Evening guys (and gals) new to this group, my name is Chris and currently reside down south (Portsmouth) working as an aircraft technician, but I originally hale from South Wales, just north of Cardiff.

I currently own a Fiat Stilo Blue (Based on the Active Sport I think?), bought it brand new back in September 2006 from Eric Ashmole dealership in Swansea for £6500 after part exchange. My love for the car has faded, but not having the funds to buy another car just yet is hampering me.

So now the car is out of its extended warranty, I have decided to take on all aspects of work on this car as and when needed, with the car having recently turned 50k miles, the original discs and pads were finally giving up the ghost, so much so, that my front driver side pads were half missing. So I have opted for Brembo discs and pads all round, and took me 2 Saturdays to do (had to wait for tool to do rears)

Next on the list is a coolant change, though I think I may have a head gasket issue as the current coolant looks like chocolate moose inside the expansion tank, then there's the oil change, new front tyres and that's me pretty much ready for its MOT next month.

Just a quick question for you guys here, are any of you aware of the inside tyre wear on Stilo's fitted with 17" wheels, and if so, is there an easy cure for it?

Regards

Chris

Originally Posted by MEP

As for HG failure are you loosing coolant / getting Mayo in the oil? It could just be that the coolant is so long over due that it's gone a bit mank.

Jon

Not seeing any sign of coolant in the oil, but did have what looked like white clumps in the expansion tank a couple of weeks ago, but now it looks more like a chocolate moose desert inside there. My drip tray has finally arrived (sort of) so I just need to pick it up from the post office tomorrow before starting the coolant change.

Hi guys, just about to start the coolant change on my car, I've located the radiator bleed plug, but cant seem to find the one on the heater matrix return line, Is it actually located inside the car by any chance?

Well coolant change went well, have noticed a difference in running temps since the change through the OBD2 port into my torque app on my phone, average temp (on the move) before hand was around 89-91 Celsius, and now she's around 78-84. And today, I finally changed my oil and filter, and thankfully, no mayo clumps were found in the oil filler, so hopefully I can rule out HG failure, though I will be watching it like a hawk!

Oil change took around 30-40 min, especially after finding it difficult to get the car up on the ramps without damaging the paint on the underside of the bumper. Then having read some previous posts on oil changing, I was expecting to find a 12mm allen key sump plug, wrong, mine happened to be a 17mm bolt, which actually made it easier to remove. Once drained, It was time for the filter, I had no fancy tool for removing the filter, so just hammered a screwdriver through the case, and twisted it till it came loose!

So all that's left to do before the MOT is 2* new front tyres, and air filter.

Repairing the damaged paint on the car will have to wait for a while though.

Here are 2 shots of my coolant before and during its change.

Chocolate moose!


And after 5 flushes.

Originally Posted by MEP

However you have a problem if the temperature it now running that cold. It should ideally be above 85c all the time once initially warmed up. I suggest you might need to change the thermostat as the current one is jammed open. I know mine was and now sits at a nice steady temperature once I changed it.

I will admit, it was a wet evening after I did the change, and it was quite cool (south coast), so that probably was the cause of the slightly lower temp, and also the fact I was driving gently to and from McDonald's Everything seems much better now (nearly a week on) and temps seem to be more around the 85 mark.

I have come across a stuck open thermostat on my old 1275 mini, and although there were no real issues, I definitely affected performance.