I've asked a few questions on here and got some great advice, which I very much appreciate. My technical knowledge is limited so I can't contribute much there, but I do like reading stories other members have posted about their cars. Even if some of them are going back a few years now! Thought it might be nice to share my story in any case.

I started learning to drive around the time the Stilo first came out in the UK and I loved it, I always wanted one. Thirteen years later I passed my test. I'm not that bad a driver, honest, I just lost interest and never really needed to drive until my son came along.

Recently I started looking around and I fell for the Schumacher. Just look at it! I found one on eBay for a half decent price and the idea started to gather pace in my head. Eventually the seller and I agreed on a price and I arranged to travel the 300 miles to take a look at the car. I made a weekend of it. I drove a hire car from the north east up to Loch Ness, in Scotland, where the seller lives.

Finally found his house and there it was. My Stilo. Had a quick look around it and I was a bit disappointed. For all the seller was a nice bloke, the car was a little way off the excellent condition the ad described. Paintwork wasn't great. Schumacher badges missing. Interior was a mess. I wasn't impressed. I was about to walk away and just take the hire car home when the guy dropped the price a bit. "OK I'll take it".

That night and the next morning I regretted it. I was knackered off the drive up and my girlfriend could see I thought I'd made a mistake. I didn't pay a lot of money, but it's the most money I've ever paid for a car! My mood wasn't helped when I moved the car in the hotel car park and thought I couldn't get it into reverse. Five minutes of panic later I realised I needed to pull the gear knob up.

Still, I was concerned the car wouldn't make the 300 miles back home when I'd dragged my girlfriend and our 3 year old all that way. A mood not helped when it was hard to change gear, I couldn't get it into sixth, couldn't indicate right without holding the indicator in place, and couldn't lock the driver's door. Then on the way home it started to rain and I noticed half the rear wiper arm was missing. I couldn't see anything out the rear window. Switched on the air con and... nothing. What have I bought.

Then I hit a point about five hours into a six hour drive that I realised how much I enjoyed driving the car. The noise and acceleration on putting my foot down coming off the many roundabouts I'd started to hit was immense. But that gearbox!

I got home and started asking questions on here, with some great answers. Turns out Schumachers don't come with a 6 speed gearbox. Looks like someone put the wrong gear knob on there...

The only time I've had the car out in the three weeks since then was taking it to see my friend who's a mechanic. He looked over it and assured me most of the things I was worried about are minor issues. The gear problems likely to be fixed by greasing the selector cables. I drove home enjoying the car that little bit more. It's been parked outside my house since!

Tomorrow I'm taking the car to my friend's garage. He works for a major dealership, albeit another manufacturer, but the place is amazing. I'll try and get a few pics. We've got a few jobs to look at, he'll check out the more mechanical stuff, hopefully the car will be in a better place afterwards.

Not a lot to report so far, I'll update tomorrow!

Nice write up.....I miss mine a lot, we had an 'on-off' relationship, but we did a lot together, and I spent a lot of time and money on it, way more than it was ever going to be worth...but...we got through all the bad times, and I got more enjoyment out of it than any other car I've owned.....a love hate relationship I'd say is inevitable, due to their age, and there will be the odd fawlty towers moment, where you just want to hit it with a bit of tree and kick its tyres....but overall, you've made a good move, fulfilled a dream and long may you both enjoy eachother.....;0)

Morning Kev,

Good luck with your new Stilo. Fiats tend to get a bad rep but you'll find the stilo is a good strong solid car that doesn't tend to suffer too many of the classic ills that beset the older generations of Fiat.

I'd probably agree with your mechanic friend for the most part that the issues you're reporting are just minor TLC issues.

You'll find such things when buying any second hand car, particularly privately. There comes a point when the seller is mentally ready to move on to their next car, for whatever reason, so they lose interest in the current car they have. They then stop addressing the little niggly bits that you'll find fairly easy to address with minimum effort and a little bit of pocket change.

My Abarth for example, when I bought it.... was misfiring, the instrument cluster had been replaced with the cluster from a diesel, the rear view mirror was in the passenger footwell, the bonnet release had been dismantled and was in bits in the drivers footwell, the thing was dirty as heck and the battery was pancake flat.

But you learn to spot the diamond on the rough and after a point trust your gut instinct - which you'll fine tune as you buy and sell cars more - on what is good and what is actually a dog.

I've bought and sold a few cars across the years and I've had cars with full documented service history and as many receipts as you can possibly hold in both hands which have been the worst possible boxes of junk you could imagine. Then on the other hand I've bought Alfas for example which have come only with a receipt for the car and the current MOT which have turned out to be great cars.

The wife's wedding prezzie even was an Alfa 147, 1.6 twin spark. I bought that as spares repairs a dealer took in part-x. It came with nothing but a key and the MOT which had two weeks remaining. No books, paperwork, history, tax, nothing... People would tell you to do that on an Alfa you've got to be certifiably mad. It failed it's first MOT on a leak and a front brake mis-balance check (pulling to one side).

The power steering leak as it turned out to be cost me about 2 hours of my time and five quid to fix with some chemical metal to fix a pinhole in the pipe. The brakes was a new set of pads, a clean up and bleeding through some new fluid. After that it was golden. I paid less than £400 for that car. I've got a similar story with an Alfa GTV too! To put it into perspective I'm a lawyer working in governance for the NHS. I'm no mechanic by any stretch - just picked stuff up along the way and own a basic set of tools. You can if you wanted to look at evening classes for basic car maintenance, I know the local college here do such things to give you some basic care and and maintenance knowledge and skills.


Your issues sound like little details which you can easily overcome. I seem to think you've posted about the gear selection before and I responded. Get your mechanic mate to check the selector at the gearbox end like I said, I doubt it'll be the cables. even so if he pops the cables off the gearbox and gives them a push and a pull he will soon feel if there is any real resistance in the cables.

The rear wiper blade you have to buy a whole replacement for (about £15 on ebay) as you can't just buy the blade like you would for the front. So just replace the whole arm. People don't always bother with these because they go down to Halfords or local motorfactor and they can't find a replacement on their system for it (because its whole arm, not blade) so people just give up and don't bother as they don't know better.

I've waffled enough already now.... One last tip from me given you've got the abarth motor. Keep an eye on the oil level regularly. YOu'll find some of them do go through a bit of oil. The induction is sometimes fairly restrictive so it does put quite a lot of vac (negative) pressure across the breather system and hoovers up the oil vapor out of the cam casing. It's not a problem really, just keep an eye on it so it's kept topped up and you'll be golden.

Thanks for the replies chaps, nice to know someone is reading my rambling.

Didn't manage to get the car to my mate today, he had to get away from work early and I was busy. I did pick up a few parts from the post office though, one of which being those wipers.

Rear and front wipers replaced (with the help of a new ratchet set from Halfords, on sale ATM). That's about it for progress! Might have a go at fixing the door lock and indicator myself, not so sure just yet.

Had a little bit of time on the car this afternoon, had a go at looking at the door locking issue but ran out of time. There's a thread on that already but as it stands the door internals are in bits and it's worse than it was before I started.

There's an issue with the right indicator not staying on, I bought the unit with light and wiper controls to replace it all but on closer inspection it's the rubber around the stalk stopping it from clicking in. Will be good news if I haven't got to take the steering wheel off to replace all that.

Keep up the good work mate.

Quick update, not a lot to report on as I've not had a lot of time to spend on the car. Been trying to get it into my yard so I can work on it but there's not a lot of room and a Corsa with a dead battery I've had to sort out.

Was hoping to get my mate to look over the cables on Saturday but I think he might be busy, I'll be looking to get the door lock sorted though. Maybe the seatbelt but I'll see how I get on.

The car is up for sale at the minute too, testing the water as much as anything else. I'm in no hurry to get rid but I wouldn't say no to the right offer.

I thought I saw the thing up for sale.... Recognised a cheap schumacher and thought it looked familiar. Hope you get it sorted mate. Shame you're not any closer I'd give you a hand!

Good luck with it.

Thanks man. Moved the Corsa back to make room, squeezed the Stilo in, this is how much space I have to play with.

Don't think my other half will be happy having no outside space while it's there, but off the road I can spend a bit longer on it.

Might help if I get the image in...

So I managed to fix the door latch mechanism. The inside latch, key lock and central locking are all working now, so I can actually take it places and not worry about anyone getting in.

Simple thing but it's given me a bit of confidence to look at some of the other stuff.

I'm hoping I can sort the seatbelt out, I've got the part there for it.

Air con might be tricker, I've read the thread on that and I'm not much closer to understanding it.

Really annoying thing is the missing sideskirt badges. I've been quoted £37.50 a badge but I'm not sure I want to spend £75 on a couple of badges!

Didn't manage to get into my mate's garage this weekend, hopefully he'll have a bit more time next week.

Just installed the cruise control stalk. As mentioned in Artermis's thread I decided against replacing that whole indicator/wiper unit. Not sure it's worth the effort right now for some cleaner stalks. The part I got from eBay had the cruise control stalk though, so just went with that.

Very easy following the guide, top marks there. I found the plug tucked up near the indicator stalk taped up, easy enough to plug in. The only bother I had was screwing it in, I'd disconnected the battery with the intention of starting on replacing the seatbelt, but the steering wheel was in a position that made it really hard to get to the screw. Got there in the end though!

I've been keeping an eye out for the lower cowling with the cruise control slot on eBay but nothing's come up yet. I might just get hold of a standard one and cut the hole myself.

I haven't had the car out yet but fingers crossed it'll work. I've got a Vagcom cable on the way and my understanding is that with the multiECUscan software I can set the dash light to come on?

Next up will be the passenger seatbelt, sort that and the gear change and I'll be a lot happier with the car.

kevgibs said:

I've got a Vagcom cable on the way and my understanding is that with the multiECUscan software I can set the dash light to come on?

Click to expand...

You'll need the ELM interface and cable to connect to the Body Computer to activate the cruise control light.
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Davren said:

You'll need the ELM interface and cable to connect to the Body Computer to activate the cruise control light.
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Click to expand...

OK cool, thanks man. Looking at the supported vehicles and systems on the multiecuscan website am I right in thinking I just need the ELM 327 connector to access the body computer, no need for adapters?

That should be correct mate, yes.

Sod's law. Interior of the car looks a bit grubby but I've had my eye on some mats to tidy it up a bit. Finally ordered them and ten minutes later found a set of proper Stilo mats that cost about half as much...

kevgibs said:

Sod's law. Interior of the car looks a bit grubby but I've had my eye on some mats to tidy it up a bit. Finally ordered them and ten minutes later found a set of proper Stilo mats that cost about half as much...

Click to expand...

They genuine Abarth ones? I managed to bag some new-old-stock genuine Abarth stilo mats. They're just a little bit good :-D

Artermis said:

They genuine Abarth ones? I managed to bag some new-old-stock genuine Abarth stilo mats. They're just a little bit good :-D

Click to expand...

They sound nice! Don't think they're Abarth ones but they do have Stilo embroidered in, proper tailored fit and all that. Only a tenner from parts world, who seem to have a lot in the way of badges etc. so I suspect they're similar old stock. They're only mats but they can make the car 'feel' a lot nicer.

Had an offer on the car this morning, had a few now but not quite hitting what I'm after. It'll cost me another month's tax now so I'm in no rush for a few weeks.

I've arranged to get it in the garage this weekend, see how that goes. Hopefully get it sorted and I'll enjoy driving it for a little while.

Never simple is it...

Good. Tonight I connected up multiecuscan and set the cruise control light to come on. Works a charm, just need that cowling now.

Bad. It seems now that the driver's door doesn't open from the inside. :bang: Not sure whether I checked that after I replaced the latch. Found a thread on it, I'll check this tomorrow. https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/342546-door-not-opening-inside.html.

D'oh!

Least you know it's an easy fix, even if it is a little irritating.