Technical Engine Cutting out after Kwik Fit touched it!

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Technical Engine Cutting out after Kwik Fit touched it!

lorinclark88

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Hi everyone, I am fairly useless when it comes to cars but have tried my best since joining this forum to improve!

Basically last week, I went shopping in Essex and thought while there I'll take my car into a Kwik Fit to have my air con sorted out. The "mechanic" told me I had such a major leak that they couldnt even vacuum the system and test with the uv dye (dont know if this is all true, just took their word for it)

I went shopping for a few hours and asked if they could try and find the leak visually. After an hour and a half I got a call saying they took the front part of the car off to look at the condensor and said it needed replacing and would be about £400+ To which I replied "leave it and I'll have no aircon"

I later arrived back at the Kwik fit store and collected my car, rather upset that I couldnt get the aircon fixed. They didnt charge me anything though so I was relieved but unsure as to wether they had even taken off the front of the car like they said they had.

On the way home back from Essex to London I was driving about 50mph on the A12 when "bing" asr failure, alternator fault, loose connection comes up on the dashboard and all lights up and engine cuts out. :(

I turn engine off and it starts up fine, then 1/2 mile down the road it happens again and at this point I get worried. I wait over 3 hours to be collected by RAC and get taken home. they dump my car back and they say "thats it, take it to a garage and see whats wrong"

I had to go to work the next day so I spent hours on here trying to find cures for the fault and put it into practice.

First, I checked the voltage of the battery and all readings were fine, secondly I checked, removed and cleaned thoroughly the engine earth screw following the guide. I then went through and cleaned conn terminals on battery and even D4 connector.

However a week later and the fault keeps re occurring 2/3 times a day :(

Is it possible that Kwik Fit could have messed something up, maybe another earth screw when taking off the front to inspect the condensor.

Please any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks :)
 
hmm i would doubt it tbh unless they damaged some wiring, i cant why they would touch the alternator. but then again this is quick fit
what engine do you have?

as for your aircon, they are talking bs again. you will probo find that the pipe is broken - very common fault ive had to replace 2 of these so far over 3 stilos,
even if your condesor is knackard

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/F...oling-and-Heating/Air-Conditioning/Condensers
the pipe that breaks is £70 from stealers

im my sums if both of them needed changing that is still not £400+

if your in the south essex way basildon / southend / down to redbridge, i can give you a number of a mobile air con specialist that will do a very good job and is reasonable with the prices.

i wont ever touch kwikfit again, they ripped a friend of mine off big time.
i did get her money back though and they lost a very loyal customer
 
thanks for the speedy reply!!

I will take your advice on the aircon when I have some spare cash but as for the engine cutting out, am really desperate to get it solved!

The engine is a 1.6 (5Dr Stilo) Apparently there are many faults on this model, is it just coincidence that my car is going crazy just hours after Kwik Fit touch it?

and Cheers for the reccomendation of mobile air con specialist but I actually live in London (i doubt he's that mobile lol) but I'll keep it in mind!! :)
 
I'd look for a poor contact in the main power supply. ABS is one of the first systems to notice a drop in voltage and the "Lost connection" fault warning tells you the rest. For the engine to stop then I'd look for a problem at the main earth lines eg battery earth (you don't say which one you treated but go for the main battery earth as in the Stilo guides) and the ECU earth

Is it possible that Kwik Fit could have messed something up, maybe another earth screw when taking off the front to inspect the condensor.
It's possible as everything stretches when you jack the car up but it would have to be a weak point to start with. Why they had to "remove the front of the car" only they would know

Re your aircon
As Roy says, it's a common fault to have a fractured air con pipe and it's not too expensive to have it replaced and your aircon system purged and charged, certainly nothing like £400
 
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Thanks deckchair for the advice. I have only checked one earth screw, the one shown in the guide and it Is now clean and making good contact. This morning I went for a drive and after 10mins of driving it cut out again. It then died again and again and now won't start! The irony was I was on my way to garage to get it tested by diagnostics for faults. Now waiting for RAC again, i'll show him your suggestions and maybe it can be fixed :s
 
i think your gona have to get the car on a diagnostics or if you have the leads find out what fault codes the car is bringing up.
engine wise we have had two and found the engines to pretty reliable, infact the only real issues with the 1.6 are wear and tear items like coil packs and dirty throttle bodies.
now the gearbox thats a different matter.
ive sent you a pm, give him a ring when you have solved the problem
roy
 
I know it may seem obvious but have you checked your battery terminals for tightness? Kwik sh...t should have disconnected the battery to "remove the front of the car" and may have gotten tired afterwards
 
I know it may seem obvious but have you checked your battery terminals for tightness? Kwik sh...t should have disconnected the battery to "remove the front of the car" and may have gotten tired afterwards

Good point.

The useless :tosser: couldn't even replace my battery tray properly after rejecting a valid battery warrentee claim, and taking the p'ee out of my CB radio system :mad:
 
Hi guys have double checked battery terminals and all is fine, took my ECU out and it was VERY hot; too hot to take out without letting it cool down, is this normal?

If not I may have found the problem! I remember seeing a post on here about reballing the ECU? Going to try this at work with our soldering iron; its a specialist one - very expensive, which will make the job alot easier hopefully!!! (y)

Will let you know how I get on tonight once I fit it back in!! Until then fingers crossed!!
 
took my ECU out and it was VERY hot; too hot to take out without letting it cool down, is this normal?
No, so there's a bad circuit there somewhere. Someone with a similar problem decided to mount and insulate the ECU off the metal mounting plate which cured it but this showed that the ECU was earthing through the case and not through the earth wire. So check out the ECU earth line integrity first

Good luck with the resolder if you need it and take some pics if you can:)
 
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Hi eveyone,

Bad News I'm afraid.

I have opened up ECU and my friend at work reballed the chip. Put it all back together and everything should have been ok.....

BUT... When I switch ignition on the enginelight comes on straight away and car begins to die. If I press down on the accelerator it stops it from dying and sluggishly idles.

Dont know what to do next but I guess it'll have to be towed to a fiat stealer and get it diagnosed and fixed (Scared to think how much this will all cost)
 
I never did a throttle relearn procedure, had a look in the guides section and couldnt find it; is there one? If there is can you tell me the title of the guide, and if there isnt would you be able to tell me how too?

Many Thanks!! :)
 
Throttle relearn

1) switch ignition on (DONT START) for one minute
2) switch ignition off one minute
3) start car (DONT TOUCH THROTTLE AT ALL) and let idle until cooling fan cuts in (10-15mins)
4) switch off
5) repeat step 1
6) repeat step 2

Picked from a previous post

John
 
Hi guys have double checked battery terminals and all is fine, took my ECU out and it was VERY hot; too hot to take out without letting it cool down, is this normal?

If not I may have found the problem! I remember seeing a post on here about reballing the ECU? Going to try this at work with our soldering iron; its a specialist one - very expensive, which will make the job alot easier hopefully!!! (y)

Will let you know how I get on tonight once I fit it back in!! Until then fingers crossed!!

Like Deckchair has said it sounds like something within the ECU is drawing excessive current, could be the ECU or an external connection.

I'm not sure why you have attempted to re-ball the processor, if there was a loose connection it is likely that one or more pads of the processor would not be connected to the PCB, this however should not lead to excessive current being drawn and in any case re-balling of the processor is unlikely to be required as in most cases heating the chip would be enough to reconnect the ball to the chip / .

Re-balling a BGA chip is only required if for some reason a BGA chip is removed from a PCB, this can be whilst checking a chip by substitution or if the chip is to be reused on another PCB.

It could be that from your original fault you might either be unlucky or you might have inadvertently created a second fault.

Any way good luck with finding the fault and be sure to keep us posted.
 
Well after avoiding the main dealer like the plague, and trying everything else prior to visiting them, I call them... and after 30seconds on the phone I'm already fuming! They said: well we're really busy, be 4-5 weeks."

4-5 weeks? U have got to be kidding me! Looks like they don't want to know. Anyone who can advise where to get a diagnostics done in or around croydon area?

Many thanks
 
Hi everyone, I am fairly useless when it comes to cars but have tried my best since joining this forum to improve!

Basically last week, I went shopping in Essex and thought while there I'll take my car into a Kwik Fit to have my air con sorted out. The "mechanic" told me I had such a major leak that they couldnt even vacuum the system and test with the uv dye (dont know if this is all true, just took their word for it)

I went shopping for a few hours and asked if they could try and find the leak visually. After an hour and a half I got a call saying they took the front part of the car off to look at the condensor and said it needed replacing and would be about £400+ To which I replied "leave it and I'll have no aircon"

I later arrived back at the Kwik fit store and collected my car, rather upset that I couldnt get the aircon fixed. They didnt charge me anything though so I was relieved but unsure as to wether they had even taken off the front of the car like they said they had.

On the way home back from Essex to London I was driving about 50mph on the A12 when "bing" asr failure, alternator fault, loose connection comes up on the dashboard and all lights up and engine cuts out. :(

I turn engine off and it starts up fine, then 1/2 mile down the road it happens again and at this point I get worried. I wait over 3 hours to be collected by RAC and get taken home. they dump my car back and they say "thats it, take it to a garage and see whats wrong"

I had to go to work the next day so I spent hours on here trying to find cures for the fault and put it into practice.

First, I checked the voltage of the battery and all readings were fine, secondly I checked, removed and cleaned thoroughly the engine earth screw following the guide. I then went through and cleaned conn terminals on battery and even D4 connector.

However a week later and the fault keeps re occurring 2/3 times a day :(

Is it possible that Kwik Fit could have messed something up, maybe another earth screw when taking off the front to inspect the condensor.

Please any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks :)


Will be keeping an eye on this thread as im suffering the exact intermittent cut out 1/3 times a day, then car restarts fine.

Please take a look at my thread (i dont wish to re-direct interest, just find a solution) https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/243830-cruising-down-m6-my-car-shuts-down.html
 
Ok Guys,

I am sooo Happy!! All is ok with my car now!! I did the throttle relearn proceedure wrong the first time, i did not let the car idle for 10-15mins.

Now everything is fine and the engine light has even dissappeared!!


Thanks to everyone on this forum all of your replies, thoughts and suggestions have resulted in my car working.... And best of all I never spent any money; just hours of my time but in the end it all worked out!!

I can keep my Stilo now and even better remain an active user of this great forum!!

PS I have renewed my insurance with Knotts and have been quoted an amazing price!! Thanks Fiat Forum Insurance!!

Happy ending!! :D
 
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