The joys of owning a FIAT..
fullpint - 29/12/12 at 07:32 AM
You either love em or hate em... We love em!!!
2 weeks before x-mas my Stilo JTD Station wagon went into limp mode.. I knew what it was so took it to my local garage.
The good old boost valve tucked under the front wheel arch. £182 please. Upon picking the car up they said Mr Turner do you know your rear n/s wheel
bearing is shot.. Yep, so it was booked back in a few days later. £142 please. Told them to look at the shocks too. Had a knocking over bumps. New
shocks fitted and no change!! So I told them did you check the bushes in the main beam? So new shocks were replaced with the old and new bushes popped
into the beam, £220 please. They also noticed my water pump has a leak (quoted £300 to replace including cambelt) but that can wait until im 100% sure
it is leaking.
So after all this I picked the car up last Friday. All was fine!!! Well until I used it again on the Monday. I lost all (apart from airbag) my lights
and gauges on the dash 
Again common fault on these Stilo's.. Found a 2nd hand one which came yesterday, £60.. Removed old fitted
replacement and all is 
FIAT= Fix It Again Tomorrow 
Merry X-Mas and a Happy New Year t you ALL..
snapper - 29/12/12 at 07:36 AM
Shouldn't that be Steal O
smart51 - 29/12/12 at 08:27 AM
Sounds like the stilo my brother in law had. He's had Skodas ever since.
rusty nuts - 29/12/12 at 08:34 AM
Any news on the C3?
britishtrident - 29/12/12 at 08:47 AM
The market always seems to forget how troublesome FIATs and Alfa's are and they have a resurgence in sales as a new generation of buyers buy
them cos they look the dogs danglers.
smart51 - 29/12/12 at 08:50 AM
quote:
Originally posted by rusty nuts
Any news on the C3?
Thanks for asking. They came and picked it up on Christmas eve. Yesterday they confirmed it was broken but they had to wait for Cirtoen to tell them
what to do and they're closed until Monday. They're letting us have a curtesy car from Monday so the missus can get to work.
smart51 - 29/12/12 at 09:12 AM
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
The market always seems to forget how troublesome FIATs and Alfa's are and they have a resurgence in sales as a new generation of buyers buy
them cos they look the dogs danglers.
We had a Punto once. It looked really nice as you say. Nothing ever broke that stopped it working but it was at the garage being fixed an awful lot.
Interstingly, the radio would switch off and then on again if you were braking whilst turning left. They never sorted that, or infact any of the
problems we had with it. I doubt we'll buy another but there are plenty of other punters.
jabs - 29/12/12 at 09:51 AM
My wife has an 04 stilo and has been very reliable, only issue to date has been a faulty coil pack which was cheap and easy to replace. I replaced the
cam belt + water pump myself this year only cost £50 for parts and not a difficult job provided you have the special cam locking tools which was made
for me by a friend.
fullpint - 29/12/12 at 10:07 AM
I must say I have had just over a years motoring from it with out any issues. Just seems like every thing came as once And I'm sure more to
follow..
perksy - 29/12/12 at 10:23 AM
Mrs Perksy was very lucky with her Punto, all it had in 8 years of ownership was 2 coils (under warranty) a battery, tyres, brake pads, clutch and
cambelt change.
I told her not to buy one but she liked the colour 
But it worked out ok in the end...
splitrivet - 29/12/12 at 10:24 AM
Ive had quite a few Fiats never had any problems with any of them so did my dad before me, had one Audi an A6 and it was a right pile of cr@p from
word go, its the luck of the draw it think.
Cheers,
Bob
daniel mason - 29/12/12 at 12:13 PM
my mechanic mate always quotes fiats as
FIAT (Found In A Tip)
Ben_Copeland - 29/12/12 at 01:05 PM
Sounds like my wife peugeot 206 hdi. Random faults show up on the computer then go away again. Try to fix something and something else breaks next
to it....
Just changed fuel filter which was easy enough, but a connector on top of an injector is now cracked and i never even touched it !!!
At least she has my trusty mondeo to drive!