I have an old Fiat Stilo with intermittent 'not starting up' problem although the engine makes continued pre starting noises. The dashboard screen shows 'Loose connection' message with a spanner symbol. After a an hour or so, when the ignition key is turned again, it starts up as normal and the message vanishes not to be found in the logged errors upon diagnostics. My car, then continues to start up normal for a week or so before it happens all over again.

By the time AA arrives the problem rectifies itself somehow every time. This has happened three times now. It's otherwise a good car with only 54000 mileage and I want to keep it. Can anyone help?

Hi, Welcome to the FF.

When you try to start the car, does the engine turn over but not start? or does nothing happen?

What type of noises?

Which engine?

How old is the battery?
.

Thanks for replying.

When I turn the key and hold it in the maximum turned position, the engine continues to make the good healthy sound as if it's just about to start but never actually starts. Yes it seems like engine turning over but not quite making it to 'starting up'. It's unlike when battery is dead or faulty and the starting up sound is just 'cluck cluck' and then it dies.

My battery is only 3 to 4 months old. It's 1.9 engine size. Kindly let me know where can I find the info about my engine that you require.

have the basics checked - fuel filter especially, you need to make sure you are getting fuel to the injectors.

I have just encountered exactly the same problem on my Abarth. Loose connection seems to be quite a common problem but not this kind of loose connection where it's intermittent and dissappears once started.

I have found that after driving and leaving it off for 15 mins to an hour it will fail to start and display loose connection followed by engine management light. Leaving it for longer than an hour it starts up fine, same as leaving it for 5 or 10 mins.

Once it fails to start if I leave it for 5 mins or so or even just keep trying to start it (10 times or more) it starts and everything is fine.

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit but it seems our problems are very similar if not the same. Wondering if it's bad earth or maybe D4 connector related?
Going to have a look at mine this afternoon.

neonath said:

I have just encountered exactly the same problem on my Abarth. Loose connection seems to be quite a common problem but not this kind of loose connection where it's intermittent and dissappears once started.

I have found that after driving and leaving it off for 15 mins to an hour it will fail to start and display loose connection followed by engine management light. Leaving it for longer than an hour it starts up fine, same as leaving it for 5 or 10 mins.

Once it fails to start if I leave it for 5 mins or so or even just keep trying to start it (10 times or more) it starts and everything is fine.

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit but it seems our problems are very similar if not the same. Wondering if it's bad earth or maybe D4 connector related?
Going to have a look at mine this afternoon.

Click to expand...

I had exactly the same issue with my fiat Stilo 1.6. EXACTLY the strange behavior of leaving it after running and if I come back in 15-20 min it didn't start.


In my case no warning message appeared.


I changed a lot of things since the problem started. But I have a suspicion that it is from the Coils. I changed them with second hand ones (along with a lot of things in the car) and it stopped with this problem. I was not sure why.


It was OK for a year since recently where I went to the service and they said that the coils I've put on the car are rubbish. I took the original ones and they said that are much better and put them back on the car. Now I have issue with the car randomly cutting off with no warning message or with "alternator failure" or "engine fault"... I suspect that the coils are the reason...
I don't want to give you an advice to change them as they are expensive and can not guarantee that the problem is there. I will check the service in Thursday and if I have more info I will come back but if you can check them somehow it is worth trying.




For the original post - in my case when I tried changing the Crankshaft position sensor it bought a faulty one. It said loose connection and the car had trouble starting. Maybe there is a way to test it and check if this is the reason.


Again I am sharing experience but this problem for me is still a mystery and cant say what is exactly the reason so don't rush into buying and changing expensive parts . :/

neonath said:

I have just encountered exactly the same problem on my Abarth. Loose connection

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit but it seems our problems are very similar if not the same. Wondering if it's bad earth or maybe D4 connector related?
Going to have a look at mine this afternoon.

Click to expand...

any progress..??

Thanks everyone for replying.

The fuel filter was found to be very dirty and has been changed. A crank sensor faulty signal was found by Halford diagnotics and has been rectified today for £60. Halford guy said that Fiat's sensory fault logs are only read by more sophisticated diagnostics. I don't know if it was overly charged!
Anyway, now I have to wait for few weeks to see if the problem has really gone or not. Whatever the outcome, I will update here.

Thanks again. Cheers.

I have been checking over so many things and can't find faults anywhere.
Took it to my local garage earlier and plugged it in and also found faulty speed sensor (crank sensor) so am ordering one and he's fitting it for free in the hope it will solve the problem.
Will also keep you updated if it fixes the problem or doesn't.

I was under the impression that the petrol (my abarth) models didn't have a fuel filter? So I'm assuming yours is a diesel?
I hope the fixes you have done will help solve the problem as it's a real pain!

Just to update...the crank sensor completely fixed the problem for me, no more issues and no more faults popping up

It's been over a month and my car is working fine. I am feeling confident in my Stilo once again. You are right crank sensor fix worked. Thanks.