten the tensioning nut?

Morning All,
Further update finally got my car in for its MOT this morning hand brake sailed through after adjusting it (thanks deckchair)

However not all good news I have an advisory my front brake balance is just about on the limit, and also rear exhaust has slightly deteriorated and aksi has a minor leak of the exhaust gases.

And also failed on emissions
Fast Idle Test CO Level =0.39% Fail - 0.30
Second Fast Idle Test CO Level =0.52% Fail - 0.30
Everything else is a pass on the emissions could this be something to do with the leak on the rear of the exhaust?
Also my Nearside headlamp aim too low and offside headlamp aim too high and far to the right can I adjust these myself? and if so what am I looking for to level them off too?

Again any help would be greatly apreciated
Ben

If you've not already done so, to help get through the emmissions test: change oil and filter, fit new plugs and air filter, and make sure the car is really hot when you hand it over for the test...

i also find a 'strong' dose of redex depletes emissions enough to get it thru a test when they are THAT close (my cinq was running over the figures you posted)... i put half a bottle in 15litres (ish) of fuel, hooned it round some country lanes and kept the revs around 3k before he asked me to pull back onto the ramps for testing... Passed with flying colours (0.17% iirc)

Redex FTW

Hello, further up date I had the spark plugs, oil and air filters all changed but failed on my o2 emissions again (headlights are ok now though every cloud and that) but again I have my ECU light with the code P0203 could this be causing my emmsions to be high if for some reason the fuel is not being burnt correctly? I took it back to fiat on monday but that light had gone again and they said to take it back when the light comes back on 6 miles from the garage light comes back on but the garage was closed by this time start up the next morning the lights gone again so the fiat garage will tell me again its a historical fault and needs to be present when I take it in, only problem is its due in tomorrow and still the lights not on again.

Your P0203 injector circuit malfunction will certainly make an emissions failure more likely. But bear in mind there may be nothing wrong with the injector, it's a warning of a circuit malfunction. I'd really be focussing on the wiring between ECU and injector No 3, damage to insulation, kinks, burn marks

I'm staggered that a mechanic is so blinkered that they cannot fault find without having a fault code actually stored, especially as there is a history of P0203 coming up. Stone me, the guy needs an oxygen sensor stuck up his backside and a guide dog

With your emissions then it's always worth posting up the complete emissions results. What do you mean by O2 emissions failure? O2 would be nice for the environment
So do you mean CO which is nasty stuff or do you mean exhaust lambda?

Some injector cleaner is cheap and might be a first step to run through your injectors to clean off any debris. Then ideally you want to scope the flagged injector No 3 and compare its voltage or current trace with a known good one

Sorry yes it is CO not O2 would be a nice car to pump that out readings were
First Time
Fast Idle Test CO Level =0.39% Fail - 0.30
Second Fast Idle Test CO Level =0.52% Fail - 0.30
Second Time
Fast Idle Test CO Level =0.37% Fail - 0.30
Second Fast Idle Test CO Level =0.48% Fail - 0.30

Fiat have just this minute called me up and im being told that its definatly a problem with the injector and I have to take it back to where its been fitted here we go more more parts being thrown at the problem. :bang:

Wasn't that injector No.3 replaced in Sep as in your post No 1? Where you were still getting P0203 after it was replaced? And does the garage know this?

Did you check the injector resistances as in the Stilo guide?

A misfire would certainly put your CO emissions over the edge. You had your plugs replaced, any idea what brand are in there? Not Bosch super 4s are they?

It was, and the first garage checked the resistance of the then faulty injector number 3 and it was all within what appeared to be normal.

Im going to borrow a multimeter from work and see if I can check the resistances myself

I have told the garage that its in of the full history of this and still they are coming back with its the injector its self that at fault.

The spark plugs fitted are purchased from shop4parts fiat badged?

The spark plugs fitted are purchased from shop4parts fiat badged?
They'll be good then

OK let's hope they've diagnosed it right with the injector change