Hi, Looking for some help please,
My father in-law as a fiat stilo 1.6 dynamic 02 reg, he as had car for ages and likes it a lot still as low mileage and been good runner for him,But he as not been to well for last year maybe and use's car not as much.anyway he come to start car 2 days ago and because not been used much battery lost its beans, so i thought i would take my battery from my car (same type) and put on stilo .When i finished and started car the dash instruments and lighting not working,lcd screen flickers just orange colour, I have taken battery back off and charged it ,Reconnected it and still no dash lighs.So not the battery.have been searching and cluster seems common problem but it was all working perfect before battery drain?.
Can anyone suggest anything i could try to get dash lighting back?
I have checked fuses both battery fuses and in car,none have blown.
Manual says fuse's in boot but don't see any?
Can't find information about relay's on top of battery,Could any of these cause this?
Thanks in advance gonna go out in few mins to have another check.
any help be appreciated

It could be a dash fault. Mine started going wonky after I left an interior light on all weekend and the (old and weedy.. but still hanging in there) battery completely died and never recovered, even though I charged it.

I dunno how a failing battery can damage the instruments but I did wonder about the coincidence of the two events at the time.

On the other hand and more logically, if the car has been inactive for a while it might have gathered condensation inside and that could have just tipped the clocks from working to not working. The clocks go wonky if/when some of the PCB tracks get corroded and either "break" or short circuit as a result of the oxidation.

You can take the clocks out and give the PCB a brush with an old toothbrush or something mild and a spray with electrical contact cleaner.. that might restore them.. but quite often the "fix" only lasts a while.


Ralf S.

Thanks for your reply(help),Went out and took battery leads off and checked earths, d4 connector is it? behind battery fuse's.Checked all fuses again 1x1 and nothing i could see wrong.Had the AA come look at it(not much help) he reckons module for cluster lost connection maybe and needs re-syncing?? any idea on that?.
Thanks again

Chip
edit, sorry forgot to ask about relays by battery fuse's any idea what they for?

chippa said:

forgot to ask about relays by battery fuse's any idea what they for?

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Thank you for diagrams, atleast now i no it nothing to do with relays, Can you or anyone give me best way to remove cluster so i can eliminate the plugs at back before i have to shell out for something i hope will fix it?.Also will a decent snap on diag reader be good enough to re-program-re-sync? the cluster.
Is re-sync proxy align? thanks in advance

chippa said:

Can you or anyone give me best way to remove cluster

Click to expand...

Page 3 of this guide: https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo-guides/96473-fitting-new-dials-cluster.html
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Thanks for quick reply and your help.
1 more thing is it best to remove battery leads before attempting?
Thanks again

Chip

maybe a silly question thanks for help

If you're just going to unplug various connector blocks, it's pretty difficult to short anything by accident, so it's not strictly necessary to isolate the battery and I wouldn't normally bother.

On the other hand, the clocks will lose their settings when you disconnect them (time, date etc.) so would need re-setting anyway, in which case, it's not a extra headache to just remove the + lead from the battery.


Ralf S.

Thanks ralf , ye i went out today took battery lead off.undone screw moved fuse tray out the way and cleaned d4 connector plus 1 next to it,Did'nt look any thing wrong Nice and clean. put it all back together again.but it did'nt make any difference still no dash lighting and no speedo,rev-counter, petrol gauge. So think i can eliminate that. Will try take clocks out and look.Any idea if AA man was right about cluster needs re-syncing(programming?) module lost connection with cluster he reckons? thanks again
Chip

No.. re-sync' is a red herring.

Any "new" clocks in your car ought to just work. The only issue is that the Body Control Module spots that the clocks are not the ones it was talking to previously, so if you transplant clocks the odometer reading on the new clocks will flash.

You would need to synchronise the clocks with the BCM to stop the flashing.

But whether you do or whether you don't, everything still works okay, including the (flashing) odometer.


Ralf S.

Thanks for your help again Ralf,Very informative.
Well i did think the AA man was just fobbing me off anyway, think he just wanted to get home.But anyway i called them out last night to see what another AA patrolman had to say on this. And it was a different guy,But he said he used to work at fiat for 10 yrs.So i straight away thought he would be best try at fixing it or best cause of it. he checked everything i already checked fuses on battery,wiring by it ,Battery leads, multi meter check charging right(and it was fine).Then checked all fuses engine and in car 1 by 1 with multimeter.No problems,He plugged diagnostic in and tried that,But cluster not communicating with reader,no codes and tried it twice no good.lcd on clocks flickers and air bag light only lights which light up with ignition. He certain cluster problem and said worth try to check connectors at back before anything else.
So i went to try remove clocks with guide you posted,Got as far as unclip steering housing unclipped tried to pull out but seems a collar around back of steering wheel and goes in.I'm scared i will break it.I tried to pull free but would of had to pull hard.Is this right?.is there something i missed? 3 allen bolts under steering cowling,unclip each side by indicator,wiper stalks pull? .
Sorry for long post and thanks

The steering column housing has 5 screws altogether.

The two you probably haven't found are at the front (nearest the steering wheel) but located inside the top cover. They hold the top cover to the steering column, so you have to get under the column and look upwards to see them

Once they're out, the top cover comes off very easily. There aren't any more clips etc. to remove.

The more interesting job is getting the clocks out with the steering wheel in the way... but that's a joy for later.


Ralf S.

Thanks again Ralf
Well i would of never spotted those 2 bolts :yum:.Anyway did it and not as bad as thought it gonna be.Had clocks out took inside and looked closer plug did'nt seem too bad but cleaned with electrical contact cleaner.Then when taking closer look at circuit board at back the green dots which there are lots of,Quite a few where black(looked as if were burnt out) but cleaned with contact cleaner on piece of tissue and revealed green spot underneath so gave the board all over clean and put it all back together.
Connected everything back up with everything crossed(fingers+toes)lol.
well turned ignition on and not a bit of difference?
odd thing the fuel gauge needle is just before 1/4 mark with clocks out and when back in with ignition on and engine running.All other needles at 0 or at start and none move.
does these green dots which some were black mean anything?
I gonna try remove fuse tray from battery and check/clean.
I did think i would of seen even slight difference/movement but nothing.
1 more thing when turn ignition to mar just before starting only 2 instrument lights lit both airbag but when taking fuses out in car 1 by 1 to check after done and turn ignition on 4 or 5 instrument lights stay lit untill i remove battery lead. Thanks
Chip

The instruments/dash are controlled by fuses F37 and F53. They're in the fusebox under the dashboard.

The problem is probably not related to the black on the back of the instruments. That's probably just scorching of the lacquer if they put a think film of it on there to keep the moisture/condensation off the metal tracks.

There could be one or more breaks in the circuits somewhere. When I had my BCM apart I had to photograph it and magnify the zoom to see the break... so it won't be easy to spot if there's no major damage.

Send it to Yellowstilo.. or some specialist ECU/instrument repair place. The odd symptoms you get means there's something wrong with it, so until that's fixed, the strange and random behaviour is normal.


Ralf S.

Thanks for reply, any idea if 1.4 clocks would fit 1.6?2003 and ours is 2002.
seen some cheap on ebay and thought worth a try?Thanks
Chip

chippa said:

Thanks for reply, any idea if 1.4 clocks would fit 1.6?2003 and ours is 2002.
seen some cheap on ebay and thought worth a try?Thanks
Chip

Click to expand...

Forum legend has it that any clocks will work on any car.

You can even fit diesel clocks apparently, although the needle of the rev-counter points to the physical position of where the petrol engine would have its numbers rather than to the rpm figures as displayed on the diesel rev-counter.

The new clocks should go straight in and work. The only oddness is that the odometer will show the mileage of the donor car and since it has not been sync'd with your Body Control Module, it will flash.

You can carry out a proxy alignment to stop the flashing and if you have OCD and the proper licenced version of the proxy software you can change the mileage of your new clocks to match the old clocks (but only "upwards" - you can't reduce the new clocks mileage, so hopefully the new clocks will have a lower mileage than your car).

Hopefully the new clocks will work and last for ages, rather than like my replacement clocks which were great for 2 months and then started acting up..


Ralf S.

Hello, Thanks mate for info,Have ordered cluster from ebay so soon as it comes will try it and hopefully i will no for sure then if clocks is problem mileage is a lot higher than our stilo clocks but if it is the reason will look into getting ours repaired.Do you know much about engine bay fuse box?(should i have made another post?)While waiting for delivery of clocks i have removed fuse tray by battery and have it in side to take closer look.Contacts at bottom look new,No problems but look like fuse tray comes apart clipper around middle?.Looks like if i take out all fuses and relays it will seperate,Am i right?.
And any thing i should be careful with?.Nothing gonna spring out or be difficult to put back together?.
Just so i can cross that off list of possible cause's(faults)
Thanks again :bang:
Chip

Someone on here dismantled their fuse box once .. they posted a few photos too, so it may be worth having a search for that thread.

As I remember it, the fuse box is just a load of stamped metal circuit boards that are pressed together. There is a chance for moisture to get between the boards and cause problems (it's supposed to have a plastic cover on it but people never re-fit them). I don't recall that dismantling it was any more complicated than teasing the various layers apart.

But... in your case, if the car electrics are working perfectly apart from the instruments, then that suggests the fuse box is fine and it might be an un-necessary risk to dismantle it.


Ralf S.

chippa said:

Looks like if i take out all fuses and relays it will seperate,Am i right?.
And any thing i should be careful with?.Nothing gonna spring out or be difficult to put back together?.

Click to expand...

There's a guide to dismantling and cleaning the engine fuse box here: https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo-guides/313986-how-clean-dry-out-fuse-box-near-battery.html
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