Decided yesterday to take stepper motor out and give it a clean, as the car is suffering the usual idle problems.
It was gunked up so needed cleaning, no problem. However when cleaning it it pretty much came apart in my hand, the plunger, spring and guide detached from the body of the motor. I dont know if they're designed to do this or not?
Anyway I managed after much trying to get it back together again and get the car running, so I phoned a Fiat breaker and sourced a replacement.
When I got to the breakers he told me that there were different sizes of plungers on the stepper motor so I fitted the one he gave me before paying for it and guess what? the car wouldn't run at all.

MAnaged to get back home but when the engine had cooled it wont tickover.
Went to it this morning and had to keep the accelerator down for a few minutes until it warmed up a bit.

Been onto my local Fiat dealer and they can order me a new one its gonna cost about £162

Just wondering as its an electric motor is there any 'special' way of refitting the stepper motor or is it simply to reverse the way i removed it?

Any ideas folks???????

Stepper motor

Bought a new stepper motor from fiat and have just fitted it.
Big problem as soon as I started the car it raced to over 3000 rpm and continues to fluctuate between 2,700 - 3000 rpm.
I have switched off and disconnected the positive on the battery.
With any luck and with the help i've had from reading this forum, this will reset the ECU and it'll run properly when reconnected.
Really hope so as its starting to make me feel :yuck: now and I feel im :bang:

I'll post my results later.

Never heard that one before about different plunger lengths? the plunger could be just at different lengths due to the conditions it was in when disconnected? the plunger just lets the right amount of air bypass the closed throttle to allow the engine to idle. As for the high revs check the setting of the throttle cable as it might of been adjusted to compensate for the faulty idle valve? is the small stopper on the throttle disc( black circle which is attacted to the throttle cable and turns clockwise as you pull throttle cable) up against the crub screw on the throttle housing.

Best of luck.
Donald

A picture of what it should look like the stopper up against the screw. Picture thanks to Martin d

Donald thanks for your interest in this situation
I have reconnected the battery and found that the car initially appears to be idling better but still not perfect (seems to idle between 900 - 1200 rpm).
The adjustment on the throttle cable is ok as I have looked and adjusted this in line with your previous posts.
The throttle stop is adjusted ok aswell.
Really it is tomorrow morning when the engine is cold that the truth will be told.

The other thing is that since disconnecting the battery and not entering the code in the stereo I am really aware of a loud rattling sound coming from the central underneath area of the car, it seems to be there 99% of the time.

Something else to get my teeth and wallet into

yippee

seems the car is running really well after changing the stepper motor.

i did a 260 mile trip yesterday and drove quite hard for most of it and the car performed almost faultlessly.

its still got the rattling from underneath that i've mentioned and it jumped out of 5th gear a few times (mostly on the over run), but it reminded me of what i like about this car, particularly when i overtook a stilo abarth on a mountain road that i know really well.

Glad to hear about the idle prob being sorted

I read somewhere the 2.0 8v non turbo has 130bhp it is just a pity it has the aerodynamics of a house brick I have never had any problems overtaking. I sure it has surprised some folk!

If the rattle sounds tinny it could be as simple as the exhaust guard / heat shield I have had mine done as it rattled.
Never had the fifth gear problem *touches wood* so no idea

All the best.
donald