Struggled to start

**Insomnia** · 11-16-2009

Hi all,

Odd one this..

Got in my Stilo (1.4) this evening to find it would not start. This starter motor would fire up but it just didn't seem to want to catch and start the engine. Electrically there seemed loads of power. The dashboard reported all ok but it sounded like it needed some gas to get going. It was turning over but just felt like it was nearly but not quite there to fire up.

Ended up trying to start it 4 times, with the 4th time being successful.

Although it has been raining and such recently, the engine bay is bone dry so it kind of rules out damp.

It's not had this issue before and the battery is only approx 2 months old (Bosch one at that).

Car had been sitting on my Mum's drive for 27 hours before being moved to another location today where it was absolutely fine. It wasn't until I went back to it later, I had this issue.

Any ideas please before I drive it into my local Fiat dealership (its under warranty).

TIA!

**Insomnia** · 11-17-2009

Er, I thought there were some replies to this thread?!

On the upside, the fault was found and fixed.

**crosshairs** · 11-17-2009

Originally Posted by Insomnia

Er, I thought there were some replies to this thread?!

On the upside, the fault was found and fixed.

Hey insy mate
It did get replied to quite a bit mate, but the forum went down, Mike tried to upgrade the site, but unfortunately, alot of threads / posts etc got "lost" mate

**brocherboy** · 11-17-2009

Originally Posted by Insomnia

Er, I thought there were some replies to this thread?!

On the upside, the fault was found and fixed.

hiya,,glad you got it fixed ,what did the problem turn out to be

**Insomnia** · 11-18-2009

Turned out to be operator mis-use :( (ie. me).

In 3 words... Lack of oil!

Apparently it has a 3.5 litre capacity, well mine was down to 1.5! No wonder it didn't fire up straight away - I had moved the car 6ft briefly without issue but it must have starved the engine oil where it might have been needed.

Yes, not my finest moment. Tbh, I really didn't expect a 3.5 year old car to consume 1 litre of fuel every 2500 miles. I check my Coupe frequently (as you would expect oil loss on a 13 year old car) but just didn't think about the Stilo

I guess being AngelTuned probably compounds the issue - having spoken to a colleague who had his Golf GTI MkV done at same time, he reckons oil consumption has increased.

Despite all this, I'm assured by the Fiat dealership that the oil consumption is indeed correct and could be as extreme as 1ltr per 1000 miles - all down to emissions and needing to burn oil to keep emission levels down.

Lesson learnt in the end of the day. Just hope nothing major or detrimental has occured with my naivity within the engine itself. It runs and sounds as quiet/sweet as ever, plus the diags picked up nothing at all.

Nice to know they did more than just plug it in and work a computer... they actually bothered to check other items (and shock, horror, be a mechanic!).

Northgate Fiat in Canterbury is my dealer :)

On the plus side, I only had to pay for the 2ltrs of oil - the diagnostics were free as goodwill!

**brocherboy** · 11-18-2009

Aye my abarth use's around a lt every 1000 miles with 94k on the clock
I tend to check it every week though ,and keep it topped up to level on the dip stick ,as i had the same prob when i first bought the car
Sounds like you have found a cracking garage to service your car ,most would charge you the full top up and not just whatever it needs

**danhans115** · 11-18-2009

^ Yeah That..

My abarth is very thirsty indeed. When I had it serviced for the first time aftr having it a a few months I told them to check the oil and stuff. They managed to get 2 litres in lol. (Car had about 65k on at that point I think)

Now I always have some selenia racing at home at the ready, and since switching to it the car is much much better on oil.

Dan