Technical Strange Stilo power/engine fault

[davestuart1973]

My stilo is a Stilo JTD Dynamic Estate and other then the brake lights it has given me no problems in the two years I have owned it, and if I can clear this fault I plan on keeping it a few years yet.

But, it has developed a strange fault, it first occurred after being serviced and I thought air was getting into the fuel, possibly not been done right, something loose etc, but i took it back to the garage and they checked everything and to be fair it stopped for a few months then re surfaced.

Its had the problem for about the last six months, as I rarely use the car and have just moved house so havnt got round to getting it fixed.

what the problem is, is that you can be driving along quite normally not driving hard or anything and as you are accelerating the car slows down as if you are braking. If you keep the same pressure on the pedal or put on more it just continues to slow down, but if you take your foot off and then accelerate again it goes off on its way as normal.

Sometimes it will do this evey minute or so and then it may not happen again for a few days then it may happen once or twice in half an hours driving.

It happens in all driving conditions really whether you are driving along normally or if you are are accelerating hard such as joing motorway etc so has me really stumped.

So far I've had suggestions that its air getting into the fuel and I should have it fully serviced all the filters changed and fuel system bled, and other suggestion was it was not the fuel but an exhaust or pressure fault which is stopping the exhaust gas getting out properly, blocked or faulty sensor or blocked coked up exhaust.

Anyone had the same fault or any more ideas, as just moved house so money is very tight and cant afford to put it in the garage for hours of fault finding

cheers

Dave

 

[ABZSTILO]

It might be worth disconnecting the MAF and seeing if the car behaves 'normally' - if it does, you've most probably found the answer

To be fair, a good hard blast clears many problems on diesels (Fiat or not) as they can get gunged up - but I guess you've tried that
In truth, a session on the diagnostics shouldn't cost you more than an hours labour - and in fairness, less than half an hour will usually flag up what you need to know.
Might be a pain (I know, I'm in the midst of moving home myself) but getting it checked out on a diagnostic machine is worth the time/effort and (hatefully) the money

 

[davidthelodge]

Had a similar fault on a 2.4JTD Marea I used to own and it was the MAF (mass airflow meter), try disconnecting it for a day or two (just a electrical plug) and if stops it then its that, you will loose some power (15-20%), but with it disconnected the power u do have should not keep coming and going

 

[Oakley28]

There was similar post a while back from a member with the same problem. They tried everything themselves to no avail. Then after being on the diagnostics it turned out to be the Break Light Switch was faulty and was causing the car to sort of break on it own.

I'll try and dig out the thread, unless someone beats me to it.

Thread Here

 

[davestuart1973]

Oakley funny you should say that as at the time this first happened I had an issue with sticking brake lights and had a new switch fitted when it was serviced which was when it first appeared.

I have had a few problems with the switch since and have had to take it out and re fit it as the lights were still sticking on, the lights are ok now but I may look at that too as it is quite chepa to replace.

I'll disconnect the MAF once I figure out what it is and see what happens if no help then i'll try a new switch

 

[Davren]

I have had a few problems with the switch since and have had to take it out and re fit it as the lights were still sticking on, the lights are ok now but I may look at that too as it is quite chepa to replace.

Read posts 7 and 9 in the thread that Oakley28 has linked to above before replacing the brake light switch again.

 

[Oakley28]

Read posts 7 and 9 in the thread that Oakley28 has linked to above before replacing the brake light switch again.

:yeahthat:

good shout, i was gonna say that - but forgot. My bad, and good post.

 

[davestuart1973]

Thanks for the advice, sorry I forgot to update you all.

In the end by the time I got round to trying the suggestions the brake lights had stopped working correctly again, so I re-adjusted the brake light switch and it appears to have solved the problem.

It appears that the brake lights switch must have been doing the same as a previous poster and making the ecu think it had the brakes on

so happy days so far