Good day,

Found lots of info about my gremlins on the car, but i have few questions to ask, that makes me confused.

I should probably mention this in the beginning. I recently swapped manual heater matrix with digital one. As i was doing that i also replaced faulty thermostat (it was always open, my car barely reaches working temperature)
The digital climate control and thermostat works as they should.
My car: 2002 1.6 Petrol.

Now about the gremlins, i have 3 gremlins..

Gremlin #1 Reverse lights and rear wiper (when front ones are on and i put gear in reverse) doesn't work. Probably i forgot something to connect...
Does anyone could confirm me this? Fuses for reverse lights are F30 + F31?
And the connector for reverse lights + wiper is one of 3 connectors on the back of the fuse box? Is there any other shared fuse?

Gremlin #2 Radiator Cooling fan doesn't show any signs of life. Long story short.. my car started to heat past normal temp. so i took the car to mechanic, the fault was the cooling fan itself (giving direct power it doesn't spin) it was replaced with a working one. After that i got my A/C tested and refilled. The magnetic clutch engages, works few secs, turns of, couple seconds later it engages again, but the fan doesn't kick in. So the pressure rises too high so the clutch turns of.
Should the fan turn on at speed 1 or at full speed? when i turn on A/C?
After the cooling fan swap i haven't hear or see it work (i keep popping the hood to see ) my car hasn't overheated since. Is relay T7 and fuses F7/F6 only used for cooling fan?

Gremlin #3 The mysterious "beep beep, loose connection, ASR/ESP failure, sometimes with alternator failure..."
Sometimes the car cuts out, with those messages. While driving, in idle, even when the key is set to MAR.
The error that keeps popping out after every cut out is C1521 CAN communication problem. (there are few other errors, but mechanic told me this one is most important and it causes cut outs)

Symptoms:
Seems to cut out while engine is cold or hot. One cut out usually fallows by another one. Cuts out if the key is turned off. No stalling. Before i changed the battery when the car cuts out i couldn't start it up asap. Car security flashes, i would need to wait few mins to start it up again. On rare occasions i could experience a "jump start" while driving the car, it would start to cut out, revs drop, car shakes but the engine fires up again, and i could drive...

What i've done:
Cleaned D40, fuse box
Bought new battery (old one wasn't able to keep the charge)
Cleaned throttle body
I also looked at the ecu pins, all seemed to be in line, (i haven't looked on the soldered ball ends, so i won't cross that out)

To do:
Check C15 earth.

Is there anything else i could check that i forgot to write? Could faulty crank/rmp sensor cause cut out while idle or when the key is set to MAR? Can i do/check something else before i book for an ECU check/ball joins resolder?



Sorry for my China wall, thank for your time and i would appreciate for any advise regarding my gremlins. I want them evicted!

Hey guys, i'm thinking i wrote too much, so ill ask two questions again, which are my concern. Hope someone could answer them.

1. Could faulty crank/rmp sensor cause cut outs and loose connection/ASR/ESP error on idle and when key is turned to MAR?

2. If i turn on A/C should the radiator fan kick in as soon as the magnetic clutch engages? if so at what speed fan should be turned, slow speed or max speed?
Answer to #2 : Found here on the forums. Answered by Deckchair5
"For all engine sizes
the rad fan slow speed switches on when the engine temp reaches a certain level OR when the a/c linear pressure sensor reaches a certain level. If either reach higher thresholds then the rad fan is turned on at fast speed
For the 1.8 and larger engines the two speeds are done within the rad fan control unit M150
So the rad fan should only come on when there's a need to and not run constantly"


I can't find the right answers with elearn, so i'm hopping someone could help. Thanks.

P.S. ill be updating this thread as soon as i do something.

I'm sorry, that i use this thread as a chat room for myself But incase future "generation" come across to this thread, i want to provide all solutions for my problems

Solution to Gremlin #2 The radiator cooling fan has been fixed! So apparently the previous mechanic who changed the cooling fan forgot to properly insert a fuse. I also blame myself for not checking it first

Update to Gremlin #3 2 drives since new battery was inserted.. had 2 ASR/ESP failures, engine cut out, but without "loose connection" error. So today mechanic looked at the faults, it was ABS communication error with ECU. He did a proxi alignment, as said if the car keep cutting out to come back, and he will test wires and such. Also he mentioned that Stilo 1.6 ECU's are problematic (that was already confirmed by using "search" on this forum)

Ill keep updating, probably i will edit this post with new info. Ill start constructing a great china wall of text soon

I have only the #3 problem of yours the same errors like yours i'm curios if is done your problem or i sell my car...!!

Icefire91 said:

I have only the #3 problem of yours the same errors like yours i'm curios if is done your problem or i sell my car...!!

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I still don't know if my problem is fixed. As for theory/research i can tell this:
*Check battery, ABS block need 12.3V as minimum, if battery shows lower than this it could cause those problems.
*Check earth wires, do a volt drop test, here's a link to the guide. https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo-guides/163613-sorting-bad-battery-earth.html
*Check and clean fuse box in the engine bay
*Check and clean D4 connector (it plugs to fuse box back)
*If its a diesel car, as far as i read for most the problem is crank/rmp sensor (i can't guaranty it, but i think MultiEcuScan allows to check it)
Now for the worst...
*Faulty ECU (most likely 1.6 stilo could suffer this symptom) , it could be cracked soldered contacts, or even worse damaged chip. You can always try to resolder the contacts, if you sure nothing else helps you will need to replace a ECU with virginised one or a new one

This is how much i know about random engine cut outs with "ASR/ESP Loose Connection, car security, random alternator, coolant overheat" + C1521 errors
All this info was gathered from this forum, by reading similar threads.

I move de Asr box that is on the engine because is to hot there clean the conectors but i don't know where the solders are...?

Getting MES and a cable will save you a lot of time.
Checking error messages.
You can manually start things like the cooling fans to check operation.
Proxy alignment etc.

By soldered contacts i meant to say you could remove ECU "split it" apart (after removing it from the engine, the ECU metal parts are held by some kind of silicone. Gently remove the metal parts with a help of a screwdriver) After that you'll get access to ECU chip and its contacts. Look at the contacts to see if they have crack on soldered parts.

Here's some links:

Go thru this thread, it has pics of faulty ECU (cracked contact soldered balls):
https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/355548-answer-ecu-fix.html

Maigretnz said:

Getting MES and a cable will save you a lot of time.
Checking error messages.
You can manually start things like the cooling fans to check operation.
Proxy alignment etc.

Click to expand...

I agree, having cable and MES is a life saver! Just don't buy cheap ebay cables/interfaces they will not work with Fiat cars. (telling you from life experience ) Look for modified interfaces that work with MES. Sellers will state that in description.

You did that on your Stilo...?

Not yet, but if i need, i would do it. But i read that some of forum members did this with a success, for others it was a temporary solution, it wont fix an overheated faulty chip.

For any clarification, the video isn't mine, this belongs to another member.

Gremlin #1 has been fix. While i was swapping heater matrix with a digital one i also changed a faulty thermostat, due to that i took couple parts of the engine like air box/battery box/disconnected few cables...
Turns out i disconnected reverse switch cable and one of the connectors got "lost" while i was putting everything back Had to take out under tray plastic protectors to see a loose connector.

2 out of 3 problems are solved. And for problem no.2 *knock* *knock* *knock* (3 times on the wood) It seems i don't have any random cut outs.

I get, 'bonnet open' 'rear fogs both sides' and 'rain/darkness sensor failure' its been fiat they said they never seen any with the rain sesnor on Abarth so couldnt help with wiring diagrams.

Anyway it didnt start once when cold, had a service since and all seems much better but these faults are odd and random, could it be the ecu? well if I needed to I would also mod the ecu has per vid but only when if needed!! i,e, car was dead dead

If you put it to Mar does the ecu buzz? mine does and usually thats the sign of a short, but it runs fine etc.

Also check battery mines been quickfit (blagged them do a test) and its 60% at weekend fiat did a test and said that this shouldnt affect anything.

Its strange I know

Check all your fuses by pulling them out, mine had snapped legs.

Well, Gremlin #3 still giving me a headache. But this time slightly different. Usually the next day, on the 1st drive, i start the car and let it idle till it cuts out. with Loose connection/ASR/ESP errors, i start the car again and wait few mins, sometimes it cuts out one more time. After that i can drive all day without any troubles.
If i don't let it cut out while idle, the car would cut out while driving... But after battery change i don't get any Car security issues, i can start it again without any troubles.

Mine has had a few issues in the morning but I'm getting alarm failure and no siren works so resume it maybe drains a little. All.these faults do seem to point towards battery ampage. If you've a multimeter check the voltage on starting for the cca, this needs be high as poss

br4duk said:

Mine has had a few issues in the morning but I'm getting alarm failure and no siren works so resume it maybe drains a little. All.these faults do seem to point towards battery ampage. If you've a multimeter check the voltage on starting for the cca, this needs be high as poss

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The battery is new ~1 week old. The old one was faulty, didn't contain charge, so i thought it would solve my problems by getting a new battery, well.. it did it for a whole two days. Then the problems resumed.
I also checked ground wires, all of them are ok.

I checekd and changed all my fuses, clean all the contacts, hmmmm could be shorts on your ecu.

i had engine cut out loose connection warning, so a quick look on here i decided to replace crankshaft sensor as it was cheaper than the diagnostic equipment. no more cutting out. loose connection is a bad translation

saw said:

i had engine cut out loose connection warning, so a quick look on here i decided to replace crankshaft sensor as it was cheaper than the diagnostic equipment. no more cutting out. loose connection is a bad translation

Click to expand...

Did you have "Loose Connection" errors while engine idles or even when you turn ignition on, but don't start the engine?
Is your Stilo petrol? As far as research went, mostly JTD have problems with crankshaft sensor.
Also have you diagnosed your car while it was cutting out? I kinda want to compare errors

yes mine was jtd 80

Hi guys,

i have some news. So, yesterday, i finally decided to take the ECU out and take a close look at it. I did saw few dropped pins, and couple cracks.
Next step is to find someone who could repair it. Fingers crossed!

Ill update this thread as soon as i have more info or results.