Hello dear friends,
I recently bough Fiat Stilo 1.6 16v year:2002. The car is great and I love it !
Unfortunatelly, i have a problem and I really would appreciate you help to solve it.
For unknown reasons the car does not start from time to time. For 3 moths that I have it happened about 10 times. It is different every time - sometimes it starts on the second or third try, sometimes it does not start no matter how many times I try, but if I leave it and come back about 15 min later it starts as noting happened! Yesterday it was horrible! It did not start no for the numerous times that i tries. I left the car for 30-40 min but nohting when i got back. Once before friends pushed me and I started the car on gear and I tried it yesterday but the car jumped and did not start again ?!:bang: We tried 3 times until it started!

What I can describe as symptoms:
- Always does this when the car has reached optimal temperatura - 90deg and I leave the car for about an hour. When I come back tha car has some heat left but not that much. Every time it is like that!
- When I finally start the engine you can clearly smell gasoline

Assumptions:
- Problem with the key - not turning of the imobileser and fills the engine with gasoline not ignited ( but the lamp on the dash turns off )
-Injectors not holding fuel and fills the engine with fuel after I stop or before I start the engine ( while waiting for the check)
-Because heat matters in my case ( never had the problem on cold car) I assume that a sensor is not working properly, may be the one in the cooling system which tells the car if it is hot or not and calculates the revs. (but i don think that it can flood that much the engine with fuel that it wont start)

The car runs great. It has power and is really nice driving! No problems when started ! I have ELM 327 and With FiatEcuScan no errors are written in the computer after the problem occurs. There were several stored erros first time it happened, but after cleaning no new are written !

Thas is what I can tell you. I tried searching for a simillar problem, but no luck. I would be grateful if you could share experience or suggestion on the topic.

Thanks !

Iv had the same problem with my mothers car not that long ago. It turned out that the battery was shot and the plugs were really bad.

I would try the common checks first. i.e.: battery, spark plugs, leads for starting issues.
As in heaters I would say thermostat, but as you are getting heat then I would say thats ok, but as it is not holding the temperature up then it might need changing.

Those are common things that you could do and check yourself.

When was the last time your car had its spark plugs changed?
Also if you open the bonnet and have a look a the battery, it should have like a circle on it and a colour co ordinator diagram. That shows if the health of the battery is good or not.

Battery is brand new, bought it end of December because previous died.

Sparks were checked and were OK when I bought the car begining of Dec, even if they there is problem with one of them I think the car will still manage to start on 3 cyl or not ?

Thermostat - i don think so - car reaches (in my opinion) fast optimal temp having in mind it is cold outside. Also once reached 90 deg holds the temp and doesn't drop.

Thanks for the ideas. Maybe what I can do is go and check all sensors if their cables are OK. Can someone help with info which one have something to do with starting the engine ?

Any other ideas ?
Please share any toughts it would be helpful

i had a similar problem, at first car would start from cold, once it had warmed up if i turned the engine off it would not start again until it cooled, i replaced the battery but no change, it would also display loose conection on the dash display, i discovered it was the rpm sensor, 41 pounds from euro car parts there is info under loose connection on this forum iope that helps you. pat6geîrts

Yes it'll be the rpm sensor. But you most likely don't need to buy a new one, it's simply just too far away from the pick up ring. It's just an electro magnet and at the moment it's right on the edge of being able to detect the engine is turning over and at the wrong temperature it's just too much of a gap. If it doesn't detect the engine is at minimum rpm then it doesn't allow fuel and sparks. Simply move it in closer to the pick up ring, being able to just slide a paper business card in the gap is just perfect

Do a search and you'll see how to do it

Thank you guys!
Today I bought new crankshaft sensor. Went to mechanic to change it and when he put the new one error on the dashboart "Loose connection" appeared. We reset the phonic wheel by computer but nothing. Car still managed to start with the new sensor but not rev over 4000rpm. So what we did is put back the old one, reset phonic wheel learning and everything was OK !!! What turned out after some checks is that the new one is not working!!!
We measured the gap and with both sensors its 1mm.
So correct me if I am wrong but if car manages to start even with faulty sensor it might not be caused by the same or ? :bang:

The "loose connection" warning will be because there was not a good electrical connection to the rpm/crank sensor. You haven't got a phonic wheel on a 1.6 engine but that doesn't matter, if you did a throttle relearn then that's ok

Your problem might be a poor connection at the rpm sensor connector. When you put the new sensor in then the connection probably became even worse. A 1mm gap between the sensor and the pick up ring is good. I'd check the voltage signal output from the rpm sensor

The mechanic checked the sensor. The old one had signal, the new one did not.

Changed spark plugs today. What do you think about the condition of the old ones in the attachment?

SypheRrr said:

Changed spark plugs today. What do you think about the condition of the old ones in the attachment?

Click to expand...

Seen worse, they look quite clean to be honest, depends on the gap it has (should be 0.8 - 0.9 mm, just enough to slide in a bank card and not be tight).

Andy

So far so good. No problem for the moment. Lets hope that I fixed it

A good example about how difficult it is to find the fault in modern(ish) cars... I almost miss the 80's models . So much less places to examine.

jaakkoilkka said:

A good example about how difficult it is to find the fault in modern(ish) cars... I almost miss the 80's models . So much less places to examine.

Click to expand...

True... true...

The problem appeared again...

The car just floods her self from time to time when starting. Hapens only when there is heat left in the engine. Never on cold or hot engine. When I try to start it just turns over and nothing. Tried to start it with acc pedal floored ( clear flood mode) and it starts on the 3-4 try. And it smells petrol sooo bad - so clearly flooded...

Any ideas ?

P.S. Does the car has a stepper motor ( I don't know it is called that) - the part responsible for the idle rpm of the car. Somethimes when driving very very rare but happens, I drive with 2500 rpm and swith to neutral the car holds 2000rpm or so for a good 2-3 seconds and than slowly drops. If the stepper motor is responsible for the idle could it be that when there is some heat in the car the mottor should open to specific amount of petrol and happens so that it is stuck somehow and it gets too much fuel. After trying to start several times it is corrected and engine just needs to clear the flood in the cyl, Sorry for the stupid description but just toughts that i wanted to share.

I'm a bit lost. Does the 1.6 Stilo has a idle control mottor or it is directly controlled by the computer ? If it has where it is and how does it look ? Can someone help ?

No, the Stilo 1.6 throttle body is controlled directly by the ecu for idle rpm control and does not have a seperate idle stepper motor.

Thanks

a couple of things that will control fuel volume are the coolant temp sensor and the air temp sensor... may just be worth checking resistance values to eliminate them from the equation... also have you tried a throttle relearn?