I have a problem with the remote locking keyfob and receiver of my Stilo 1.6.

A few months back, the dash warned my that the battery was low in the key fob, and then it stopped unlocking/locking the car ! OK ... so I fitted new batteries, but it didn't work again ! I even tried the spare key I have, which I'm sure is not flat either, but no luck.

Is there a reset sequence to re-sync the car's receiver with the key fob's transmitter ? I guess the unit uses a rolling code system, so that a different code is used every time. But this must need sync-ing up when changing the batteries ?

Is there a procedure to do this ? Its OK using the key to lock and unlock the car, but getting the remote working again would be nice. My Stilo is on a 52 plate, 1.6 3-door.

dealer to reprogramme.......might be lucky disconnecting battery for a while.

Oh well, nothing to lose disconnecting the battery for 30 mins, and then give it a go.

Funny enough I just spent the last 3 hours working on the car. The annoying airbag failure light had been on for the last 6 months, so I thought I would do something about the dodgy connectors under the driver's seat. Normally a clean and push together fixes it. But that had not done the trick the last time. So I hard wired all the connections (basically removed them). Soldering each wire, then protecting the joint with heat shrink. Well now all those connections are solid .... but the light still hasn't gone off !!! So something else is either not connecting, or really broken ! So I did the passenger side as well .... and guess what .. the light is still on !!!!! Ahhhhhhhhh ! So a reset might not be a bad idea after all, to see if that changes anything ..... maybe I will be lucky with this too !!! I'll have to search the forum to see if anyone else has experienced more dodgy airbag related connectors.

Thank you.

jjmoore27 said:

The annoying airbag failure light had been on for the last 6 months, so I thought I would do something about the dodgy connectors under the driver's seat. Normally a clean and push together fixes it. But that had not done the trick the last time. So I hard wired all the connections (basically removed them). Soldering each wire, then protecting the joint with heat shrink. Well now all those connections are solid .... but the light still hasn't gone off !!! So something else is either not connecting, or really broken ! So I did the passenger side as well .... and guess what .. the light is still on !!!!! Ahhhhhhhhh ! So a reset might not be a bad idea after all, to see if that changes anything ..... maybe I will be lucky with this too !!! I'll have to search the forum to see if anyone else has experienced more dodgy airbag related connectors.

Click to expand...

Your be hard pushed to find a fiat dealer who would go near airbag system after this...you do realise there is a 'shorting bar' in those connectors you have cut out!

Have a look in the Stilo Guides up top. Many an interesting read in there. Save your self a lot of money and aggro too. There's not much in the line of problems that someone else hasn't met up with before and almost everyone gets hit with airbag warning as car goes beyond 2 years of age. Ask on the forum first before considering major surgery.
Bit late now though, horse is already out the stable door and nuzzling up to the mare in the next field

If you're going to disconnect the car battery for the central locking then i'd do it overnight and not just 30mins

Yes, I noticed the shorting bar on both of the 2 orange connectors. But the short is only active if the connectors become disconnected. I guess the short bar prevents the bags from going off, if the connectors come off, but if power is still applied via the other connectors. With a solid connection, then is there still a need for the short ? The wires won't become disconnected now. The shorting bar can only work if the connector comes apart. So a shorting bar can't protect, for example, a wire rubbing through and shorting. So I'm not worried about loosing the shorting bar. I'm more shocked at how poor quality the connectors are in the first place, for something so important as connecting the airbags up. My problems first appeared after about 4 years, when the light would come on now and again. I would fix this by pulling the driver's side under the seat orange plug apart, giving it a clean up with contact cleaner, then plugging it back together. I read about this on this forum (thank you to the forum !). This would work for about 6 months, then it would do it again. Then the same procedure would last 3 months etc. Until the point came when the light just stayed on all the time. The connectors are so small, that I couldn't gently tighten them, by crimping them up, so in the end I though its better to have a hard contact, than none at all.

Hence I did study the orange block connectors first, and did pause when I saw the shorting bar. But it looks to me to be a feature for if the connectors pop apart, and nothing more than that. After hard wiring both of them, and using shrink wrap to make a good job, and also tie wraps to hold the cables in place ..... I was of course annoyed the red light still came on :bang: !!!!

So I looked at the other connectors under the seats too. These also seem of low quality (though I am no connector expert. I am an engineer by trade, but switched to software after studying electrical engineering). No shorting bars on those. So I hard wired these too to make sure. But no luck.

I guess for some people, this asks the question ... why am I hard wiring these connectors in the first place ? I know that once I have done this, it is hard to go back. But I think, a system that is already broken, will stay broken if I don't do something about it. Hard wiring the connectors is a cheap option, though it did take me about 3 hours to do a good job. If an airbag is broken, and needs replacing, then I would have to give that money out whatever.

I guess I will need to check the whole airbag circuit, to hunt down any other weak connection links. Joy Joy Joy .....

But first, I'll give the battery a go over night, and see if that sorts the remote.

Thanks

If your sure a underseat connector is at fault then why not get the later 'modified' connector(s fitted...never had a problem from one of these once fitted.

Thats interesting to read about the option of better replacement connectors. I'm pretty happy with my hard wiring technique, so my doubts have moved away from the underseat connectors. All have been replaced. 2 orange, one gray, two white. Although I'm sure its just the orange ones for the airbags, I thought that as I was at it, I might as well replace the other dodgy looking connectors too. I now suspect its something else. Either:

1) More dodgy connectors
2) An airbag really is broken
3) A dodgy control unit is upsetting things.

Does anyone know if there are more seat connectors buried in the seat ? I'd assume that Fiat would design the seats so that everything connects up at the bottom ?

I guess the driver and passenger airbags are included when testing the airbag circuit. Does anyone know where connectors for these are located ? There is a good chance they use orange connectors too.

After that .... I think I will give up ! I don't know how to test if an airbag is OK or not, and I don't have a spare control unit to swap out to test. I think then its dealer time. Though my wife will think its part-ex time ! I wonder if Fiat will learn that these sort of problems make people think twice about buying another Fiat ? Saving a few pence using cheap connectors, is false economy. The next time I look at buying a Fiat, I'll be thinking, "How many hours in the garage will I be spending fixing stupid problems !!!!".

Airbag connectors

I found a link pointing to some more connectors. I will check these ones this week.

https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo-technical/57110-software-wanted-obd2.html

I think the title of this thread should be changed too. Its turned into another airbag posting !

Thanks.

Re: Airbag connectors

jjmoore27 have you cleaned up the orange airbag connectors on the boot. i had your same problem and it didn't go away until i had cleaner, drivers, passengers and the boot connectors.
they are behind the little cubby holes either side of the boot.

jjmoore27 said:

I wonder if Fiat will learn that these sort of problems make people think twice about buying another Fiat ? Saving a few pence using cheap connectors, is false economy.

Click to expand...

I can name you at least other manufactuers that have more problems that fiat with airbags systems.

The underseat connectors are DET level 3 dealer fit only.

Thanks for that tip. I'll take a look at those 2 orange connectors this evening. I had read that one orange connector lives on the rear right side, but didn't know about the one on the left too. The more of these evil orange connectors I can remove, the better I will feel ! Hopefully this will sort the problem ..... Thank you.

SUCCESS !!!!!!

This morning I took a quick look at the orange connector, at the rear on the right. I unpluged it, then pluged it back in, which would give the connections a minor clean ...... SUCCESS !!!!! The airbag light finally turned off.

Thanks very much for that last tip, to check the rear connectors.

Anyway, I'll remove that orange connector and hard wire the connections, and also take a look at the orange connector on the left too. I should remove this one too before it starts giving trouble.

I'll post how this goes to this thread later.

Thank You very much !

I'm not sure if there is one on both sides, it's been a while since i did mine. Sorry if my previous post was misleading.

Glad i have helped

An update on the remote locking key fob going out of synch. Well the strange thing is, the remote locking started working again. I never got round to disconnecting the car battery. I just tried the key fob, after a year when it first stopped, and it worked again ! Not sure why, or if it really has sorted itself, but it has been working since March.

Also the airbag connectors. I've removed 5 connectors now, and hard wired them. The yellow one above the glove compartment, the 2 in the rear above each shock (left and right sides), and the 2 under the seats. That fixed my airbag failure ! But the last few weeks, I think the car has developed the OCS problem, as I know have failures with passengers - exact same symptoms as what the guide says. I read a post about http://www.airbag24.de/en/ and I've sent them an email. I don't fancy faffing around to swap out the OCS mat, but if I device exists to simulate an "average" adult sitting in the passenger seat, then thats fine for me. I've sent them an email. Will be interesting to see what they write back.