Technical Fiat stilo 1.2 unresponsive throttle

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Technical Fiat stilo 1.2 unresponsive throttle

stilo97

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Dec 2, 2025
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Location
Greece
Hello guys I need your opinion. I have a Fiat Stilo 1.2 ‘03 5 door we bought it new back then. It is a family car very well maintained with no problems until last wear. Out of nowhere the throttle stopped responding and the car stalled. The mechanic said it was giving fault codes from the throttle body so I change it with a used one. For 5 months it was perfectly fine. Then it started having irregular idle I once again went to the shop they took my battery off for some time reconnected it and it was good again. Some months later I was washing the car I took off to return home and the car went in safe mode rpm stack to 900-1000 and no throttle response again. I went to another mechanic he also removed the battery for a while cleaned a ground point inside the engine bay and the car was fine again. Fast forward 9 months from this it stalled again out of nowhere because of unresponsive throttle and the solution was again to disconnect the battery for a while. I have spoken with some shops that specialise in Ecu’s and they told me that it is a known issue for the 1.6’s ecu but not for the 1.2’s ecu. I will have the wiring checked and I hope to find something. Any suggestions about what may be the cause? Or anyone with the same issue ?
Thanks in advance and sorry for the long text. 🙏
 
Model
Fiat Stilo 1.2
Year
2003
Mileage
360000
Hello!
The throttle body is flyby wired, correct?
Is it giving any fault codes now?
Besides the TB itself, you have the throttle pedal sensor that communicates with the TB. Is that ok? Does it report the correct position? Any fault codes on it?
Here is a video about an intermittent TB problem, that was caused by faulty electrical wire

The TB can be cleaned if you know what you are doing. You take it apart. It has some electrical contacts inside that get oxidized and that means trouble, you can clean them. And after you take down all the electrical components of the TB you can wash the rest of the TB with warm water plus detergent plus citric acid. The TB has the spring that keeps the flap closed and in time that gets dirty and after that it doesn't move easily anymore, needs more force to be applied to move and that is a problem for the little electrical TB device that moves the flap. So cleaning it can help a lot. Also, the flap itself or the TB opening get dirty in time. The flap is being kept open 5% (I think) on idle. If it's dirty it doesn't allow enough air to get in and that's the problem. So having it clean helps.
 
Here is a guide about cleaning the throttle body

But you can do more than that, as I mentioned above. Take all electronic components out and give the rest a good wash.
 
So far i have cleaned the ecu connections some grounding points with visible oxidation, my tb is clean in the intake side and the flap too but i dont know how to take it apart in order to take a look at the wiring. I ve seen the video i will inform the electrician to take a look at the ecu connectors for loose fit and take apart the tb for a deeper clean. As for the fault code nothing shows up now, only when it happens i get a faulty code for the tb.
 
What's the code P0???

For example on a generic code reader often gives a TPS = throttle position sensor error

But that can be a throttle body or throttle pedal

They often get mixed up

Without the code we are shooting blindfolded , and it impossible to help without taking wild guesses

A cheap code reader and a smartphone is under £10, a stand alone is around £15

Codes are manufacture and model specific

As an example P1220 on a panda is the throttle pedal, 9 times out of 10 a new pedal fixes it, but because the wiring is shared occasionally it's a using the same wires such as the Aircon linear sensor

But Google will send you in completely different direction

Screenshot_20251203-113126.png


Without a code or code reader, and my blindfold still firmly on, after replacing the throttle body and still the same fault, erratic idle, safe mode, and intermittent,


Maybe unplug the throttle pedal and look at the connector
acc.png


Sometimes a blast from compressed air can on the potentiometer sometimes fix them
 
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