To improve the performance of shear thickening fluids (STFs), we propose the addition of fibrous sepiolite. Through macroscopic rheological tests and microscopic characterization, the effects of different sepiolite mass fractions (0 wt%, 1 wt%, 2 wt% and 3 wt%) on the shear thickening of a SiO2-STF system (with a PEG200 dispersion medium) at different ambient temperatures (20 °C, 30 °C, 40 °C and 50 °C) were investigated. Rheological experiments revealed a significant improvement in the shear thickening of SiO2-STF with the addition of sepiolite (Sep/SiO2-STF), with 7.11- and 1.94-fold increases in absolute and relative shear thickening, respectively. As the sepiolite mass fraction increased from 0 wt% to 3 wt%, the temperature sensitivity coefficient decreased from 13.493 to 4.839, indicating that the Sep/SiO2-STF system still exhibited favourable shear thickening at 50 °C. Dynamic oscillatory shear testing revealed that with an increase in sepiolite mass fraction from 0 wt% to 3 wt%, the maximum energy storage modulus, maximum energy dissipation modulus and shear stress increased by 5196.25 %, 1676.16 % and 377.54 %, respectively. Microscopic characterization revealed that sepiolite induced the formation of more clusters in the STF system primarily through the physical adsorption of silica particles and Si–OH on its surface, leading to a significant increase in the shear thickening effect.