Technical Stilo performance issues

[Merrick]

Hey all, new here and kind of new to cars, only been driving 8 months and my first and only car previous to this was a 1.4 95 reg Corsa :slayer:

I know little about cars so forgive anything thats not explained quite right.

I bought a stilo 1.6 active sport about 6 weeks ago and after getting a little used to it im started to think things are not right, and even more so after reading threads here on the forum.

I've had no engine managment lights or codes at any time.

When warm but left for 10-15 mins, on starting the car it took a longer turn of the key to get going and within a few seconds it would shudder/jerk a few times prity hard then stall. Once started again it was fine.

When moving off in first gear the car never seems to respond to the same amount of accelerator the same way twice, sometimes it just stalls, sometimes it lurches forward then settles, sometimes its just normal and away i go. Could this be because of the revs going up and down or is it im just not used to a car i can bearly feel the pedals on? (ooooh how i wish for the old corsa and being able to realy feel what the cards doing through the pedals)

I noticed a slight un-even idling, the revs would go between about 930 to 1010 randomly. I took it to the garage and they, in their words, "reset the ecu" and they also cleaned the sparkplugs. It was no better, in fact it was worse. Much bigger uneven idle and stalled starting warm more often.

When i got it back from the garage the acceleration had gone, obvisouly its got some, but it was more like being strapped to a pram than a canon, my corsa had more guts about it. It still had bad idle as well and the stalling problem.

I took it back, they redid the sparks, put red liquid (redx or something?) in the fuel tank. The stalling problem when starting it up from warm has gone and the un-even idling is a lot better but still a little, it bobs up and down over the 950 mark. The acceleration/power was better but the problem with starting off in 1st and it not doing the same thing twice is still there.

After reading the forums, i think the performace of my stilo, although better than my old corsa, is still WAY below what it should be.

In 1st and 2nd it seems to have good power, gets up to 4000rpm well and sounds ok, it feels powerful.

If im doing 30 and put the foot to the floor in 3rd theres a brief feeling of power then it goes, the acceleration lasts to about 50 in 3rd before getting to 4000rmp and doesnt want to speed up any more. 4th is ok around 40-50mph, the car feels more powerful but its very brief and it takes an age to get to 4000rmp. I usualy just skip it and go 3rd to 5th at 50mph, if i do use 4th at 50, it doesnt improve the acceleration much at all, and as i said, doesnt want to get the revs up.

Up hills, i lose speed in 5th, i have to drop to 4th to get it to keep the same speed or get any acceleration at all.

I think it should be performing better than that, i would have thought i should feel power in 3rd all the way to 60 and beyond with 4th powerful and 5th for crusing along at 60 or down the motorway at 70-75 with power to spare, 70 in 5th on the motorway is flat when trying to accelerate.

As i say, my experiance of cars is very limited and maybe its all in my head, my corsa was light, the stilo is a tank in comparison, so its going to feel differant, but in the words of my father, the stilo "wouldny pull the skin off a rice puddin!", thats what he said when he tested it.

Anyone got any ideas? sorry for the wall of text.

 

[PNL]

What year is the car Merrick.. was the garage a fiat one or other..?

Early 1.6 stilo's suffered ecu and throttle body faults and it can be flashed by a fiat dealer..ie.. new software loaded onto the cars ecu..throttle body might need cleaning also ..[guide found in the guides section]..coils might also be starting to fail and injectors might need a clean..all in the guides section as well..

 

[Merrick]

Its a 53 plate, 2003?, 53k miles.

It was a non fiat garage but they took it to a fiat dealer and they couldnt find anything wrong with it either so im told.

 

[Deckchair5]

Hi
Your 1.6 is definitely suffering

After reading the forums, i think the performace of my stilo, although better than my old corsa, is still WAY below what it should be.
Yep sounds like it

Up hills, i lose speed in 5th, i have to drop to 4th to get it to keep the same speed or get any acceleration at all.
That's not the way a 1.6 should be

i would have thought i should feel power in 3rd all the way to 60 and beyond with 4th powerful and 5th for crusing along at 60 or down the motorway at 70-75 with power to spare
Yes mine does


I noticed a slight un-even idling, the revs would go between about 930 to 1010 randomly. I took it to the garage and they, in their words, "reset the ecu" and they also cleaned the sparkplugs. It was no better, in fact it was worse. Much bigger uneven idle and stalled starting warm more often.
That's more than slight un-even idling

Here's mine on a warm tickover- look at the rpm - hardly moves. That's how yours should look. This is with aircon off. With arcon it should be just as steady but a little higher

It doesn't sound like the garage is capable so I'd take it somewhere better, a specialist maybe who can do a running diag on your engine and see what the problem is. If you haven't already done so, do a careful throttle valve clean up as described in the Stilo Guides

 

[Merrick]

Check this out for completly shoddy garage workmanship.

After a week of it still not feeling right after its last trip to the garage i decided to follow the guide on cleaning the throttle body.

I go to open the bonnet and find the lever is broken, the plastic handle fell off its connection to the plate its mounted on.

I took the panel off and find the mechanisum has snapped inside, it wasnt like that when i got the car and i've only opened the bonnet once, so had to be the garage.

After getting the bonnet open, pilers on cable, i find they had forgoten to replace my engine cover, either the first or second time it was in at the garage. saved me taking it off anyway.

I then started having a look around, im i no way a mechanic but looked for things that i thought where odd.

I would consider a dirty oily rag stuffed inside the ait intake odd wouldnt you?

Removed that, most likely left there after its first visit to the garage, and yeeeeeaaaaah, fixed! goes like the dogs ******** now and no uneven idling

I would never have gotten to the bottom of this if i hadnt read this forum and the guides, i would have just let the mechanics at it and took their word for everything so many thanks to all that contribute here.

 

[Argonought]

You certainly want to avoid that garage like the plague

Go back and demand your engine cover back (quite expensive to buy otherwise)

Make sure you still have your battery cover and undertray fitted (although undertray wasn't fitted to ALL Stilos)

 

[PNL]

You certainly want to avoid that garage like the plague

Go back and demand your engine cover back (quite expensive to buy otherwise)

Make sure you still have your battery cover and undertray fitted (although undertray wasn't fitted to ALL Stilos)

And I just shot out a 1.6 engine cover..:bang:

 

[Deckchair5]

Good God! Some of these garages are actually dangerous. A rag in the intake can cause a wrecked engine as well as the fire risk

Find the mechanic, stuff the rag down his throat and bolt crop off his fingers before he does any more damage

Do a search for repairing the bonnet release by the way as it's come up a few times

 

[Merrick]

Its under warranty, only had it for a month, and boy am i gona make them cover that warranty... if you hear about several brutal dicapitations in the dumfries area, thats me

 

[12[X]]

decapitation is a bit.. severe.. might land you in gaol.. idea suggested above (stuffing that oiled rug) sounds mighty good though