Had my aircon checked over today and would you believe it there is no gas what so ever as one of the alloy pipes has a leak. apparently according to the guy every stilo he has been to service this has been the case. its the pipe out of the compressor that is about a centermeter away from skid pan. has anyone else had this problem and do you know how much it will be to get this part? cheers

common fault,use the 'search' function in stilo technical section

Yes it very common, they break under strain with engine movement. Newer air con pipes have a longer flexible section so shouldn't snap so easily under stress.

It's not so much the cost of the new pipe (around £35) or even fitting it that's difficult, it's the fact the whole system has lost its gas and will need a total recharge that it'll be more cost effective to have the whole job done by a proper air con engineer.

Hi Steely,

I had this pipe replaced by SGM (Fiat main dealer) in Fareham, Hampshire on the 23rd of April 07 and the costs were...

Pipe: £63.15
Labour (2.5 hours): £156.25
VAT: £38.40

TOTAL: £257.80

This did include re-gassing although I had to initially pay around £89 for a test re-gas were they use some sort of dye to determine were the leak is.

Hope the info helps.

Andy

How's yours fairing Decks?

Mine is still going strong :tempt: and the car is coming up to 5 years.

It gets abused too as one side affect of having the sky-roof is that you have to force yourself to use the AirCon (and I can often forget for a month or so )

Yep, my air con's great! Love it
Had to replace the pipe when i bought the car you might remember although that was a long time ago now.

Should have been a recall to replace the early pipes as it didn't have enough flexi in it and would snap with engine movement. New pipes have much longer flexi part. Once that's done they seem to last well

£89 for a test regas. Strewth! What's that? Connect up and try to charge takes one minute. See an air con engineer first next time and they will check and advise for nothing usually

Carbontm said:

Hi Steely,

I had this pipe replaced by SGM (Fiat main dealer) in Fareham, Hampshire on the 23rd of April 07 and the costs were...

Pipe: £63.15
Labour (2.5 hours): £156.25
VAT: £38.40

TOTAL: £257.80

This did include re-gassing although I had to initially pay around £89 for a test re-gas were they use some sort of dye to determine were the leak is.

Click to expand...

£257!! That sounds alot. Had my pipe replaced, and had a re-gas/dye added/preasure tested for £167.00 just before I sold the Stilo in March. This was a little aircon specialists in the centre of Birmingham.

This is another design fault on a component that FIAT deny all knowledge of!

jmac said:

This is another design fault on a component that FIAT deny all knowledge of!

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So why would they design a new pipe then

That's more than some manufacturers do.

I meant that when I argued the point with FIAT, when my pipe broke, they denied that there was a fault with it, even when I pointed out to them that they had changed the length of the pipe and must therefore have known that there was a fault with this pipe! All I wanted was the pipe and gas replaced under warranty, but FIAT denied all knowledge.

Was this your local dealer or do you mean Fiat UK?

There seems to be a big variance between Fiat garages in terms of level of service you get

If this is a common problem, then how can any garage carrying a Fiat badge not change it under a 'fix on fail' warranty ??
IMO Fiat should get off their arses and get a remedy ticket out. And about coils and springs too for that matter. In fact, about a lot of things, but lets be realistic.

I found that mine was not working shortly after buying my car ..and yes that pipe is broken ..personaly I dont car two hoots whether its working or not and in two minds now contemplating stripping the whole system out ..

PNL said:

I found that mine was not working shortly after buying my car ..and yes that pipe is broken ..personaly I dont car two hoots whether its working or not and in two minds now contemplating stripping the whole system out ..

Click to expand...

I couldn't bear it without aircon, whatever the season.

Two words Phil












Global Warming!

Can anyone name one car in this price range that does not have a design fault.....or any price range come to think of it.

T14086 said:

Can anyone name one car in this price range that does not have a design fault.....or any price range come to think of it.

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I agree. Most, if not all, cars will have design faults.
HOWEVER, some manufacturers are better than others in dealing with them when they arise or are found out about. If issues are a 'known problem' then why do manufacturers argue about it, but do nothing to resolve the issues, or to give confidence that they actually give a damn after they have taken your money??

I know all dealers are not bad, I have heard nothing but praise for the dealer at Nuneaton (near to where I work) but the one near where I live are really, really crap (Mansfield), from my experiences anyway.

T14086 said:

Can anyone name one car in this price range that does not have a design fault.....or any price range come to think of it.

Click to expand...

Yep the austin A35 it was my first car and bullet proof the morris 100 was another one that springs to mind as well :devil:

PNL said:

Yep the austin A35 it was my first car and bullet proof the morris 100 was another one that springs to mind as well :devil:

Click to expand...

Ha! You obviously conveniently forgot about sticking starter motor Bendix drives or wet ignition components causing the weak HT to leak away

Back onto the topic of the aircon pipe...
Mine's not giving any problems, but I wonder if there is some way to improve the flexibility of the mountings, etc.? Perhaps remove a clamp or two and use foam rubber/elastic bands/cable ties... Next time I have my Stilo out, I'll take a look.

-Alex

Argo, the argument I had was with FIAT UK. I argued that the pipe had been 'rubbing' and had worn through and eventually snapped. My local FIAT garage said that the pipe had been broken by being hit, "possibly going over a speed bump"!!! I argued the point with FIAT that the pipe had worn through. FIAT would have none of it and sided with the garage. When I bought a new hose and saw that it had been modified I got back on to FIAT and argued the case that they must have known that there was a fault in the component if they modified it, they still refused to admit this.