Technical Fiat finally concede, but not totally

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Technical Fiat finally concede, but not totally

JW

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Stilo 1.6 Dynamic is now JUST out of warranty. I've had three probs for the whole time I've had the car. Absolutely nothng got done for three years !
Creaking rear suspension
Pulling to the left
Lumpy idle and engine stalling etc

All of these are pretty well documented in this forum

Wrote to Fiat cust care, next thing I get a call from local dealer asking me to take the car in.
Finally they seem to have taken me seriously !

1. Creaking suspension couldn't be heard on the day I took them out for a test. So nothing got done. what is the concensus of opinion among board members. Is it a known issue?
2. Pulling to the left. They agree it does, but they say ALL Stilos do that. Again, the members here seem to have had different results from getting the prob sorted to finally agreeing that it is a design fault. anyone have a definative view on this?
3. Some good news. Instead of just re programming the ECU again, they finally replaced it with one day of the warranty period left. Although they said that nothing was wrong, they even, at the request of FIAT, took and ECU out of a brand new stilo and compared all of the figures with those given by mine. The only difference being something to do with idle rpm. Becasue there WAS a difference they made the replacement. This has in fact sorted all of my engine issues, including, as it happens, all of the faults I kept getting reported on my dash display.

Anyway, anyone any views on the two issues I didn't manage to get Fiat to sort.
Suspension creaks in rear and pulling to the left?
 
The creaking suspension is easy to sort mate just squirt some silcone lubricant on the top mount bushes, which you can do yourself. Your car pulling to the left will most likely be the tracking, again you can take it to a trye fitting place that has a 4 wheel laser alignment facility & they should be able to sort it. (y)
 
Creaking suspension is something that Fiat suspensions seem to do. It's rubber and it moves so it creaks. Mine only creaks if I'm turning and going over a sizeable bump at the same time. I hardly notice so it doesn't bother me. Like Ben says, some rubber silicone spray works wonders if it's driving you nuts

Steering though is a pain quite literally if it's pulling all the time. Mine is a similar car to yours and it steers as straight as a laser so you don't have to put up with it. It's not "something that Stilos do" unless it's set up wrong. I always do my own tracking so unless you have a suspension fault then that's where your problem lies.

A car that's constantly pulling will tear the tread off in no time and the tyres are expensive so you want to get it fixed without delay
 
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As deskchair says, pulling to the left is not something that all Stilos do, they are talking crap. Start with the wheel alignment, if that fixes send the receipt to Fiat and ask for them to refund you. Have you checked the inside of your tyres? Any excessaive wear?

Creaking suspension, all Stilos do that!
 
Does it physically pull to the left! You constantly having to drive away from the kerb? Or.... is it drifting towards the kerb? As said, if its actually pulling then it could be tracking, or tyre pressures! As for drifting, i've read that this is a feature of most new cars, in combination with road camber!
 
Drift is normal, all cars will drift down a camber of the road, if they dont then the vehicle is actually pulling to the right to counteract drift.
Pulling is not normal, if a vehicle pulls to one side it can be due to tyres, suspension geometry (including damage), tyre pressures, tight suspension joints, pas, etc. HOWEVER from experience I would advise a four wheel alignment to be carried out. The vehicle must be on turning plates when this is done, if not the figures are not accurate.
 
Thanks everyone. I think it pulls to the left as opposed to drifts. I think I will try and get a four wheel alignment as you most all suggest. Good idea about sending Fiat the bill if it turns out that that fixes the prob.
 
Every car i have had has had some degree of left pulling.

And in 2 years i have had quite a lot of rental cars (around 15) as well as my own and they have all got something like that.

Only one that was really drastic was the ibiza when it had a new tyre (coz of a ripped sidewall) on one side and an old one on the other- that pulled to the right so i switched it round and it pull to the left-which i thought was safer. Had i not been a student it would have had 2 new uns on.
 
About pulling aside, a have complained to my dealer about it about 10 times, and they said it's normal.
I decided to change garage, and they found some problems on my car that dealer said it was all ok.
I changed my height adjustments motors on both of headlights, and now I need to change entire headlight unit cause something broke on it, and the dealer 'didn't noticed it'

My right door (passangerside) wasn't unlocking in moisture conditins (fog, rain etc), dealer said they could't find it again (even after I demonstrated failure using key and trying to unlock the door with the key, they unlocked, but other doors didn't).

Finally, pulling aside.
The new garage said that's design problem and all stilos have it, just some drivers do not notice it.
He said that they have a solution; they have some partner that's fixing the steering rod(not sure about name, you now, the rod thats connecting wheels and your steering wheel) cause there's some excesive spacing in there.
When I asked for the price of that, he said that it will be at no charge since car is still under warranty.

So, Fiat surely knows about it, but is trying to keep it as low and quieter as possible.
Some time after New Year, I will have this done, so will keep you posted.

Problem is that wheels was needing alignment, and he said that they did an alignment, but it will happend again unless the rod is repaired.
I think this is quite possible, since I had my wheels aligned, and it was better, but after some time, car start wondering arround and pulling aside as before alignment job.
 
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