Experts,
I'm facing two problems with my Stile - its 3.5 years old, and has 25K kms on it.
1) The odometer is behaving strangely for the past 3-4 months. While driving, the needle suddenly goes to 0, and after a few meters, it goes back to the correct speed. Initially it was doing it intermittently, now its behaving like this more frequently, and its taking more time to start working again. When i checked it at BU Bhandari workshop in Pune, the advisor (his name is Javed) told me that the cluster needs to be changed, and it costs around Rs 17K. Anyone else faced this problem?
2) I gave it for a general check-up after 25K, and they rotated the tyres, balanced the wheels. Now, while driving above 40kms/hr, i hear a constant noise from the wheels, a noise when something is rotating, as if there is something obstructing the wheels. When i showed it back to Javed, he tells me that there is a problem with the original Good Year tyres on the car, and that it needs replacement. The tyres are in good shape, and have good threads. Should I replace the tyres?
My 19 months young stile 1.1/9200KM only - has the 2nd problem you mention - but when speed reaches over 60, appears less "noisey" I hope the solution of Javed proves "wrong" - !!! will be taking my car end of this month to Concorde Hosur Road all the best.
I am a fellow Stile owner with 52k in 2years... Well on the speedo query I guess a local workshop may be a safe bet. On tires I guess its the age of the rubber that's making noise. You are that you have just done about 25k in 3.5years, so therefore the tires would have dried out and would become a lot harder. I am somewhat facing the same issue in my AVEO which has just done about 22k in 4.5 years.
i have not faced the first problem but yes the second one was haunting me about a month back. I had shown that to the BUB and Ms. ujjawala had told me that it is due to the tyre and not the wheel bearing. Then I took minty to a local mechanic he put the blame on the bearings, then went to pandit auto and met rahul / babar, he took a test drive and told me that it is about the tyre. I told him that i will be going on a long trip and he told me not to worrry about it. then as per his advice i got my tyre changed from front to rear at darshan tyres, kothrud. amazingly the tyre noise has reduced by 90% and had no issue in almost 1400 km running in 5 days on our trip. you can also try the same and also the term of hardning of the rubber is also used by the tyre changing person at darshan. harshadpalio slx minty white 20190+ running smooth and great(tomorrow going to the birthplace).
Welcome to the failed-odometer club. Wonder if one day there will be a class action lawsuite on Fiat for providing faulty odometers on stiles. :D I have came across a lot of 1.6 stiles (post 2007) with failed odo/speedos after my car's odo went dead. Btw, regarding the tyres problem, do u mean the sound was not there before servicing and appeared after servicing? Am asking because this same Javed guy serviced my car at BUB and I had found him to be suspicious.
He had done couple of costly services which I hadnt asked him to do (WA/WB, some radiator job) and there were couple of spurious charges in the final invoice that he wasnt able to explain clearly. Secondly, on the pretext of installing camber bolt he made me leave the car there overnight, and next day ~8am in the morning he told me to pickup the car. I had this strange chuk-chuk sound from the tyres, as if some bulge on the tyres was hitting ground. But even after camber bolts the sound remained and later on I noticed the bridgestone tyres on the rear were replaced with good-year assurance!
So ultimately even after servicing worth 7k both my problems - dead odometer and chuk chuk sound remained. I was a newbie to cars then (I still am, just a bit better) and I had baught the car about a month ago that time; so I put it all down to my lack of knowledge and overtrust. 'Akkalkhaate jamaa' as they call it in marathi.
I later on took the car to Darhsan tyres on FC road. Got him to check the problem, changed couple of tyres on his recommendations, and the sound was gone. The culprit was a minute wear on the tyre, which I could have neither spotted nor suspected. Maybe u can take ur car to some tyre expert and get the tyres examined.
Good luck with the speedo/odo problem.
Also, if the tyres are rotated, the tyre surface is not exactly the same on all the tyres after prolonged usage. Hence, the tyres will not give you a smooth drive because some parts of the tyre are exposed more than others after the rotation.
After using the tyres in the newly rotated position for about a 1000 kms, the tyres should wear out evenly in their new position & the drive should be smoother.
This has been my personal experience after I rotated the tyres for the first time & Dr. Sunil had given the above advice.
Never have your wheel alignment done at BUB, they screw it up big time. Secondly, regarding the odometer problem. I am having the same problem & showed my car to a local garage which is FIAT specialist. The mechanic put his head under the bonnet & simply asked me if I also get intermittent jerks when I am driving. I replied in affirmative to this & he said that this is due to the kilometer sensor going kaput. Need to replace this under warranty now once I have the time for it.
