How's your wheel alignment?

If the blowout in the exhaust was bad resetting the ECU would get it adjusted instantly and maybe get results.

What kind of roads are you driving?

I do a relatively straight 12 mile run twice a day but drive fairly aggressively and average just over 36MPG in a 1.6.

Hi i have the 1.2 stilo on a motorway run with some town driving i get nearly 600 miles to a full tank and on my run to work and back 25miles each way classed as extra urban i get 45.2 mpg and round town about 35mpg a clean air filter will help along with new plugs and check exhaust for leaks as stilos are prone to leaking at the flexi pipe joint i also recommend a bottle of cataclean with 15litres of fuel as it cleans the injectors and cat and does work gfs on ebay sell it for 10.62 with free postage also check tyre pressures which are 1.9 bar all round for a 1.2 and also remeber stilos are prone to brakes grabbing so will use more fuel so a brake strip down and clean will help and highlight any issues for work my car will do 500 plus for 2 weeks with town driving and the fuel running is not much different to the 1.2 and the 1.4 baring in mind i have the 6speed box and make sure your city steering and aircon are off paul

clean it all out bud... Clean the throttle body then do a relearn... Pull the Neg lead off the battery over night... Give her a service, plugs and everything else, make sure theyre gapped right and after a couple of weeks see how youre getting on. Imho the 1.2s and 1.4s were a little too underpowered for the size of car but there was enough of them bought... What roads does your commute involve?

Cheers guys for the tips, must just need a degunking.
The "blow" was at the union between the flexipipe? and the midsection.
Ive just been out and unplugged the neg- terminal off the battery, will pop back on tomorrow. What effect does disconnecting the battery have? sorry im not much of a car tech.
Will check the plugs and see if they need doing, check the gapping, but arent plugs preset gaps nowadays?
would the plug housing need a good clean with contact cleaner.
is this cataclean really good, ive used redex in the past but without any real difference.
The route i take is 18 miles each way between north swindon and oxford/brize norton, so short dual carriageway, a lot of traffic lights for about 3 miles. then all a-road, (a361 i think) through blunsdon, highworth, lechlade. so quite a smooth run at 50 most of the way, i travel at early oclock in the morns so roads are usually quiet.
will do a brim to brim test soon..

pullin the Neg lead resets the ECUs 'learned' fuel maps and fuel trim values, usually it would be more beneficial to pull it after you have done everything else... Probably should have mentioned it before, sorry! If you have no history of the plugs being done Its Well worth doing them... Gap should be somewhere between 0.7-1.0mm when i get home Ill double check my NGK book for you consider puttin cruise control in Its well worth the investment and Its well documented on here! Id Expect higher than 34 on those roads If im honest... We'll all fix it together bud... Itll be worth it in the end

HAHA, thankyou.. im sure we will.
apart from the mpg, and the moody central locking its an alright car.
Not a rocketship by anymeans but it does me for what i need.
gonna look at it as a project car, i WILL et it up to 42mpg

on another unrelated note, has anybody slipped a little turbo under the bonnet of one of these, would liven it up a bit i reckon.
just an idea

its called a T-Jet and it was fitted to the latest Bravos

NGK Plugs...
1.4 16v 01/04-02/05 DCPR7E-N 0.9mm Gap
1.4 16v 02/05> DCPR7E-N-10 1.0mm preset gap

so the same plug but with different gaps depending on Manufacture date... strange but true!

a bit of light reading for you HERE

richydraper said:

its called a T-Jet and it was fitted to the latest Bravos

Click to expand...

The T-jet has a turbo though doesn't it

he asked has anyone slipped a turbo under a 1.4... Yes... fiat did, in the bravo, Its called a t-jet.

richydraper said:

he asked has anyone slipped a turbo under a 1.4... Yes... fiat did, in the bravo, Its called a t-jet.

Click to expand...

:doh:

yes cataclean does really work i had a mk3 cavalier which failed mot on emmisions so i put a bottle of cataclean in blasted it up the carriageway for about 20miles then back to garage within an hour of failing and laughed as the tester was scratching his head writing the pass mot he even asked what i did to bring them right down car ran better after that, i even put it in my stilo and increased mpg by 1.5 miles per gallon and again ran better and sailed mot on emissions so yes well worth it but only put in 15 litres of fuel max for best cleansing as it not only cleans injectors and fuel lines but cleans all lambada sensors and cat and throttle body and throttle response was better it also suitable in diesels too and i have known some cars with ecu lights on for lambada sensor for it to clean them and the light stayed off paul

Snake oil. Probably find it was 'the blast' which helped sort it.

some cleaners work as per Decks guide.

the theory behind it is that if the injectors are free of the deposits that build up over time then the spray pattern is as it was designed to be, giving better atomisation of the fuel resulting in higher MPG. ill be buying a bottle before MOT time along with a whole host of other bits to get her running right again. ive had my beloved for 2 years now and im starting to see the MPG drop so its time for action ive regularly had 45mpg out of her before now and its steadily tailed off to 39 recently.

heres the guide https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo-guides/183828-cleaning-injectors.html

That Comma injector stuff sounds worth a go.
I tried some new fuels recently to see if it would make a difference after the ECU reset thing, (disconnect neg term on batt overnight)
put £20 of Shell V-power in when tank was on vapours (ie range to empty was reading ---) and had been for about 20 miles
that gave me 168 miles until it was back to --- on the Range
then I put in £25 of shell fuelsave and its on 106 miles with 70 miles left on the range.
both of these fillups have been enough for a full 4 days shift commute of 19miles each way (152 miles per shift) with some short trips inbetween.
With the commute only being 19 miles the mpg starts low about 35.8 then climbs slowly to around 38.5 by the time i get to work
Is the short nature of the drive affecting the mpg as its not warmed up enough, But i did get a 41.8mpg the other day on the same journey driving the same way in similar traffic.
What could be causing such a variation:bang:

The only way to test mpg properly is to fill it up, wait until you have covered a good number of miles (200 would do) and then refill. Only this way will you have an accurate measure of fuel per mile. Don't trust the onboard computer, they're designed by programmers and can only give an approximate mpg (no disrespect to programmers, I used to be one myself).

:yeahthat:

Brim the tank and note the ODO. Drive and empty it. Fill again and note ODO and miles covered and Litres filled. Only accurate way to work out your MPG.

i had the 1.2 stilo and i to could get easily 500+ miles out of a tank.

what caused big MPG drops for me was (in order of biggest decrease):
flexipipe split
air intake mouth detaching from the top of the grill to hanging behind the radiator
air filter
just before a full service
crap tyres on steel wheels

Stop start driving at this time of year does nothing for economy, I only do about 7 miles each way to work at the moment, my engine is barely up to temp when its switched off, meaning i'm getting closer to 33-35mpg at the moment.

That said come the summer and some big drives and i'll not be a kick in the arse off 45mpg easy.

Worth a tank (not £20, a full tank) of V-power, or Tesco 99, or failing that Super-UL from any garage that does it. At this time of year you'll notice a nice fuel economy increase, in the range of 1-2mpg, car warms up a bit quicker too.

Variation could be down to anything. Maybe you percieved the traffic was the same but it wasn't. Was it dark v's day time, did you have lights on, heated rear windscreen, air-con, heater any of these on in comparision to a day when they were not on may make a difference in mpg. I drive with my sidelights on ALWAYS and it does make a small mpg difference but I'd rather have them on for safety and visibility.

Tyre pressure can make a differnce, and dependent on outside temp can affect pressure, so unless you check every day there is going to be some variance.

Seeing as i'm late to this party I felt the need to comment on the previous comment of any modern car with a modern small engine should do great mpg. Well they kind of do, my 1.2 can do 44mpg with a 6 speed box. I had a 1984 4-speed 1.3 Escort with a carb and it could do 40mpg easy.... why is this? Well the Escort weighed about 2/3 that of the Stilo. So the 1.2 Stilo engine is doing a great job really.

Thank you for the reply s fellas, managed to get it to a new low yesterday on the way home from work. 29.1 MPG literally watched the needle drag itself across the dial
The car has also began to feel like the engine is full of toffee or syrup, no punch whatsoever, press the accelerator and not a lot happens. there is a grumble from the front of the exhaust
The flange just in frontg of the "cat" i think it is in the pic was pi55ing water out and puffing, i recently gungummed the flange/join as it was leaking, but the gungum seems to have come away.
see the vid clip here> https://www.dropbox.com/s/e0l2uk2qoy0hgyj/2012-12-02 12.58.02.jpg
this i believe is the root of all problems here... is it an easy enough job for a garage to do a repair on this..:bang:
I cant be assed spending £30 + every four days going to work etc...
all suggestions welcome and appreciated as always... cheers

When i fitted my next exhaust I used a new Brava 1.4 exhaust gasket on that joint, its thin alloy, pinched it up and it doesn't blow as much as with just some exhaust paste. Might be worth a go. Reminds me I should go check and re-tention the studs if needed soon.

If the engine has no pull have you checked the air filter and if there is oil thats oil coloured (i.e not black it should be like honey if its really new, black if its finished and needs replacing badly).

Take it easy with the oil filter, messy bassid as its mounted side on, great fun priming it with some point before fitting and then it all runs down your arm because you have hardly any room to fit it on its side. So much room under the 1.2 bonnet and yet they stuck the oil filter in the one tight spot lol.

Oh also that joint might blow, but I don't think it should be pissing water and steam,certainly not on a warmed engine, if you've got clouds of white steam/smoke when you drive along I'd say head gasket failure on a waterway.