At least it's had the spring catcher fitted to stop the broken coil from puncturing the tyre.
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Davren said:

At least it's had the spring catcher fitted to stop the broken coil from puncturing the tyre.
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Click to expand...

True, although the spring doesn't really look that heavily pig tailed so i wouldn't have expected it to collapse all that far. Not like the spring that failed on my brother's Citroen C3 last month - that failed and dropped the spring right down the strut so the wheel was stuck in the arch!

Hoping the new spring arrives today so i can reassemble.

Artermis said:

Hoping the new spring arrives today so i can reassemble.

Click to expand...

Spring?...... Are you only fitting one? :nono:
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Davren said:

Spring?...... Are you only fitting one? :nono:
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Click to expand...

Only one spring fitted to this corner.... Haha ;-)

Know what you mean.

Could only get hold of one spring at short notice at my local 'factors which they transferred in from another store for me. The distributor was shut yesterday on account of being bank hol so the other is 'on order'.

I can only work one side at once as I'm working on street, so i have to strip one side and refit, turn car around and then do the other - so only Interested in doing one side at once anyway. Obviously the immediate urgency was to the broken side - i wasn't going to knowingly drive it with a broken spring so wanted to attend to this immediately. The other side will have to wait till next weekend although may change the arm if it's nice tomorrow.

I will get it done though, make sense as it saves a second round of wheel alignment chargers if you try to do seperately.

Ooh, I had a Corsa do that on me. I drove it around for months with a 'clink clink' sound every time I went over a bump. I didn't even know it was a broken spring until MOT time. The things you learn.

kevgibs said:

Ooh, I had a Corsa do that on me. I drove it around for months with a 'clink clink' sound every time I went over a bump. I didn't even know it was a broken spring until MOT time. The things you learn.

Click to expand...

Yeh I'd not noticed. I suspect it'd snapped on my wife and she'd not known better and hadn't identified the issue. Then by the time I got hold of it I'd not known any different to think something was amiss.

Finished off the suspension arms today by completing the change on the drivers side.

I didn't really inspect the old part on the passenger side properly, having been distracted by the spring, but whoever fitted the drivers side one certainly wants a slap.

It was obvious that the arms were fitted poorly, there was evidence of keying on the inside of the bushes like whoever fitted the bolts had screwed the bolts through the bushes - indicative of poor alignment when fitting. The bolts should just slide right into place by hand with no effort at all.

When released from the ball joint the arms also dropped into a silly low position, about 20-30 degrees below the full extent of the suspension travel, also indicative of the arms being torqued out of position.

People need to remember to align the suspension arm to somewhere close as you can to the normal road position before torquing the bush bolts up - particularly the horizontal one, otherwise you'll put undue strain on the bush and wear it out stupid quick.

Artermis said:

People need to remember to align the suspension arm to somewhere close as you can to the normal road position before torquing the bush bolts up - particularly the horizontal one, otherwise you'll put undue strain on the bush and wear it out stupid quick.

Click to expand...

Good advice.

Ideally, you should tighten suspension bush bolts with the wheels on the car and on a flat surface, but unless you're working with the car on a flatbed ramp, it could be awkward to get to the bolts.

I always use axle stands under the hub/brake disk (adjusted so the car is level) before tightening bush bolts. Picture below is from when I replaced rear suspension bushes. The same method would apply when replacing front suspension components.
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Yep this is pretty much exactly what I did.

The passenger side was easy - the suspension strut was out to replace the spring, so just lifted that by hand to where I needed it to be and tightened.

This side, with strut still attached at this point - I did need to use an axle stand and jack to get it where I wanted to be but it doesn't take 2 mins to do just to pinch up the bolts the last few turns.

Worth taking the extra few mins it'll cost you to do it properly for the affects it'll have on your suspension.

Well... today is not so much exciting as it is irritating.

My remote key has stopped working. I locked the car yesterday evening but the car didn't respond to the second lock command to hit the deadlocks. It just gave up right there and then in an instant.

Light still flashing away merrily on the key.

I've done the obvious and replaced the battery in the key and of course that had achieved nothing. Only other thing I can do is disconnect battery on the car and pray for a miracle.

I rather suspect I'm going to have to approach my local dealer for the code card. I wanted to program a second remote anyway - just hope they'll give me the code card to let me do it and not charge me the earth for it.

Well... Fiat won't give me the key code. But they will give it to my wife, who is the registered keeper. The wife very cross at being put out by such things but has agreed to go and get it for me. £35. Thank god it's payday on Friday.

Don't buy the codes from your dealer, I got mine for £12.50 + vat from surgess fiat, a guy there was doing it for the forum for £15 all inc vat, he left but there is another guy working there who kindly said he will match it and charge the same.

I have just bought a 2nd hand stilo 3 button remote on ebay for £11 bargain, new case for £4.10 with a fresh blade to get cut... was rather cheap and waiting on delivery.

This stilo I bought last month has no remote key, just key number 2

I'm purchasing my codes from sturgess, I called them today and the guy (sean) was on another call so I emailed him... awaiting a reply to say he has my codes and then I'll call him and pay by card over the phone just like before... it was a breeze

Gimme a shout and I'll pm u his email address

dtimmins1985 said:

I have just bought a 2nd hand stilo 3 button remote on ebay for £11 bargain, new case for £4.10 with a fresh blade to get cut... was rather cheap and waiting on delivery.

Click to expand...

If the blade is made of steel (most sold on eBay are) instead of brass, you may find that locksmiths won't cut it. Steel key blanks destroy their cutting tools.
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35 is excessive. I paid about 12 pound for it from Fiat in Nuneaton.

Tenuous link to this thread, but I saw a lovely black Abarth on eBay when I was putting some stuff up for sale earlier today. Wish I had a need for two cars.

dtimmins1985 said:

Don't buy the codes from your dealer, I got mine for £12.50 + vat from surgess fiat, a guy there was doing it for the forum for £15 all inc vat, he left but there is another guy working there who kindly said he will match it and charge the same.

I have just bought a 2nd hand stilo 3 button remote on ebay for £11 bargain, new case for £4.10 with a fresh blade to get cut... was rather cheap and waiting on delivery.

This stilo I bought last month has no remote key, just key number 2

I'm purchasing my codes from sturgess, I called them today and the guy (sean) was on another call so I emailed him... awaiting a reply to say he has my codes and then I'll call him and pay by card over the phone just like before... it was a breeze

Gimme a shout and I'll pm u his email address

Click to expand...

Precisely my plan. You'll have seen my Abarth's thread where I re-shelled the key in black to match the car with Abarth key badges. I'll just buy a second hand key, code it to the car whilst I'm at it and re-shell that to match. I bought 2 Abarth key badges already with this plan in mind!

Artermis said:

Precisely my plan. You'll have seen my Abarth's thread where I re-shelled the key in black to match the car with Abarth key badges. I'll just buy a second hand key, code it to the car whilst I'm at it and re-shell that to match. I bought 2 Abarth key badges already with this plan in mind!

Click to expand...

Good stuff

I have bought a blue case as my motor is blue lol...

Im unsure if I can get the transponder coded to my immobiliser without hacking it and adding in the ID in hex format (with a hex editor of course).

From what i have read, i can pair up the remote no problem but the transponder chip has to have its ID pre-loaded into the Immobiliser area of the ECU - before you can enable it to start the car in MES.

In short - the ECU can store 5 keys (5 ID numbers) and then you can enable, disable, set one for valet etc.

I need to know if this is true, if it is - the key can only be used as a remote and to unlock the car, not to start it.

If its wrong information, im hoping that MES can register the key and allow it to start the car - meaning i have a fully functional new key .

Can anyone comment on the ecu / immobiliser on the fiats.

My understanding of it is:

You can program up to 8 keys.
All keys have to be programmed at the same time.
Any keys that are not programmed at the same time will be permanently disabled from the Body Computer, so will never be usable again.
The only way to disable a key would be to omit it from the programming procedure, so it would be permanently disabled.
I've never heard of a Stilo key being programmed as a valet key, i.e. so it only opens the door and starts the engine, but won't unlock the boot or glovebox.
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Davren said:

My understanding of it is:

You can program up to 8 keys.
All keys have to be programmed at the same time.
Any keys that are not programmed at the same time will be permanently disabled from the Body Computer, so will never be usable again.
The only way to disable a key would be to omit it from the programming procedure, so it would be permanently disabled.
I've never heard of a Stilo key being programmed as a valet key, i.e. so it only opens the door and starts the engine, but won't unlock the boot or glovebox.
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Click to expand...

The 8 keys bit is certainly correct, I read that in my owners manual. I never heard anything about the valet key either.

I'm a bit grey on the key programming thing as obviously one of the keys is a remote key and the other non-remote from factory.

I want to re-program my remote, which has given up (still starts the car), and add another remote key to start the car plus have the original non-remote also.

I'm a bit grey on whether programming the immobiliser is the same as the remote or what. Either way I need to fix my current remote.

I guess if nothing else I can use the immobiliser chip / grain from the non-remote key to make up a second remote?

I am taking a bit of a venture into the unknown I will admit.

Davren said:

My understanding of it is:

You can program up to 8 keys.
All keys have to be programmed at the same time.
Any keys that are not programmed at the same time will be permanently disabled from the Body Computer, so will never be usable again.
The only way to disable a key would be to omit it from the programming procedure, so it would be permanently disabled.
I've never heard of a Stilo key being programmed as a valet key, i.e. so it only opens the door and starts the engine, but won't unlock the boot or glovebox.
.

Click to expand...

Ahh, maybe its specific to country etc.

I always thought it was 5 keys, but you corrected me

I spoke to Sturgess again today, if the transponder is the same type as the one in my current key then i can program it with MES and the immobiliser code, no need to read the ecu and reflash it like other makes / models.

As for needing all the keys at once for programming, you are correct.
However, when i programmed my old car, i tried to re-code the old key (that would not start the car) but it would not enable it, it stays disabled and when i was going through the procedure i literally shat myself - the procedure says you can press NO and nothing in the ECU / Immobiliser will be changed so I pressed NO as I did not want proceed further...

When to start the car - just kept turning over, i was crapping it thinking the key had been disabled (the working one i mean) - went back into MES, logged into ecu, started programming procedure and just put one key the ignition and then ended the programming procedure using the Y button for yes...

Car started again - thank god.

There maybe a timer or something that will allow you to program keys, then maybe after a day or so it will permanently mark the keys you did not program as disabled, as my understanding is that a disabled key can not be re-enabled at all (well it can, but requires taking apart the ECU, reading the memory chip, editing it with a HEX editor and then saving the file, re-hashing it, upload to ecu) then reprogram keys and it will work - pain in the arse tho.

Artermis said:

The 8 keys bit is certainly correct, I read that in my owners manual. I never heard anything about the valet key either.

I'm a bit grey on the key programming thing as obviously one of the keys is a remote key and the other non-remote from factory.

I want to re-program my remote, which has given up (still starts the car), and add another remote key to start the car plus have the original non-remote also.

I'm a bit grey on whether programming the immobiliser is the same as the remote or what. Either way I need to fix my current remote.

I guess if nothing else I can use the immobiliser chip / grain from the non-remote key to make up a second remote?

I am taking a bit of a venture into the unknown I will admit.

Click to expand...

It's dead easy mate.

Just make sure you have all fobs and all key's with chips that you want to program.

Best way - program the fobs first, this has its own procedure and MES tells you step by step what to do, you can simulate this too.

2nd bit, program the transponders - this is a seperate procedure too, make sure you have all the keys that you want to start the car as any that you do not program will end up disabled (if it was programmed to your ecu before).

Also, be careful as you need to complete the procedure and yes it at the end or your car wont start.

Gimme a shout if you need any help

Also, spoke to sturgess this morning, he's sent off for my codes - hopefully get an email before the days over, they are very busy atm.