Hi all
Just recently joined the world of fiat owners after buying a 2003 3dr stilo jtd dynamic. Is in lovely condition and drives great, recent problem that has just popped up is the preheat warning message along with the glow plug symbol lit up. The car starts and drives as normal but this message comes up a few seconds after starting the engine. Spoke with local fiat dealership who said it's either a simple replacement of the plugs or it may be the control unit.
As I've always done most of my own car maintenance so I thought I'd have a bash at doing the plugs myself. Never had a diesel before tho plus I can't seem to locate a Haynes manual for the stilo, so thought I'd get a little bit of advice from you guys as to the process of doing the plugs myself?
Any advice is most welcome, cheers
Nick

If you search for glow plugs you should find loads of threads on the subject. From memory I think only one is an issue due to parts in the way but I had fiat do mine

check the guides section.

https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo-guides/

Doh! Cheers fellas, didn't think to look there, obviously got my blond head on today!

mexnick said:

Hi all
Spoke with local fiat dealership who said it's either a simple replacement of the plugs or it may be the control unit.

Click to expand...

Another thing it could be is one of the wires from the control unit to each glow plug. One or more of these could have a bad connection or simply dirty. I had the preheat fault message for a while and in my case it was simply a dodgy/dirty connection. I even changed the control unit and that fixed it for a while but it came back intermittently. So it would be worth checking each wire that attaches to each plug and make sure there's a good connection and not dirty.


Phil

I have the same car and had the same fault come up with mine after trying to clean the erg valve and making the original of problem of black smoke worse. In the end I took it to a fiat specialist and the mechanics blanked off the e.gr valve with a plate and remapped the cpu. (It's not an essential engine part and is only there to reduce emissions at expense of your engine)

You can buy the plates on ebay for a few quid and can fit it easily over the valve to check if it is that or not.

hope you find the problem.

Rob

. Spoke to fiat who said that before they replace the glow plugs they advised doing a diagnostics first (£120 + vat), because if they change the plugs and the problem still there they're not liable (£188 to replace the plugs). Have read through the link sent above about checking the electrics side of it with a multi meter, my one is 200 miles away at a mates but back up there in a week or so and will try the suggested procedure then. If that all checks out then will try the latest suggestion. Car drives fine as it is, the warning light drops out after 30 seconds and still seems to start ok so hopefully will have enough time to do my own checks. Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated!