(G) Rude Fiat Dealer

If it is the T9 relay they wont be able to connect the diag machine so you'll be wasting money again.

Just had a call from the dealer and basically they wanna charge and extra £83 on top of the £25 to investigate the camline sensor, I said before you do that can you check the T9, the dealer goes yes at a cost of £16 to check, clean and reconnect the T9, I would rather then check that first than investigate for a further hour checking the camline, if this doest rectify the problem them I'm goin to have to seriously consider selling the car with tagline 'tlc needed'

No luck on the T9, so basically with the £25 diag, £16 to check the T9, they advised it would be £85 for extra hour to investigate the camline sensor, I then haggled a lil and he dropped the extra hour to £50, haggled a bit more and got the total down to £85 if this doesn't bring forth a definite fault, then I'm definitely going to be selling.

Anyone have any final words of advise!!

"investigate the camline sensor" = take a peep.

Lets hope the "peep" finds your fault and not the usual "lets make him pay for us to put loads of new parts on it and hope it fixes it".

Hey Stu, yh I suppose its worth a 'peep'
Its a last chance saloon 'peep' though
After this its an ebay/autotrader listing!!!

I think I have been defeated, the 'peep' turned up no possible solution, other than needing more investigation to find the fault, they say its 'a needle in a haystack fault', which may prove expensive to find, on the other hand it could be something simple.

Im considering contacting Motormech in Birmingham to see if they can provide an over the phone solution before deciding on what to do, this car has really taking its toll on my pocket £470 to be exact, im also considering getting my 4 years no claims and then "writing it off" .

I know its only a decision I can make, but can someone else out there in FF land give me some useful advise.

I've heard good things about Motormech, but I think even they will struggle to solve the fault you have. Its going to be very time consuming so will be expensive.

A friendly scrap yard that is breaking a Stilo 1.6 could be a solution. Keep swopping any suspect components and hope you find the faulty one.

Because the fault was happening at a regular time spans, I still think it may be related to some sort of electrical build up or discharge. A loose connection for example would be unpredictable giving different amounts of run time. While the car was at mine the fault was almost perfectly timed making me think its a component failure not a connection issue.

Edit
Stilos dont like being jump strarted or having their batteries charged without first disconnecting the battery. Have you jump started the car or fast charged the battery? This could have destroyed or partly destroyed an component.

Left it too late to call the breakers on Clarkes Lane.

Possible have jump/bump started it once or twice and may have been charged at a garage previously. If thats the case locating that component may be time and cost consuming.

Shadey's idea of static build up is not without precedent. Mk 4 Escorts used to suffer from it reguarly in the crankshaft sensor wires. Disconnecting and reconnecting the connector would cure it temporarily.

Disconnecting all of the sensor wires and the engine management connector for a minute or two doesn't cost anything so could be worth a try.

Leave the ignition switched off while doing it or there'll be lots of fault codes when you next switch it on.

What's the camline sensor you mentioned earlier?

Yh Shadey has again offered his services to help me (well it will be mainly him) find the fault or diagnose, going to drop the car of Sunday, so may be able to check the sensor wires then.

I think i heard the Fiat dealer incorrectly as my search on camline bought up nothing on google, I think he was referring to the CAN line but again I could be wrong

The breakers on Clarkes Lane has a Petrol Stilo in, not sure what CC it is but as its only around the corner from me I'll try and isolate the affending part by trial and error. Swop a part I think could be causing the problem and see what happens. Just gotta hope the owner of the breakers is a nice guy and will let me keep swopping parts till I find the right one.

Shanes car is back at my place after Fiat charged him for a print out of the error codes I had already given him.

I managed to connect FiatECUScan to the body computer to see what error codes if any were stored, BINGO!(see attached screen print)

B1029 - Serial Line W .... Come on FIAT you completely missed this one.(or did they?)

Any help would be very much appreciated by Shane and myself.

Only reference I can find relating to B1029 on a Stilo JTD is here:

http://www.ilexa.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=26936.0

New fuse box cured this one.

I know you've cleaned the D4 connector and engine fuse box connectors but perhaps a look inside the engine fuse box would reveal something. They are very prone to water ingress. I had to completely dismantle mine to fully dry it out and clean it.

Thanks Dave.

That further supports my theory that its a component failure not a connection problem.

Can you clarify that the fuse box they replaced is the one under the bonnet? I've read it twice, just want a second opinion.

I've seen the havok a faulty fuse box can cause first hand. Its a great place to start.

Have anyone here had one of these things apart and can offer a little guidance? Or will I be the first?

I assumed from reading it that it was the under bonnet engine fuse box. That's the only one likely to get water, and therefore, corrosion in it.

I had mine apart a few years ago. I don't see why a new fuse box was required in the ilexa thread, there's nothing in the fuse box except all the seperate metal sockets for the fuses and relays.

The two halves of the grey fuse box come apart but you need to be very carefull when seperating them as all the sockets are liable to fall out. This would make it quite difficult to know where to replace them in their correct places. I spread all mine out on a table so I could see where they all went.

Could try swapping for a know good fuse box for test purposes but according to ePER there are 19 different versions of it.

EDIT: If/when you get all the sockets out, test them all individually for tightness with their respective fuse/relay terminals.