I found out the hard way about the recall on the Stilo yesterday. Driving along at 30mph on a residential street and BANG! People came out of their houses to see what the noise was. The front of the car dropped and I skidded to a halt. I thought it was a blowout and jacked the car up to change the tyre. When I removed the wheel I seen straight away that the spring had broke clean in two and destroyed the tyre.


Photos are below. I had the car recovered to the local dealer. I contacted Fiat UK this morning to see if they can help with the cost of the repair.

Has anyone else requested help from Fiat to cover the cost of repair? The car is an 04 Multiwagon with 39k on the clock.

Forgive the pun but that was a lucky break; imagine the scenario at 70mph. I would insist that Fiat met all of the costs.

I know. The scary thing is that we were heading away for the weekend on Friday and the journey is mostly motorway. If it had happened then we would have been in serious trouble with a full load and a 3 year old in the car.

Did you not get a letter from fiat about the recall.

daza001 said:

Did you not get a letter from fiat about the recall.

Click to expand...

No. Should I have got one? Did anyone else get a letter?

Steven said:

No. Should I have got one? Did anyone else get a letter?

Click to expand...

my wife got one and had it done, the recall is designed to stop the spring from hitting the tyre, but springs do break unfortunatly.
glad no one was hurt.

Steven said:

Has anyone else requested help from Fiat to cover the cost of repair? The car is an 04 Multiwagon with 39k on the clock.

Click to expand...

I would think the only way you'd get any help from Fiat would be if you could prove you never received the recall notice, but if you've not had the car from new, perhaps a previous owner got the notice and ignored it.

I don't know how many times or for how long Fiat persue ignored recalls.

You may be lucky and get a goodwill payment from Fiat or your dealer.

Dave.

Steven said:

I found out the hard way about the recall on the Stilo yesterday. Driving along at 30mph on a residential street and BANG! People came out of their houses to see what the noise was. The front of the car dropped and I skidded to a halt. I thought it was a blowout and jacked the car up to change the tyre. When I removed the wheel I seen straight away that the spring had broke clean in two and destroyed the tyre.


Photos are below. I had the car recovered to the local dealer. I contacted Fiat UK this morning to see if they can help with the cost of the repair.

Has anyone else requested help from Fiat to cover the cost of repair? The car is an 04 Multiwagon with 39k on the clock.

Click to expand...

is it a fiat dealer you have had the car taken to
if it is they should be able to check if car has been recalled or not

Steven said:

No. Should I have got one? Did anyone else get a letter?

Click to expand...

Just about everyone I think you'll find

We've had extensive polls on this issue and it mostly happens at the start of a journey (at low speed) but the 'spring catcher' recall makes it a lot safer.

Dave (Davren) has pretty much covered what you can expect.

mine broke 15 minutes into a drive home. i had the catcher but where it broke it still could have hit the tyre

i've got the standard springs in my garage if you want to buy them. £50 for all 4.

i think from fiat one spring is about £120....

coyle said:

i've got the standard springs in my garage if you want to buy them. £50 for all 4.

Click to expand...

Your springs are too lightweight for the Multiwagon.

Stick an ad in classifieds if you want rid but most people I think give them away if they're already used.

My NS went and I didn't even notice. Well, until I parked up and noticed the LHS of the car was lower than the other Gave me an idea of what the Sportlines will do though

Fiat dealer wasn't brilliant about it though. They replaced both the springs and the tyre that got damaged, but only footed the bill for one of the springs even though I argued the point that the incident was related to a recall measure that hadn't been actioned and I shouldn't at least have to pay for the tyre that was damaged. Stubborn service department wouldn't budge though and cost me a fair a few pennies :shakehead:

I guess the bright side of it and indeed your incident though is that a big accident was avoided.

I was made aware of the recall re. the spring catcher on this forum and had the JTD sample Fiat's Technical Rep. left with my local dealer fitted to my car... it was the first spring catcher mod they fitted to a JTD Stilo.

NSF spring still snapped, and the first 2/3rds of a turn at the bottom was rattling around in the bottom of the spring cup / catcher mod and that's what caught my attention. Car still sat level, no pulling on the steering and still rock steady on M1 @ 90 in that condition, as me and the missus figured it happened during a visit to London/Canvey Island earlier during that week.

Dealer replaced both front springs and anti rollbar links, for which we settled the 370 quid bill initially but a couple of well worded e-mails to the effect of a 4 year old car with 36.5K that has had the recall done and has a full fiat service history to boot should not have suffered this expensive premature failure.

2 months later and Mrs WNWL's persistence paid off and they refunded the full 370... which just left us 90 quid out of pocket for the Micra we hired to get us by whilst our JTD was with the local Fiat Dealer, suppose this was fair enough as the anti rollbar links are about 110 quid supply and fit a pair at dealer prices.

broke my left spring last week,
took my stilo to a fiat garage and they replaced my two front springs and two drop links for the recall letter.


that saved me a few bob

the mechanic said if the springs are broke they have to replace them....

recall number 5044....

2 Words. F*****G HELL! This morning driving steady as usual, braked coming up to a roundabout and then BANG!!! It sounded just like when my drivers side front spring broke about a month go. Initially i thought it came from the back so i immediately stopped the car and inspected it. Looked fine to me so i carried on my journey praying it wasn't the spring. Just earlier i had a proper look and to my surprise... Passenger side front spring has gone. Its broken right at the bottom and lost about half a ring of the spring which i have removed. I know its not safe to drive with a broken spring but the last time i never knew it was broke and drove it normally for over 3 weeks, even making a trip to london from manchester and back with a full load at "spirited" speeds.

I'm thinking of now replacing all four springs just to be safe, however being the bank holiday weekedn, its going to be a few days before i can order the parts and get them fitted. Is it safe to drive at city speeds or will it damage other parts?

Also, i'm thinking of changing to lowering springs, only the minimum amount about 30/35mm. Any suggestions or advice on replacing road springs only?

Hi CCM loads of replacement springs available both OEM and lowered try shop4parts and there is a guide for replacing them in the Guide section,I did both my fronts myself in 3 hours if your gonna DIY buy some decent spring compressors £25ish or buy the springs whip the struts off your car 30 mins a side and ask a local garage to swap em for ya (safest option) make sure they line the top bearings up properly (it's in the guide)

Karl.

I wouldnt use fiat springs ever again go boge or lesforge [sp]better quality..I have always done my own as well its not rocket science but can be dangerous IF you haven't got the correct equipment..

I'll definately never use Fiat springs again. I also won't be fitting the springs myself as i don't have the confidence to change such a part that can cause serious damage, to me and the car!

Are Spax, Gmax or PI any good? Just the lowering springs.

I'd have thought the real issue here is just how silly it is to only change one spring when it's a virtual certainty the 2nd will break soon after

I know some dealers can be quite dumb in this area but it's a point constantly made on the Forum.

New oem springs are very unlikely to break again in the short term (say 4 years) and that's assuming they're still fitting the factory originals.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with the original suspension unless you intend spending big bucks as otherwise you'll likely degrade the handling