General Fire Fire!!

[Bad Stilo!]

Hi everybody, just joined, "had" a 54 plate 1.4 Stilo Active until it randomly set on fire last week!! Looks like an electrical fault but true to form Fiat are denying it's their problem.
Apparently it started on the right side of the engine and spread from there and the car hadn't been driven in 5 days. Having asked about there appears to be rumours circulating that this may be a bit more common than just a one off. Have to wait and see on that one but watch this space!
Any suggestions as to what I can do about it or where the best place to find out where i stand is??

Great site by the way!

 

[custard]

well where did it start?you have to remeber faults happen,we havent had many(any?) reports of stilo fires i can recall ,so its not really a common fault.
i think following up on the insurance is the easiest/safest method TBH

 

[Shaun86]

talking of fires, when i had my crash back in the winter the donor car for my rear bumper had, had an engine fire in the dealership !! the front end was totally F**ked. That fire happened at night time when no one was in the dealership...

 

[T14086]

random fire

fires start for a reason,if your talking about the right side of the engine(as you look at it?) then the battery is there....has the retaining bracket shorted out?

As far as i'm aware (like custard says) never known of a stilo going on fire so your unfair saying Fiat are denying all knowledge,if this was the case then the press/public would of known about this years ago....like peugeots going on fire etc which was well reported in press/watchdog etc.No car manufactuer would try & cover something as serious as this up.

The 1.8 & 2.4 had a possible short circuit on radiator fan but this resulted in overheating....was a recall about 4/5 years ago.

 

[Bad Stilo!]

You may think it's unfair but look at it from my point of view:

On one side i have Fiat saying that this never happens and that they will not take any responsibility and just want to close my complaint off. Then on the other hand i have Norwich Union saying they have had "numerous" incidents recently and that they are now prepared to have a full investigation conducted by the Fire Dept. This is AFTER initially telling me that an investigation would not be conducted because of the value of the car. I can only conclude that there is a problem somewhere. I am not trying to be spiteful I just want Fiat to be truthful with me. Surely thats not too much to ask?

 

[pensuke]

'sorry for your loss'

but yeah, i've seen a stilo too that was totally burnt out by electrical fault, only this was the interior, engine bay etc was fine, car 'technically' still drove.

so yeah, excuse me while i go disconnect my battery..

 

[Stu DemonD]

I can't say it is a common fault, fire in Stilos - be interesting to see what stats NU are using.

Bad luck about your car though.

 

[maddogmorg]

Fiat didn't gain some ABS units from GM during their partnership did they?

sorry for your loss though. FIAT should take a much bigger interest in your case. any car fire especially on newer models should be investigated by the manufacturer/an independent body just incase it will effect a large number of others. i'd imagine in most cases something like this would of been caused by a production fault, but what if its a design flaw?

 

[OzMoSiS]

when i had my exhuast done at longlife cardiff, they told me that one of them had a stilo, and while they were sat in their living room having tea, the car just caught fire

soo hmmmmmm, scarey eh

 

[Argonought]

Historically, there are a whole stack of reasons why cars catch fire. The most common, aside from accidents, being fitting incorrect (or shorting out) fuses, general interference with the cars wiring loom (such as when fitting after market accessories) and of course simply dropping a cigarette etc.

It's true Vauxhall had/have a major issue with their cars catching on fire but it hardly follows that other manufacturers, such as Fiat, are likely to be at risk too.

 

[Stilo_ste]

It's true Vauxhall had/have a major issue with their cars catching on fire but it hardly follows that other manufacturers, such as Fiat, are likely to be at risk too.

I hope it's not Vectra's with the fire bug !

 

[T14086]

corsas apparently.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/transport/transport_20070425.shtml

 

[Rich]

When we got our 5dr, the engine bay had been steam cleaned and pressure washed . . . against my wishes! The night we got it back, it sat there turning it's headlights on and off, and came up with "Engine Fault" (throttle body) the next day.

Turns out they hadn't fitted the battery cover back when they jump started the car, and then washed the fusebox!!

No fire though.

 

[StiloSport]

Sorry about your loss but last night on our way home from Alton Towers, we went down a side road to cut out traffic and there was a Stilo on fire with the bonnet up!

 

[alexGS]

BadStilo! - sorry to see your loss
Hope you'll be able to fill us in on some more of the details, so we can prevent this happening to another forum member.

Well although this isn't necessarily relevant to the Stilo... back when I had my Alfa Romeo 164 those cars had a reputation for fires. I heard this from a few places, but the best source was from a fire-fighter in a small NZ town (Wanganui) - he had attended three Alfa 164 fires. Bearing in mind how few 164s would have been on the road around there, that was a high proportion.

The causes? Fuel lines near the back of the engine bay on the bulkhead - would become porous and fill the engine bay with petrol vapour. Also the fuel lines to the injector rail - I was horrified by the condition of mine (12 years old) when I removed them for an inspection. Bending them back revealed hundreds of cracks right through.

Fuel line degradation is basically a function of age and the petrol type used (personally I believe that the more aromatics content, the more it will harden the fuel lines).

So yeah, I guess what I'm saying is to maybe check fuel line condition when the Stilo gets to five-six years old...

Cheers,
-Alex

 

[Bad Stilo!]

Just spoken with the investigators and they have confirmed it is a fault with the ABS braking unit, same as the one with the Corsa's. Should have more details / report later in the week.

 

[susiejay]

Sorry for your loss Bad Stilo.

Last week i broke the door handle on my 52 plate stilo - went to the local Fiat scrappies and he told my husband that in the 5 yrs stilos have been made he has only had 2, one of which was a complete burn out and the other had been rolled. He said that most of the stilos he ever sees in scrap yards are complete burnt outs and the main seat of fire is the "scuttle" area (?) on the right hand side under the bonnet. He mentioned the windscreen wiper motor as well.

I thought it was "odd" that there would be so many and then someone directed me to this thread. Im now aiming to carry a small extinguisher in the boot (just in case).

Suze

 

[The Negotiator]

Small extinguisher will mean nothing, if your car is going up the best thing you can do is get away from it and call 999, unfortunately. I carry one but it's a false security, it will do nothing unless somebody dropped a match onto the seat or similar.

During my commute up and down the M1 this year I have seen two cars on fire/recently on fire. One a Vauxhall Astra (the last model, not the current one) and a VW Golf (again, the last model).

 

[Argonought]

I have to say that's pretty inane to suggest a fire extinguisher is a waste of time

Biggest issue is where it's kept as you really want quick access to it.

I had a car go up once with the extinguisher mounted in the engine compartment. The occupants were thrown out and the car ended up as a fireball. What was interesting was that when the extinguisher detonated it killed the engine fire completely for a while (rest of car continued blazing mind you)

 

[The Negotiator]

Have you ever had fire fighting training? I presume not considering that comment.

A 1 or 2 kg car extinguisher will do nothing against any sort of engine fire unless you stop it before you see it. As I pointed out, an extinguisher is of some use if the fire is (for example) a ciagrette burning on the seat but practically everything else is a "run away" moment - even more so if you're driving at 70 mph and smell smoke.

Try taking on an engine fire with a pitiful 2 kg extinguisher and you will probably hurt yourself and do nothing to stop the fire, again, unless you stop it before you can see it. Now 5 people with small extinguishers is possibly a different story. I also carry Nomex overalls in my car for work PPE but that's not going to help anybody as they take 90 seconds to put on.

As I say, complete false security. A 1 or 2 kg car extinguisher will not help you with 99 % of fires in a car.

Edit: To add to this, a typical car fire extinguisher will give you about 5-8 seconds of spray (although it drops off rapidly after around 70% of that time) if that ever helps anybody. Always use a gap in the bonnet - never open the bonnet - and beware for what happens if petrol is ignited if it hadn't before you started fighting the fire.