Technical Stilo Service Advisories

[RichardM95]

Hi everyone, been a member of this great forum for months now but never posted before, so here goes:

I took my 2002 Stilo 1.2 in for it's first service since I brought it today at my local Fiat Dealer (in Norwich). It came back with the following Advisories (with a quote including VAT and labour):

N/S/F Coil Spring Fractured £214.36
N/S/F Wishbone (Ball Joint Excessive Play) £165.29
N/S/F Droplink Excessive Play £54.30
Rear Brake Pads Worn £119.59
Starter Motor Worn £259.13
Rear Tyres Worn £51.25 (each)

Basically I'd just like to know if
a) The quoted prices seem reasonable, and
b) Which parts are likely to fail the next MOT if not changed (the impression I get from reading up online is that the spring, wishbone and droplink will fail)

Cheers, Richard

 

[Shadeyman]

N/S/F Coil Spring Fractured £214.36

£24.95
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FIAT-STILO-1-...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item19b333e32f

N/S/F Wishbone (Ball Joint Excessive Play) £165.29

£35.00
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FIAT-STILO-LO...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item41558821a6

N/S/F Droplink Excessive Play £54.30

£6.95
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FIAT-STILO-Fr...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3a561ba02c

Rear Brake Pads Worn £119.59

£22.00
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FIAT-STILO-MI...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item53d59f26ae

Starter Motor Worn £259.13

£14.99(used)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stilo-Punto-M...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item4aa9a4f11b

Rear Tyres Worn £51.25 (each)

Not a bad price but depends on brand and size.

 

[jdm89]

It's a shame you didn't manage to spell 'garage rip off' with the item prices you've just pasted Shadey (don't ask me how that would have worked though lol)

@RichardM95 - is that Desira Fiat in Norwich?

 

[Shadeyman]

It's a shame you didn't manage to spell 'garage rip off' with the item prices you've just pasted Shadey (don't ask me how that would have worked though lol)

Buying genuine Fiat parts from a dealer will always be expensive, sourcing your own cheap parts makes alot of sense IMO.

Fiat = £863.92
eBay = £155.14

Some are best fitted in pairs, springs, droplinks etc.

 

[Yellow Peril]

Shocking that a garage would send a car back on the road with a broken spring only mentioned as 'advisory'...

 

[RichardM95]

(I had to remove the links to post, apologies!)

Not a bad price but depends on brand and size.

Excellent, thanks very much Shadeyman . Do you think a Fiat Garage would fit these if I took them in with me?

It's a shame you didn't manage to spell 'garage rip off' with the item prices you've just pasted Shadey (don't ask me how that would have worked though lol)

@RichardM95 - is that Desira Fiat in Norwich?

JDM89, yeah it's the very same. I couldn't agree more with rip-off by the sounds of it!

Shocking that a garage would send a car back on the road with a broken spring only mentioned as 'advisory'...

Oh dear! The advisory does say 'fractured' rather than broken, but is that just as bad? I haven't noticed any wayward handling or roadholding to be honest.

 

[Modette]

My car failed its last MOT for a broken spring, but I hadnt noticed it was broken until I drove away. They had pulled around on it when they did the MOT and made it worse.

 

[rattystilo]

Richard,

you really need to find a fiat specialist mechanic in your area or spend a tank of petrol and get over to F for Fiat in Aylesbury. You will always spend a lot more to get a Fiat dealer to replace bits on your car as opposed to a specialist.

Have a look in the garage section of the forum to see who is around.

 

[RichardM95]

My car failed its last MOT for a broken spring, but I hadnt noticed it was broken until I drove away. They had pulled around on it when they did the MOT and made it worse.

Sounds like I'd better get that replaced before the next service! Thanks to everyone for their quick and very helpful replies, a credit to the Stilo fanbase!

Richard,

you really need to find a fiat specialist mechanic in your area or spend a tank of petrol and get over to F for Fiat in Aylesbury. You will always spend a lot more to get a Fiat dealer to replace bits on your car as opposed to a specialist.

Have a look in the garage section of the forum to see who is around.

Cheers for that rattystilo, I'll give them a look.
There's no Fiat Specialists in Norfolk (according to Google, anyway) so this service was a sort of health check by people who know Fiats.

 

[rattystilo]

i need the wishbones doing on my Stilo and am expecting a bill around £120 for both sides. Front droplinks should be an hours labour so about £50 plus parts (i paid about £60 at F for Fiat)

Springs should also be about an hour per side so about £100 labour. Your Fiat dealers labour rate must be between £100 - 120 an hour!!!

cost of 220 miles of fuel in a 1.2, probably about £35. Well worth the journey

 

[Shadeyman]

Excellent, thanks very much Shadeyman . Do you think a Fiat Garage would fit these if I took them in with me?

No, I doubt it.

If you want your car serviced by Fiat it will cost you, a lot.

If you don't mind who does it, source the parts yourself and take the car to a local mechanic, will cost you a lot less than Fiat.

If you want to save even more money fit the parts yourself, probabely best you get the springs done professionally, they can be awkward, the rest is easier than you think.

 

[jdm89]

Have you visited Desira in Yarmouth? Found them a lot more helpful than the ones in Norwich before...(I'm in Beccles fyi, so kinda in between )

 

[RichardM95]

Have you visited Desira in Yarmouth? Found them a lot more helpful than the ones in Norwich before...(I'm in Beccles fyi, so kinda in between )

No, I haven't been to them (although funnily enough I was working in Yarmouth today!)
My car's been back to Desira in Norwich today for new tyres and my experience of them has generally been good (except perhaps for several spillages of what felt like grease on the freshly-waxed paintwork!)

I might go with the route of buying the parts myself getting quotes from Fiat specialist and local garages, but thanks for your suggestion.

 

[jdm89]

Yeah - the reason I suggested it is cos the guy in parts there is really helpful, I can't remember his name though I think its Peter or Paul maybe? (Unless they've changed now) but yeah definitely worth trying to source parts yourself there will be plenty of places that'll fit them if you need them doing...