I thought I would report on the reliability of my 2004 STILO 1.9 JTD

I have owned my "budget Maserati" for just over 18 months I only paid £210 for her with 6 months MOT ( how she could of had a MOT with the back bushes ,front arms etc being in the hair raising state they were I do not know).
I have travelled approximately 12000 miles in the car. I bought this car to keep down the mileage (and avoid winter salt) on my other car.

I did all the required work when I bought her (lots of it) and for the first 9 months no problems occurred.

I have also fitted cruise control and (wiring required from connector under battery tray/fusebox and stalk fitted. Then proxi alignment to get dashlight to work.

In the last 9 months I have had the following problems

ABS light coming on -- new ABS sensor fitted to one wheel . now o.k.

Passenger side wiper stopped working in heavy rain. -- Fixed by fitting 3 pound clip from Ebay. I believe this is one of the many quirks of the STILO.

Rear spring broken -- no big deal probably all the potholes. Now replaced. I believe springs are a common repacement item on the STILO

Battery replaced -- expected batteries die! STILO's need a good battery.

In the last 6 weeks -----

Rear caliper seized -- now freed off - also brake pads changed . I had already changed the other side rear caliper when I bought the car.

Rear door would not stay closed -- lubricated cleaned etc but worn out so new lock required. A bit of a rave to get door to bits but new motor and lock collected from breakers -- now fitted.

Random lights on instrument cluster ---- Cluster removed and sent off for repair (thanks yellowstilo) -- car off road 2 weeks while repaired but now back on and working ok. I believe that this is another STILO common failure.

Hopefully we can now have run with no problems -- fingers crossed. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


The STILO has been quite needy when you compare it to the 2004 MGZT 2.0 cdti which is my other car and the Honda Jazz 2004 1.4 CVT which my wife owns. Indeed the Honda has had very little work in the last four years (one brake pipe and regular servicing only).

However I do quite enjoy driving the STILO and hope to be running around in her for some time yet.

There are still jobs to do, for instance she has done 117000 and I have no idea if or when she has ever had a timing belt and water pump.
The wheels do do with a refurb (unlikely to happen).


When I bought the car 18 months ago the following was the lengthy repair list --


Rear axle bushes (PITA I had to completely take the back axle off the car to do them)

Front arms replaced

Front droplinks replaced

One rear brake caliper changed - original totally seized and definitely not doing any braking. ( I did manage to free it off but it then leaked)

Rear pads changed - completely shot - should of been changed a long long time ago.

Front discs and pads worn - changed.

EGR valve clogged - this is probably why the engine light was on. This now been cleaned and then an EGR blanking plate fitted.

Engine light turned off and has stayed off.

Front nearside headlamp bulb changed (PITA)

Rear number plate light one fitting missing and screws for other seized solid ( they all do that sir) now all sorted.

Rear wiper arm missing - now replaced.

Oil trap on bottom of air filter smashed allowing unfiltered air to enter engine/turbo - now sorted.

Air filter housing loose and hanging down - refixed

Full service filters oil etc ( looking at the oil I think the last oil change was done while Pontius was still a pilot)

Multiple bit of trim changed/repaired including parcel shelf ,handbrake surround, and numerous others.

Radio not working - fuse blown - trapped wire sorted

boot lock seized - now freed off

Car absolutely filthy inside - how could anyone drive it around like that .

Security Code for car ordered from dealer to allow synch of key fob and proxi alignment.

many others that I have probably forgotten about

My opinion is that Fiat's are not generally all that bad but they are a bit of a dark horse when new, so they lose value (particularly Stilo sized cars) and then because they're a good lot of car for the little money, they end up in the hands of the retarded, the plebians, the cretins and the morons. All my friends on FiatForum for sure...

Yours sounds the same.. the degree of neglect it's had is apparent and while some of the failures are not "service items" so shouldn't be failures (the lock, the instruments, the ABS sensor etc.) my view is that if a car is generally neglected then more random things seem more likely to go wrong with it. I dunno... they're haunted I reckon.

Stilo is not that "needy" .. I think your car has just never had anything fixed on it, so you bought the back-log... but it sounds like it's found a good home at last.

My old Gerrard has 181k on it now and when I bought it, it was pretty tidy at 116k.. a few things were AWOL (a sticky rear passenger door lock, high beam didn't and the temperature gauge preceded an instrument cluster failure - thanks Yellowstilo.. ) but it was generally good.

My list of consumables/repairs was very similar to yours... in rough chronological order;

Instrument console c.120k... started with a dicky temp gauge then randomly became "random lights" and then died altogether.
Battery c. 120k
High Beam (fault in the Body Control Module - needed a new BCM)
Exhaust silencer c.125k
Clutch (actually the concentric slave/release bearing) c 125k - You have this joy to come..
Rear calipers, as yours. I found a pair that someone fitted for an MOT but the car failed on so many other things the geezer scrapped it. £50.
Handbrake cables (as you do)
Rear bushes, as yours. 130k
EGR valve blocked (overfilled oil when I got it.. I blanked it and no problems since)
Radiatore (burst in a Paris heatwave) c.136k
Le Pompe a l'eau et le cam-belt (done at the same time).
Glow plugs (factory) x2 died c145k (the other two had already been changed in the past)
Air filter box (needed repairs, as yours).
Battery box (cracked)
Undertray (missing)
Ciggie lighter (smashed)
Front bumper splitter (missing)
Headlamp bulb... bl&£^% f**£!
O/S Front wishbone CV spider c.150k
N/S Front driveshaft (worn cup.. more expensive than a whole new driveshaft) 160k
New front springs (N/S fractured, although the spring catchers held the spring in place for 5000 miles.. ) @ 175k
New dampers and top-mounts (since I dismantled the damper.. otherwise all still good at 175k)
New rear wheel bearings... one was howling like a bastard byt £25 a side so I did both.
Alternator pulley bearings fell out 178K. New Denso 105A jobbis @ £105.

The beast is pretty robust. Nothing I've fixed above has worn out again (touches wood!);

My front suspension arms were done before I bought it, c.96k. Still on the car.
The "new" rear bushes are still fine
The front wheel bearings are the factory original
The gearbox is Getrag and original
The new clutch is still good (the last clutch would have made 150k for sure, if the CSC hadn't died)

I've ignored service items - but the discs were "previous owner" at c100k and they're still on the car. Pads have been changed by me once. The fuel filter - I only changed when I discovered it was a service item. I was waiting for the "water in fuel" light to come on.. the beast did 48,000 miles without issues as a result.

Mine cost me £795 in November 2015 and I reckon I've spent £2500 on it since... but half that was the "emergency French workshop repairs" in France in 2016 (radiatore burst in Paris traffic, so amounted to a cam-belt, water pump and a new rad' plus Pierre's labour).

Your next big problem will be the clutch around 120-125k if yours mirrors mine. I did mine myself but I needed a young lad to help me refit the gearbox (38kg) but apart from that, I think it'll be sound for ages yet.


Ralf S.

Since fixing the 'budget Maserati' again earlier this month (see original post) I thought I would see how many miles I could cover without anything going wrong. Well it went for a week no problems covering 165 miles --- then bulb failure light comes on. Silly me thinks just change the bulb. Never that simple on a Stilo Turns out the connector onto the bulb holder on the fog light is corroded. (my Stilo has the seperate fog lights in the boot lid). Fortunately I have spare connector in stock from when I changed the cracked light when I bought the car (probably cracked light leaked causing the problem in the first place.) ------------ So I will start counting again -- how many miles can I cover without anything going wrong. Hoping to get above the 165 I achieved last time. Guesses any one.

Tell me about service intervals On my 2003 85 kW JTD was still original thermostat, all mounts, glow plugs (even though somebody was there and broke connector), exhaust... almost everything ex owner just replaced oil I guess. But it never let me down.
I repaired airbag error (by plugging in loose connector in steering wheel), replaced few things (brakes, struts) and it's working quite well for car this old.

Btw I washed back bottom seat covers yesterday, water was black as diesel smoke, but when I fitted them back, I could not see any difference. You just can not make those seats look dirty :devil: