I just found out my 49,000 mile Full Serviice History 2006 Stilo 1.4 has Head Gasket Failure,and everyone I've spoken to about it has related stories about their Fiat headgaskets going or friends ones going,so it's official Fiat is the new Rover (K-series nightmares).Great job Fiat!.
Fiat is new Rover
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Fiat is new Rover
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Official? No, not really...
well,I've spoken to about 10 different mechanics/garages in the last couple of days and that is official ,I can see you don't like Fiats being slated,but they seem to be total junk in the eyes of the repair trade.
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Yes, you are right, total junk - I stand corrected 
In fact, I will scrap my FIAT now - piece of **** it is ...
In fact, I will scrap my FIAT now - piece of **** it is ...
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With all due respect, I'm sure all of us could speak to 10 people in the trade who had friends who had issues with every single marque/model we could think of.
I'm sorry that this has happened to your car, but it is just unlucky, and not a mass epidemic, as proven by the many happy people in the Stilo section whose head gasket hasn't gone.
If there is anything that can be done to fix the problem, then we're all going to be more than happy to help out - however please don't keep spamming all over the forum with your messages, as they will be tidied up.
I'm sorry that this has happened to your car, but it is just unlucky, and not a mass epidemic, as proven by the many happy people in the Stilo section whose head gasket hasn't gone.
If there is anything that can be done to fix the problem, then we're all going to be more than happy to help out - however please don't keep spamming all over the forum with your messages, as they will be tidied up.
I agree with you,scrap it and buy a Rover with the K series engine,they are less prone to Head Gasket Failure than Fiats.Yes, you are right, total junk - I stand corrected
In fact, I will scrap my FIAT now - piece of **** it is ...
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Indeed, I will scrap my 4 y/o Panda 100HP that sailed through it's MOT today - with 46k on the clock - and runs and drives like a dream.
Thanks for the top advice
By the way, got any statistics or proof on what you are spouting off about?
Thanks for the top advice
By the way, got any statistics or proof on what you are spouting off about?
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I know you are here to praise up Fiats and try to help with with various faults,but every fault I've had with the few Fiats were not easily fixable i.e. total power failure dashes,Head gasket failures and more.Looking at the Stilo forum all I see is thousands of posts with one problem after another and no happy posts,sorry.
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We all know the Stilo wasn't the best for the brand - but this isn't the case across the rest of the range, you need to look at it in perspective.
I even owned a 2.4 Stilo and blew up the whole engine at 56k miles - yet I didn't slate the marque off
What other FIATs have you personally owned and driven?
I may as well start slagging off Ford, Suzuki, Renault plus every other car I have owned due to a failure of one kind or another....
I even owned a 2.4 Stilo and blew up the whole engine at 56k miles - yet I didn't slate the marque off
What other FIATs have you personally owned and driven?
I may as well start slagging off Ford, Suzuki, Renault plus every other car I have owned due to a failure of one kind or another....
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I'm not here to praise them up - I was just subtly trying to warn you that if you keep mass posting across the various forums, you might end up in a bit of trouble ...
Sorry about the multi posts,one was just for fun (i.e. spot a Fiat owner broken down at the side of the road),the other one was asking about the special Fiat tool to do the 1.4 engine gasket/timing belt-not spamming at all.
No harm, no foul
Hopefully your Stilo can be fixed for not too much wonga and it will then give you many happy years motoring!
Don't give up on it yet!
Hopefully your Stilo can be fixed for not too much wonga and it will then give you many happy years motoring!
Don't give up on it yet!
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Small Fiat engines have a low coolant content for fast warm up. If the coolant level drops the head gasket is at risk. Many cars dont get new coolant as often as they should and after the very severe frosts of last winter quite a few have damaged radiators. Some lasted a bit longer but when they go, the engine looses coolant and the HG blows. Its not just a fiat problem.
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Lets not feed this lad with opportunities to peddle his nonsense eh? Ben's given him notice, he obviously wont take any responsibility for his lack of proper maintenance on his poor Stilo... Our 03 plate 1.2 we sold on 18 months ago is still going strong in the hands of a 19 year old who does nothing to it on a weekly basis & its way past 50k miles now.
the excellent yet flawed K series is slightly newer than the Fiat Fire Engines. the older FIRE engines are quite well known for headgasket issues, but newer ones tend to go due to lack of maintenance, or as with any car failures can happen, due to perhaps the slightest fault when originally put together.
the k serice is well known to be engine that is at fault, what causes the fault on some fiats is not the engine but the way its maintained. many make the mistake of taking them to back street garages that cut corners for a coolant change, they then end up with systems not being bled properly that leads to head gasket going,
some even go back to same garage to get the gasket fixed and they cut corners with that job too not skimming the head, not cleaning the block, not flushing the system, not using new head bolts, so of course it goes again after a few weeks.
thousands of other people who use good repair people have done well over 100k miles on the same engines with no faults at all
some even go back to same garage to get the gasket fixed and they cut corners with that job too not skimming the head, not cleaning the block, not flushing the system, not using new head bolts, so of course it goes again after a few weeks.
thousands of other people who use good repair people have done well over 100k miles on the same engines with no faults at all
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I'm pretty much with Dave on this. The K series HG issue, though, is the horrible co-incidence of Rover cost cutting, poor casting practice, and manky assembly (not the fault of the workers). The actual design is pretty damn terrific. BBR offered 300bhp turbo ones with some kind of warantee, which isn't bad for an all alloy lump.
The FIRE and SuperFIRE engines generally tend to blow HGs due to neglect or the owner not recognising that running an engine with a duff thermostat or a water pump that's shreaded all its vanes due to the block having frozen because they didn't bother to change the anti-freeze is a bad, bad idea. I wouldn't entirely rule out HGs "simply" going due to old age, but they're a rarity. Of course, it would hhelp if FIAT fitted a temperature guage in all cars............
The FIRE and SuperFIRE engines generally tend to blow HGs due to neglect or the owner not recognising that running an engine with a duff thermostat or a water pump that's shreaded all its vanes due to the block having frozen because they didn't bother to change the anti-freeze is a bad, bad idea. I wouldn't entirely rule out HGs "simply" going due to old age, but they're a rarity. Of course, it would hhelp if FIAT fitted a temperature guage in all cars............
Rover's K series fault IS a design fault. Nothing at all to do with build quality. The head bolts unusually go all the way to the crank leaving much more potential for lateral movement. The dowels used simply weren't up to restraining lateral movement and were really only there for initial ease of assembly. It's this micro lateral movement that causes failure. Modern replacement gaskets and dowels address this. A shame they got it wrong as it's an excellent engine when functional.
Nah. Initially the dowels were steel ones. Then some burk decided assembly would be facilitated (apparently heads were being damaged by the line running too fast and heads simply being dumped onto blocks) if plastic dowels were used. Hence the unwanted lateral movement (so I'd put it down to build quality). But note that just about every modern head, whether it has long, through bolts, short bolts into the head or studs, uses dowels to restrict lateral movement: lateral movement isn't down to the through bolt design (which has some precendents in aero engines).
The whole K series sequence was documented in PPC some time ago.
The whole K series sequence was documented in PPC some time ago.
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I used to buy PPC but stopped when they decided it was more important to organise a show than put out a mag worth the paper. Copy and paste articles of other magazines work doesn't cut it. It went very downhill very quickly.
The design change to plastic dowels occurred very early on and was exactly that - a design change hence the phrase design fault. It'd only be a build quality issue if they were installed incorrectly.
The design change to plastic dowels occurred very early on and was exactly that - a design change hence the phrase design fault. It'd only be a build quality issue if they were installed incorrectly.
