Technical Stilo went Fizz

ChrisF · Dec 11, 2006

1 day, 2 AA call outs, one screwed stilo sitting dead in the dealers.

Call out 1 - Sitting in the mcDs carpark (granted after some seriously crap weather on the motorway), went to start the car, nothing. Great called the AA, bloke cameout charged the battery cleared the faults which he just assumed were due to the battery dieing. Got home ok.

Call out 2 - The Scary one!
Looked outside around 8, the cars headlights have switched themselves on, the back lights are not on, the light switch in the car is at the off position. Started the car to see if it helped, car started ok. Lights turned off, turned the ignition off again, lights turned back on. Started the car again and turned the ignition off, removed the keys, engine kept running (sounded like it was struggling). Called the AA out, man was confused as hell, everytime he cleared the errors, there was more appearing. Dropped me off at the dealers and tooke me home, i went down the dealers and tried to start the car and the battery was dead again.

Now, the weather has been awfull for the last few weeks, coupled with the fact thatthese days my journey to and from work is high speed motorway with huge standing water puddles etc, I'm thinking that with all the water impacts etc over the last week that something has got loose or shorted.

Does this sound serious or could it just be a plug thats come a bit loose and got shorted out with the water/puddles etc.

The dealer had it in today and didnt get a chance to look at it. I'm a bit worried to be honest.:slayer:

Ralph2 · Dec 11, 2006

ChrisF said:
I'm thinking that with all the water impacts etc over the last week that something has got loose or shorted.
slayer:

Your diagnosis of water in the electrics sounds pretty much on the money to me. Either that or a dying battery, low voltage can play havoc with computer electronics.

I once had a Peugeot 207 hire car that I got stuck in a river (don't ask) ...It was doing all sorts of weird stuff until it dried out. (windows going up and down, cooling fan running 24/7, central locking intermittant etc.) Fortunately this was in the South of France so half a day in the Sun, reconnect the battery and all was well again. I don't think a few hours of the current weather here will have quite the same effect

On the plus side, once it's dried out, all may well be OK. Here's hoping so.

ChrisF · Dec 11, 2006

Yeah, the light thing and the not switching off the engine when ignition is off is screaming to me that the D4 connector is wet/shorting out the battery. As it's the main connector for lights and i believe throttle control goes through there which would keep the engine running.

This current weather is not what the stilo was made for, it drives os much better on a warm sunny day! So im not surprised. For the last 3 weeks shes been getting hammered up and down the M77/A77 deathtrap road in what i would call severe storm condition, standing water, high winds, the works. So it's probably related to this. The AA man was seriously confused by it all though, which worried me a little, but again he was working on it in the pi$$ing rain, so thats probably made it worse.

Deckchair5 · Dec 12, 2006

Sounds like the D4 connector again (lot of it about in this weather). Once you've got it dried right out and the faults sorted if any, weather proof the thing with a polythene bag secured at either end with tie wraps. It's only the start of winter and there's nothing like breaking down in foul weather to dampen the spirits

It only takes 10mins to do and can save you hours of fun getting soaked through- keep your D4 dry and you're home and dry too

ChrisF · Dec 12, 2006

Thanks for that man, I won't lie, I am about ready to get shot of the car. I've pretty much had it, unfortunatley, it's mostly because of the treatment i continually recieve from the dealership i got the car from. It's appalling. They have had the car since monday, I called this afternoon and they had only just worked out that the battery was flat and would need charged over night! I had the AA out twice, I gave them slips saying faulty battery and suspected electrical issues, nothing is talking to each other correctly, logging faults all over the place. It pretty much told them what was wrong. They wont do anything until tomorrow now. Which means i am now 90 quid down on car hire to allow me to get to work. Unfortunatley i will lose money trading it in as i am only being offer around 3700 for a almost perfect condition (aside from these faults) 14k 54 plate active sport! Gutted! I owe more than that on her.

This was the last straw, have logged a case with fiat UK, whom at this point have been very helpfull and have agreed in prinicple that the list of warranty issues on the car is not acceptable for a car which has covered only 14k miles and is 2.5 years old! It has been forwarded to a customer relations executive for investigation, they mentioned including a serious written complaint from Fiat on my behalf to Arnold Clark. I might get something out of it, who knows, I'm just tired of sitting around letting Arnold **** on me.

Im buying a volvo c30 next time, looks a bit like a stilo, has a nicer rear and ....ITS A VOLVO, you could drive it into a nuclear war and you'd still come out the otherside unscathed!

Athos · Dec 13, 2006

ChrisF said:
Thanks for that man, I won't lie, I am about ready to get shot of the car. I've pretty much had it, unfortunatley, it's mostly because of the treatment i continually recieve from the dealership i got the car from. It's appalling. They have had the car since monday, I called this afternoon and they had only just worked out that the battery was flat and would need charged over night! I had the AA out twice, I gave them slips saying faulty battery and suspected electrical issues, nothing is talking to each other correctly, logging faults all over the place. It pretty much told them what was wrong. They wont do anything until tomorrow now. Which means i am now 90 quid down on car hire to allow me to get to work. Unfortunatley i will lose money trading it in as i am only being offer around 3700 for a almost perfect condition (aside from these faults) 14k 54 plate active sport! Gutted! I owe more than that on her.

This was the last straw, have logged a case with fiat UK, whom at this point have been very helpfull and have agreed in prinicple that the list of warranty issues on the car is not acceptable for a car which has covered only 14k miles and is 2.5 years old! It has been forwarded to a customer relations executive for investigation, they mentioned including a serious written complaint from Fiat on my behalf to Arnold Clark. I might get something out of it, who knows, I'm just tired of sitting around letting Arnold **** on me.

Im buying a volvo c30 next time, looks a bit like a stilo, has a nicer rear and ....ITS A VOLVO, you could drive it into a nuclear war and you'd still come out the otherside unscathed!

Remember Volvo is Ford now, so don´t expect the legendary reliability from them!

ChrisF · Dec 13, 2006

Was actually considerng the Focus too, i have one as a hire car at the moment and it handles amazingly well compared to my stilo. the TDCi is a bit on the loud side tho!

ChrisF · Dec 13, 2006

News just in from the dealers,

Auxiliary fused box failure, which i belived also is what is on the other end of the d4 connector.

The dealers have classed this as a mechanical failure and passed it to fiat for authorisation. They expect that htis will be covered under mastercare and will get back to me. I'm considering asking them to replace the battery too as the AA did mention that it was on it's way out too, but not failing yet.

Nothing major apparently.

Chris

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