Alfa Guilietta “bangernomics 2” thread.

We all know I like a clean car, and the Alfa has not had a clean by me yet, so I gave it a proper going over this afternoon. Although it looked tidy enough on the outside, there were plenty of areas that had collected grime over the years, some pretty heavy deposits on the plastic scuttle below the wipers, the door hinges, boot hinges, and the fuel cap recess was downright filthy. Soaked it with some Megs general purpose cleaner, agitated with a brush and rinsed off. Looks all sparkly again.
The wheel arches were holding a lifetime of muck, washed all that out as well. The alloys are faded, some scuffs and chips, but the rest of the bodywork has come out rather well after an AG Body Conditioner wash and then a coat of AG Ceramic whilst drying.
I was going to treat the leather, but the Honda needed a clean apparently......and being an SUV thingy it took ages!

The poor G22 is the only grubby car on the drive now. Will see if I have any energy tomorrow.

A shiny Alfa:

 

I’m joyed to say that’s not a banger! more a thing of beauty!

 

First real problem has raised its head. I've driven the car for 900 miles so far, averaging 64.8mpg across that time, pretty much all motorway driving.
I did a round trip to Cambridge yesterday, approx 120 miles all in. Parked the car up on the drive, came back 15 mins later and noticed a spot of fluid on the drive. After a wee bit of investigation and Googling it seems the EGR cooler is leaking fluid, a very common problem for cars that have this engine, or variants of it. Opels, Fiats, last gen Saab 9-5, Alfas etc all use this EGR system, including the cooler. The seals become brittle and start to let coolant past over time.
Called the warranty and it isn't covered, tried to argue that it is part of the EGR, and that is covered, but no joy. Not the end of the world as the part is cheap, just a bit of a faff to fit!
I've found the OEM equivalent part, using the Vauxhall part number as this is cheaper than the Alfa part number, ordered for the princely sum of £28. Will keep an eye on the coolant levels next week, but hopefully fine until I get time to change the part over.

A photo of the offending item, it has the plastic ribs along the edge, you can see the drip on the drive (the fluid not me......) through the engine bay. Thankfully only coolant, so not causing any staining on the drive.

 

Oh dear! on the plus side, at least the engines not shoe horned in and easy access

 

I’m fine with this, kind for expect some issues with a 12 year old car that has 120k on the clock. Just Sod’s Law it isn’t a warranty item.
And if the truth be known, I am looking forward to a tinker.

 

Just need to remove the battery, the dipstick, the charge pipe and the DPF pipe….
On the positive, the previous owner ditched the engine trays so easy access underneath!

 

I'm exactly 2000 miles into the ownership experience with the Giulietta, the total car mileage is now 121,845. The car has taken a lot of use for work since September, the new term is always a packed diary of school visits and meetings, hence the larger mileage over the past 5/6 weeks. It has been to Oxford several times, Cambridge several times, Kettering on 6 occasions, as well as Banbury and various locations across the West Midlands.
It is generally a comfortable place to sit, comfortable seats and great visibility. The driving position isn't perfect though, I'd want the steering wheel to come out more so I can extend my leg position, typical Italian design! Also, the left foot has nowhere to rest when on the motorway.
Cruise control has been a real bonus, I've used this a lot on the M42/40/6, vey handy in the average speed sections, as well as longer runs with less traffic.
Averaging 700 miles a tank, sitting at 61mpg overall currently, happy with that as an economic average.
Issues that need resolving:
- The heater motor/flaps have a well known fault, the flap that alters the flow of air has seized/fallen off, resulting in no warm air getting to the passenger side. The workaround this is to have the warm air on the windscreen, this keeps the whole cabin heated. To be fair it is only me in the car, so this isn't a problem, more of an annoyance. There is a motor reset process, when done the code is 02, this shows on the climate readout, means there is a fault on the flap. A fix is a big job, dashboard out type of job.
- Rear tyres are coming to the end of their usable life, just about to show on the tread wear indicators, so they are becoming a little noisy. Will get around to changing these in the next few weeks.
- The EGR cooler leak is very slowly getting worse, noticing a small pool of coolant when I've parked up at the end of a journey. I've got an emergency bottle of water in the boot should it go and cause and overheat, this should get me home, worst case scenario. I have the new part and fresh coolant in the garage, costing me a total of £34, will hopefully get this job done this weekend. Don't really want to be overheating on the M42 "smart" motorway... The job can be seen here:
https://www.alfaworkshop.co.uk/Giulietta_1.6_2.0_EGR_valve_coolant_housing_replacement.shtml

Other than those issues, all seems well. I'm enjoying driving the car, it isn't a common sight on the roads, something slightly different.

A trip back from Oxford, then to Barnsley and back home and I saw this average (reset when I filled up in Oxford)

 

Changed the EGR cooler cover today. There is a special place in hell reserved for the designer of that part. Four hours of head scratching, tutting, mild (and not to mild) swearing.
Access to the five bolts was tough, lots of stuff to move out of the way, disconnect etc. And there is a special hidden bolt right in the middle of the casing, has to be undone/done totally by feel, and with the bolt on the end of an extension bar, very tricky.
One bolt had rusted in, the one closest to the exhaust manifold, so suspect it has undergone many heat cycle, adding to the corrosion. I ended up having to cut the head off and then remove the remainder from the head with a pair of mole grips, a tenth of a turn at a time.....Thankfully I have a large collection of old bolts, so swapped this out for a 10mm headed bolt with the same thread. The original bolts are T30 headed ones, no wonder the damn thing stripped!
All back together and coolant topped up, no leaks so far. I haven't bled the coolant yet, will save that for tomorrow, but looks to be a simple job, there is a bleed valve near the thermostat. Suspect there are air bubbles in the system, will need to get these out before I use the the car on Monday.

The old part shows that one of the previous owners, or their garage, had bodged the casing after it had spilt. Looks to be some form of epoxy resin covering one side, this was an attempt to seal the crack, although it was a tiny one. Looks to have failed recently, hence the escaping coolant.

Glad I've done the job, at least I know that part is ok now.

The old part, you can see where the bodge is, as well as the corner of case that I had to hack away to get the seized bolt out.

 

To be fair to the designers, the bleed process on these engines is very simple. Without starting the car I opened the valve by the thermostat, no tools needed, a simple plastic valve cover on a thread, then topped up the coolant header tank until fluid came out of the valve. Sealed it up, ran the car to temp with the heater on, went for a short drive, monitored the temp gauge. Parked up, turned the car off, re-bleed via the valve, small amount of air came out, topped the header up to max again and all is good.

Will monitor this week, have a Cambridge drive tomorrow, then a few trips to Kettering, so a decent test.

 

The plan was to drive to Cambridge and back today, however, I had to stop at Rugby services this morning, thankfully nothing to do with the Alfa, more to do with the east bound A14 being closed! The journey was going to take 3.5 hours, so turned around and had the meetings via Teams instead. Thankfully the Alfa was perfect, temp gauge sat at 90 degrees all the way there and back. Tiny top up of coolant when got back, as expected following a long run.
I shall try Kettering and back tomorrow, if the A14 allows......

 

An update on the little Alfa, all seems to be grand in terms of the running of the car. The EGR cooler replacement has worked a treat, maintaining pressure with no leaks, so I'm pretty chuffed with this job.
Up to 123300 miles today, I shall be keeping an eye out for it turning 123456 miles in the near future, a landmark figure.

Averaging 56.8mpg since I collected the car in August, happy with that, certainly makes the running of the M2 more palatable......

Haven't got round to changing the tyres yet, they are a little noisy on the rear, but I've compensated by turning the stereo up a little. Suspect the rears have another 1-2K in them before I need to change, will consider all four tyres at that point.

I find the car to be really comfortable over longer drives, 4.5 hours in it today, no problem. Great seats. Cruise control works perfectly well, very useful on the A14 today, takes some of the tedium out of the journey.

I've taken to using the Dynamic mode on occasion, it is hilarious. Really does alter the throttle mapping and the steering feel, drives like a car possessed with this switched on, makes me laugh just how much fun it can be. Feels like I am doing 100+mph at 60mph, brilliant.

The issue with the heating is annoying, still only blowing warm air from the driver side vents, not a massive issue as I am the only person in the car 90+% of the time, but does take longer to warm up as the car pumps cold air out of the passenger side! I plugged the Topdon computer thingy in tonight, unfortunately it won't read the heating controls, only ECU/Airbags/ABS modules. I did find the EGR and DPF settings though, useful to know the current soot mass and latest regen etc, all seems to be working fine at the moment, but some regular check ups on this will be helpful.

In other news, I haven't cleaned the car since the one and only other clean I did.....that may shock some of you......

 

I've been waiting for a decent deal on tyres over the Xmas period, the local place I use had some well priced Pirellis this week, so I bit the bullet and ordered four. Had them fitted this morning, Pirelli Powergy 225/45/17 XL priced at £80 a corner. A decent price, also happy that I have a decent brand on the car now, lots of motorway and rain needs something with a decent grip.
Already feels like a different car, the rear noise has gone, I was beginning to think it was rear bearings, but clearly the old budget tyres were noisy. Feels more pointed on the road. The front Westlakes were taken off and put in the boot, these have at least 5mm all round, so will drop them onto Gumtree for a few quid.

The only issue I've had with the car is that the front screen has some significant condensation each night, only really started when the cold weather has kicked in. This freezes overnight, leaving me to de-ice the exterior and the interior of the screen, most annoying.
I suspect this is something to do with the heating issue I have, the passenger side motor flap is stuck on cold, so no warm air gets to that side of the car, however, the front screen does warm up when the vents are switched that way.
Must be a build up of moisture in the car that isn't being removed, I do leave the air con switch on, possibly needs a recharge.

I've left a heater/blower in the car just now, blowing hot air around the car to dry it out, I've left the two front windows open 1cm as well, giving it somewhere to vent. Will see if that helps at all.

 

Funny you should say that, I have ordered one as a possible solution. The service history says one was fitted in March '24, there is a receipt to show the purchase. However, worth a change just to see if that has any impact.

 

The miles are creeping up!

 

Changed the cabin filter this afternoon, not the worst looking one I’ve ever seen, but not great.
The filter housing is designed for LHD cars, complete PITA for a RHD set up. Have to use one hand to hold the clutch down while the other tries to feed the new filter into the gap.
Also fitted a used set of Alfa locking wheel bolts as it didn’t come with any, the four new Pirelli’s might be a temptation to some scrote.