Hey everyone!

First of all, thanks for reading all of this. This is my first car and I have no idea what should be considered as a real problem and what is a typical Fiat/Stilo problem.

I just bought a Stilo a few days ago and as a first car I kinda like it. I bought it from one of the family's friends who is (was) the first owner of the car, he had a lot of invoices and other stuff to keep track of the car's repairs. I even got the invoice from the day he bought the car back in 2002. It's a 1.2 gasoline, 5 door Active model.

BUT, I noticed some strange things (electrical) and I need a little help/advice. I did not find anything about these in the manual.

1. Opening/closing the car with the remote works ok (although one of the remotes is not working), but the turn signals won't blink/light up on open/close. The car doesn't have an alarm system. (I think.)

2. Whenever I start the car it gives me all kind of errors (brake system failure, asr failure, etc.) and throws a little service icon, but after the engine is running for a few seconds these go away.

3. I also noticed that after starting the engine the "CITY" sign shows on the display (without turning it on). I do not experience any problems with the 'normal' servo. The 'CITY' button is working, but I can't really tell the difference between city on/off mode. I tried to go faster with the city mode on (about 80kph/50mph) but it did not turn off automatically.

I'm also having other problems here and there (lock button on the driver's door opens all the doors, but won't lock, light in the left door is out, can't lock the door(s) with pyhisical key from the driver's side), but I think these are realtively minor problems compared to the other ones I mentioned above.

Other than these the car just runs fine, and it's in really mint condition (I know, it's 15 years old, but still! ). We're having some colder days here in Hungary (2/-5C°) but it starts up every time fine. No strange noises, engine cooling, heating, locks, windows, A/C working. I'm happy with the purchase so far but I'd like to deal with these problems, especially if they can be dangerous while driving.

Any idea/help is appreciated.

jocee91 said:

1. Opening/closing the car with the remote works ok (although one of the remotes is not working), but the turn signals won't blink/light up on open/close. The car doesn't have an alarm system. (I think.)

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There are different country settings for the remote locking and alarm. It might well be that the vehicle is set such that it isn't going to flash.

Here in the UK the cars were only supplied with 1 remote key and 1 basic (non-remote) key. I dont know whether the same is true for your country.

Here in the UK cars are known to randomly lose their remote control keys. It happened to me once, I locked the car once, pressed again less than a second later to do the deadlocks and it didn't work. Just forgot the remote on that split second.

Of course because the UK only has 1 remote key it's not known whether the car just forgets that one remote or whether it forgets all remote when it has the error (as we only had 1 remote to start with).

I'd suspect it's forgotten that remote. The only way to reprogram is either at the dealer or using the car security code and the full version of MultiECUScan software with modified ELM cable. In the UK the cars were not supplied with the security code and these have to be purchased from the dealer. It might be that you do have your code already in your country.

jocee91 said:

2. Whenever I start the car it gives me all kind of errors (brake system failure, asr failure, etc.) and throws a little service icon, but after the engine is running for a few seconds these go away.

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Get the battery checked and clean the battery connections. I'd say your battery is probably weak. A weak battery typically gives all sorts of fancy errors.

jocee91 said:

3. I also noticed that after starting the engine the "CITY" sign shows on the display (without turning it on). I do not experience any problems with the 'normal' servo. The 'CITY' button is working, but I can't really tell the difference between city on/off mode. I tried to go faster with the city mode on (about 80kph/50mph) but it did not turn off automatically.

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See above. The power steering on the Stilo is electric, not hydraulic like on a lot of other cars, so again a weak battery may be causing the system some issues.

jocee91 said:

I'm also having other problems here and there (lock button on the driver's door opens all the doors, but won't lock, light in the left door is out, can't lock the door(s) with pyhisical key from the driver's side), but I think these are realtively minor problems compared to the other ones I mentioned above.

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Assess the battery situation before trying to address any other electrical issues. Also suggest cleaning the large multi-plug connector between the door and the car with some contact cleaner.

Thanks for the prompt reply. The city question is already sorted, looks like the car remembers the last setting when you stop it. So turning it off will make it stay off on startup. I also had the chance to test it in sharp turns and it's definately working, steering is much easier.

For other problems I'll try to clean contacts and check/reinstall battery connectors. I got all kind of errors this morning again (EBS, ABS, ASR) but it's a snowy day here and I can tell that ASR and ABS were working.

Thanks again, I'll keep you updated.

Th

jocee91 said:

Thanks for the prompt reply. The city question is already sorted, looks like the car remembers the last setting when you stop it. So turning it off will make it stay off on startup. I also had the chance to test it in sharp turns and it's definately working, steering is much easier.

For other problems I'll try to clean contacts and check/reinstall battery connectors. I got all kind of errors this morning again (EBS, ABS, ASR) but it's a snowy day here and I can tell that ASR and ABS were working.

Thanks again, I'll keep you updated.

Th

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I had a 1.2 - city mode for steering was horrible, it sort of assisted the steering too much and you lost a lot of feel of the road, i had to turn it off many times when leaving work before hitting a particular roundabout - i could very easily understeer when entering the roundabout with city mode enabled.

Turning it off made all the difference on my 1.2.

However, i now have the 1.9 Multijet and I have City constantly enabled as this motor is so heavy upfront - it does make a difference and in a good way, dont really loose much feel from the road either.

However - saying all that, i am comparing my 1.9 mulitjet diesel coal rolling machine to my old 1.2 petrol stilo that was on a huge diet and didnt have any power compared the 1.9.

dtimmins1985 Thanks for the info. I'm pretty sure that 1.9 holds much more power than 1.2 How much the consumption on that one?

I noticed some other problems though, namely:

1. One of the remotes is not working (physically opens/locks, starts). Battery is ok because the led is flashing on button press.

2. Door lock button on the side console (below window buttons) not working. Pressing 'Open' works fine, locks opening, pressing 'Lock'.. nothing.

3. Driver's door cannot be closed physically (with the key), but can be opened. Passenger's side works both way. Remote on key locks/opens everything fine, even deadlock is working on all doors.

4. Step (foot?) lamp on driver's side works sometimes.. Some other times it won't even light up all day.

Any advice for these?

These problems are kinda small but I'd like to fix them all. I also have all sorts of failure warnings on startup but after the engine is running they go away just as I mentioned so I don't really care. This situation is probably gonna get better as soon as the weather get's better (right now it's cold, foggy, rainy, snowy, so yeah, not the best).

Regards

1. If it opens locks and starts the car.... How is it not working?

2. Are you sure it’s unlocking and not locking? This button should lock the doors when pressed. I’m not sure it unlocks.. (mine locks but doesn’t unlock). Press the button then wind the window down and try to open the door using the exterior handle.

3. The door lock isn’t engaging the central locking. Try lubricating the lock in case it’s too stiff to turn fully.. otherwise you might need to start taking the lock off to check it or the central locking connections. My old Alfa 155 had this problem but in that case the car had a quarter of a million miles and no Remote key so the lock was just too worn out to turn all the way.. but yours is more likely just sticky.

4. If you open the door, does the interior light come on and do you get a door open warning on the dash? If not the car thinks the door is closed. The switch is in the door latch. Otherwise it could be a bad connection to the bulb. Just remove the light and clean the connections.

Ralf S.

Hi Ralf, thanks for your reply.

For the first one I meant that the key itself locks/unlocks the car, but not the remote part of the key. So putting the key physically in the lock and opening it works fine, however if I press the buttons on the remote nothing happens except for the led on the key that blinks of course.

By the way I was at the local Fiat service yesterday and asked about these, they said that if I really want a fix and none of the broken parts can be repaired they have to replace the lock and the door console for a HUGE amount of money (new parts from the factory of course). Fixing the remote thingy (coding/syncing the key) would also cost about 40£/45€. I thought about buying cables and software but I don't want to mess with the ECU and causing other problems down the road.

I'll upgrade the thread as soon as I'll have the time to check your suggestions.

Regards

Okay so after checking some things here are my remarks:

Ralf S. said:

2. Are you sure it’s unlocking and not locking? This button should lock the doors when pressed. I’m not sure it unlocks.. (mine locks but doesn’t unlock). Press the button then wind the window down and try to open the door using the exterior handle.

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Yes I'm sure, so mine works the other way around. When the doors are locked (eg. drive auto-lock) I can unlock them with the button but pressing the lock button won't do anything.

Ralf S. said:

3. The door lock isn’t engaging the central locking. Try lubricating the lock in case it’s too stiff to turn fully.. otherwise you might need to start taking the lock off to check it or the central locking connections. My old Alfa 155 had this problem but in that case the car had a quarter of a million miles and no Remote key so the lock was just too worn out to turn all the way.. but yours is more likely just sticky.

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I'll try some WD-40/WD-40 silicone, let's see if it helps. Btw. I can't really speak about central lock engage or stickiness because the key does not even turn in the lock. Not at all. (however it turns in the "open" direction easily and opens up the door fine, just as I mentioned)

Ralf S. said:

4. If you open the door, does the interior light come on and do you get a door open warning on the dash? If not the car thinks the door is closed. The switch is in the door latch. Otherwise it could be a bad connection to the bulb. Just remove the light and clean the connections.

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You were right about this. Interior light does not come on, computer does not tell me that the door is open. Funny, because I noticed a few days ago that the car locks itself after sitting in with the driver's door left open. That explains the behavior I guess. I'll try to disconnect the door cable and clean/spray the connections, and check the latch (it's kinda sticky) hopefully it will solve this problem.

Thanks.