FIAT Stilo (2002 - 2007) - 2003 1.6 £1100 spent still not fixed

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Thu 29 Jan 2009 23:37
2003 1.6 £1100 spent still not fixed - marley
Help!!! when driving my 53 reg stilo suddenly the power goes, the engine dies. All the electrics are fine but nothing the revs die. Turning the engine back over all problems go works fine for any thing from 1 minute to 5 days until the problem re occurs. The dash has a warning light and indicates there is an engine fault, but, sometimes when you restart the car the light are gone and all is well for 1minute up to 5 days again. If this wasn`t bad enough I have spent £1100 with fiat and there is still a problem, they have changed:
-the throttle management system( TWICE)
-the ECU
-the pressure switch
-finally the accelerator pedal itself
Well and truly stuck in the fiat trap, trying to recoup some money back but thats another story. The point is the car still has this problem!!!!!
Has anyone else out there been through this or has any ideas. Thinking of using new age medicine, accupuncture or herbal remidies on, it more chance of that working than the fiat garage fixing it!!
Any advice other than selling it or finding it in a hedge would be greatly appreciated!

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 30/01/2009 at 00:10

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Fri 30 Jan 2009 06:50
2003 1.6 £1100 spent still not fixed - Andrew Moorey (Tune-Up)
Suggest you find an independent who can plug in a 'flight recorder'. Its a little inexpensive device (£60) that plugs into the diagnostic socket and will monitor the system as you drive. If and when the problem occurs it will take a 'snapshot' of the situation which can be downloaded onto ac computer for analysis.
A failing relay could be the culprit but it may not flag a hard fault.
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Fri 30 Jan 2009 09:12
2003 1.6 £1100 spent still not fixed - Collos25
Temp sensor by the throttle body causes the above problem as does a faulty MAF.
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Fri 30 Jan 2009 14:00
2003 1.6 £1100 spent still not fixed - R2-CMax
Diagnostic code reader seems like a good plan.

I've just been through something very similar with my C-Max... engine either cutting out or temporarily not starting, with no other symptoms. It seems to have been the crankshaft position sensor (according to dealer's diagnostics), which was not an expensive fix. An ex-colleague had a Saab 9-3 do the same things for the same reason.

I'm told that on some engines camshaft position sensors can also cause this. In both cases, the ECU loses track of where the engine is, so no longer knows when to initiate fuel injections, so does nothing.

Hope that helps.
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