fruchty said:

I'll check when I get home if it's shown in ePer what changes were made to the suspension on newer models.

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Apart from some changes to the design of the wishbone, all Stilos have the same front suspension design.

As far as I know, the only change to the spring was that the painting process was improved to help prevent corrosion from salt water. However, if you, or a garage, use the hook on type spring compressors, they are likely to cause damage to the paint. You can see on your photograph above that the spring has broken next to a corroded part of the coil.

Broken springs posted on the forum have always been broken at the bottom. The Fiat spring compressor tool is designed to compress the spring while it's fitted on the shock absorber, so that the hooks only go over the top of the spring.
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SchooweeNick said:

Fiat have just released a recall to do with the front springs on all stilo's from start to chassis 00644197..

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Does this include ZFA19200000010488? (not sure if it's the chassi # or not, at MOT they told me Abarth got 2 numbers).

The last digits of the VIN are the chassis number, so 10488 was a very early one. According to ePER, it was built on 10th September 2001.
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Davren said:

The last digits of the VIN are the chassis number, so 10488 was a very early one. According to ePER, it was built on 10th September 2001.
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Oh, that's wierd it's supose to be a '04. I can tell it's been smacked in the past , the whole front including engine and gearbox has changed and one of the doors has been repainted. Not sure how it can be registred as 04 when chassie clearly is 02? Either way, it's included in recall then I supose?

Revolty said:

Not sure how it can be registred as 04 when chassie clearly is 02?

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Build date and first registration are 2 different things, it could have been sitting in a compound or at a dealership for 18 months/2 years before being sold.