Thought it was about time I sorted my Stilo,and there's a couple of issues which I need some advice on. Firstly it has a noise on the clutch, been there since I bought it two years ago. The clutch was slipping so had that done and the 'wheezing' noise disappeared which was there when driving off. I don't do many miles on the island and tend to drive it quite gently but on a recent trip up the A3 I noticed on hard acceleration the clutch is slipping again...and on the return trip back down the A3 as I slowed down for traffic lights in Portsmouth a new noise appeared, a graunching noise, metal on metal. Drove home very slowly and didn't use it for a few days, then when I did , no noise, but then I only drive 4 miles to work, maybe on a another long run it would happen again. A mate reckons its the flywheel that's making the noise and was probably the same problem as when I bought it, it's just got worse! Anybody had this problem with their Stilo? Mine is a 55 plate 6-speed Active Sport.

Which engine..?

Diesels will have a 'Dual Mass Flywheel'

Petrols might not..

DMF is a lot of labour..and @400 in parts..

So you want to rule out other things 1st

Not sure the flywheel noise will come and go though

Tell us more

Charlie

Aren't all 6 speeds either 1.2 and then 1.4 petrols ?

.

Do you know what brand of replacement clutch was fitted?
Was just the friction plate replaced?

There are some really awful clutch components being sold that are only fit to go straight in the bin or thrown forcibly at the companies who choose to stock them.

It could be a few things but the flywheel seems the most likely.

The scrapery noises sounds like something is worn and I doubt the clutch could be so por quality that it's failed already after two years (10-15,000 miles?) so it's unlikely to be that... but I suppose you never know. In any case, when you take the gearbox off for a look, you'll see what component(s) is causing the aggro'.


Ralf S.

Ralf S. said:

It could be a few things but the flywheel seems the most likely.

The scrapery noises sounds like something is worn and I doubt the clutch could be so por quality that it's failed already after two years (10-15,000 miles?) so it's unlikely to be that... but I suppose you never know. In any case, when you take the gearbox off for a look, you'll see what component(s) is causing the aggro'.


Ralf S.

Click to expand...

Honestly there are clutches that are so bad they fail within a few thousand miles)-:
Plus poster says clutch is slipping again .
As you say all will become clear if box comes off again.

Aye.. I'm sure. There was a rash of fake Valeo out there a few years ago and still plenty of clutches on eBay for £45 or something...

But my old beast (JTD) with it's 16 years old / 205,000 mile factory-fitted flywheel does similar to Wighty's.

It "scrapes" at idle (you have to press the clutch in to silence it) and on a long journey, when you want to change gears it can be suddenly moody and stiff or makes the odd vibration like a dodgy driveshaft. Cold/short journies it's perfect.

If Wighty has a DMF then that'll probably be 15 yo by now, so you'd wonder what state the bonded rubber is in.

Gearbox-off job though, which will hurt more than the buying a new cutch or flywheel (or both.. Ahhhh )


Ralf S.

Belated thanks guys for all the great advice, I'm just back on line after old PC packed up...
...in the meantime I had the Stilo MOT'd as soon as my local garage opened and asked them to have a look at the clutch at the same time. They opted to look at the clutch problem at a later date as the bill for the MOT was enough with a new exhaust and battery. The new battery was needed because of another interesting problem I've had for a while which is that the battery would lose it's charge overnight and when started by a charger would through a tantrum and put all these different codes up on the dash... oh and cut out the drive by wire throttle which I only discovered the Stilo had when the problem started! After plugging it into the diagnostic thingy it stated that all it needed was a new battery...phew! A couple of weeks on and it looks like it might be okay, the car just needed use, didn't like sitting idle for the past two months. I can live with the clutch problem for a while, will put it in for sorting out as soon as I've built my car funds back up!

My Stilo was in my local garage yesterday for its clutch problem, after investigation the verdict is it needs a new clutch which will be done this Monday. Hopefully when it comes back all the interesting noises will have gone... I'll let you know...

Glad to see your car is getting some good maintenance done to it ?

I would suggest if not already part of clutch change list to include:
• new flywheel ( dealers change both at same time and don't give warranty if not )
• new slave cylinder ( gearbox shaft seal is part of of kit on manual version )

+1 on the slave cylinder which sits inside the bell housing as I recall. Fluid in this rarely gets changed and if it fails it's like changing the clutch all over again in terms of the labour involved....

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll mention it on Monday, might as well have it done properly.
Very envious of your Abarth Schuey, I've never actually seen a Prodrive in the metal...

Just had a call from the garage doing my clutch, it seems that when they took it apart the driveshaft seal has been leaking and the box was full of bits, hence my scrapey sound effects... it was also leaking oil onto the clutch which is why it was slipping under acceleration and why the 'new' clutch that I had fitted two years ago wasn't working properly... basically they're gonna fit a re-con box (total bill £1175...ouch!) so when I do eventually get it back at least it will be totally sorted what with the new clutch as well... I think I'll be using the Stilo a lot more in the future to justify this bill instead of jumping in the wifes Punto for short errands all the time...

After a few weeks running about the new clutch and gearbox seem to be okay, seems strange to drive the car without any sound effects! It's like driving a new car and now the worry is gone I'm appreciating what a good drive the Stilo is. These cars are very underrated even by a lot of Fiat enthusiasts and I really don't understand why. Out of the 30 or so Fiats that I've owned this has got to be one of the best and the 3-door has certainly aged well in the looks department. The only thing left to sort on mine now is the feeble horn. I've looked at replacement ones on ebay but they all seem to have a different connector to my mine and don't look like they would fit in the small space in the wheelarch even though they all say they fit the Stilo. Anybody out there replaced the horn on their Stilo...? I'd appreciate any advice on this before I buy one, at least fitting it should be easy...

Good work on the clutch, although the bill is a bit eye-watering... but at least that part of the car should last forever now..

Agreed that the horn is quite puny. It's a single "disc" type, and originally I thought someone must have removed or lost a second/twin disc horn (or only one of a pair was working)... but I discovered that the Stilo does correctly have just one horn.

It packed up soon after it came to my attention, so it may not have been in the best shape... but anyway, I've had mortal combat to the death with my horn ever since, trying to get it to sound better.

All horns (original and after market) have two spade connectors. These connect to a light blue and black wired connector block ahead of the right hand side wheel arch (behind the liner). So this is a wheel and liner off job.

The "horn side" of the connector block was corroded on mine (spray passes through the slots in the wheel arch liner, so it gets wet/salty... ) so I cut off the OE connector on the horn side and used female spade connectors on the wires instead. They connect to the OE "battery side" connector block as before.

These wires connect to the two spade connectors on the horn. Any aftermarket horn will have two connectors, so if all your wiring is okay, it's a simple swap.

The biggest problem is what horn to replace your standard/possibly failing one with.

I tried one of those integrated "Nautilus" compact air horns, which was impressive.. but the first one I bought was a cheapo one and it didn't survive more than 12 months... partly because it seemed to not like getting wet.. and the second one I tried was more expensive and "branded" but it looked identical to the first and fared no better.

These need to be mounted to a suitable location (there's a handy hole in the bumper support that is perfect for the bolt it needs) since it's a bigger beast than the original disc horn.

I next tried a regular Ring single disc, as OE. The problem with these is that they are either "low tone" or "high tone". The Fiat one seemed to be a mid-tone with a hint of baritone... I went for "low" since I didn't fancy "beep beep"... but it sounded like a van instead.... so then I had a Eureka moment and thought about adding a "high" tone to the "low".. to get twin tones.

This adds a spot of complication. The horn mounting only accommodates one horn but most aftermarket horns come with a short metal bracket. I fixed one horn through the handy hole in the bumper support above, using a long bolt.. Then I attached the second horn onto the protruding end of the same long bolt. You need to do this to space the second horn bracket away from the bumper support, since that has a raised edge around some of it. The first horn fits where there's no lip, so it's flush with the bumper support.

The second horn will also likely foul on something.. I remember I joined two of the horn brackets together... to form an elbow/bend in the two brackets. This is handy since you can fix the bracket to the bumper mount without it fouling around the lip.. then rotate the horn around the joint, to a place where the horn doesn't touch anything or rattle against the car.

To power two horns instead of one, I fitted a 4-pin relay. The car's wiring (light blue and black wires) only activates the relay (86 and 85 pins respectively). I ran a power feed from the battery to the relay 30 pin and connected the 87 pin to the horns (via a Y branched wire). The horns' earths are connected to the car body (the inner wing mount) while the relay is bolted to the coolant reservoir bolt inside the inner wing.

I've used a 20A fuse in the feed from the battery, which was trial and error. The F10 car fuse is a 15A so I tried a 15A fuse in the battery feed but that popped if you pressed the horn for more than a quick "toot". A 20A fuse doesn't give me any problems.

The twin discs is not bad.. but still not 100% where I want to be.. so my next project will be to fit a pair of Lucas twin-tone snail horns using the wiring that's there now (via the relay). The horns are more bulky so fitment might need some re-engineering but I had a similar setup on my old Alfa 155 and that was the best horn I've ever had on anything... You can't have too much horns...



Ralf S.

Got to say that whenever I've had 'horn issues', a cheap set like these have always fitted fairly easily, and outlived the car they went on .

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNIVERSA...461123?hash=item23c590dec3:g:KDQAAOSwClhe8NG1