Alfa Romeo 147 2.0 Twin Spark - Unseen-ish

[rxe]

Check the inside face of the front discs if the brakes are a bit spongy - this tends to go first. A superficial glance at the outside usually looks OK. They’re also very sensitive to wear, if you have huge “wear lips” on the edge of the disc, the brakes will feel pants. Running new fluid through is always a good idea.

I suspect if your MAF is properly borked, you are in for a bit of a surprise. I remember fixing it on my 3.2, which went from “its OK, but not that special” to “OMG, this is what Alfa V6s are all about” with the replacement of one part.

[MJK 24]

Great thread on a great car.

Could do with a bit more coolant I think!

[stewjohnst]

bearman68 said:

Whereabouts in the country do you live?

I'm up in Yorkshire, currently hiding in the car from the wife and kids on the pretext that "I'm fixing my car" the Alfa as ever has other ideas...

[stewjohnst]

The postman delivered a new MAF sensor this morning and after a couple of tip runs (not in the Alfa) to appease her majesty - One to dispose of the old toilet that broke last week and a second to dispose of the old (2 year is old?) washing machine that mortally wounded itself when the bearings went the week before that - I was allowed out to play.



On paper, this is my kind of fix - One tool, one part and five minutes work, which is less than the time it takes for the missus to tut and shake her head disapprovingly at me spending any money on car related stuff (she has a magic blind spot for the £550 that we vaporised on a washing machine and toilet though).

Shiny new MAF installed, I was expecting great things...



...I wasn't expecting 'Motor Control Failure' on the dash

Concerned my new MAF was a duff, I fired up the laptop to find out what the code was and I'd found a new issue, the water temp sensor had gone on strike.

[stewjohnst]

It was possible I'd knocked it taking out the maf so I unpugged it, wiggled all the wires and stuck it back in.



Codes cleared and ignition restarted, I took it out for a short test run, I bumbled through a bit of traffic to get to a country Lane, letting traffic get ahead so I could savour the moment as I dropped it into second and floored it, watching the revs climb on the dial...

...all the way to 4,500 where the fker cut me off again

[Vitorio]

All this makes me wonder if im somehow really lucky with my 147..

15K miles in it, all its beeped at me about is some EML fault (which is probably something with the cat, but it drives fine so eh...) and the regular airbag shenanigans.. and the rear fog light doesnt like certain bumps.

Excellent cars when they work though, wouldnt trade mine for anything of similar type/vintage

[stewjohnst]

Vitorio said:

All this makes me wonder if im somehow really lucky with my 147..

15K miles in it, all its beeped at me about is some EML fault (which is probably something with the cat, but it drives fine so eh...) and the regular airbag shenanigans.. and the rear fog light doesnt like certain bumps.

Excellent cars when they work though, wouldnt trade mine for anything of similar type/vintage

In a perverse way, I find all this hunting around for the problem quite good fun. As long as it still drives in some kind of fashion, I don't actually mind what it throws up by way of faults.

[bigfella70]

Great thread, really enjoying following this. Well done persevering to track down faults and enjoying a car that's a lot more interesting than a run of the mill car.

[Vitorio]

stewjohnst said:

In a perverse way, I find all this hunting around for the problem quite good fun. As long as it still drives in some kind of fashion, I don't actually mind what it throws up by way of faults.

I can totally relate, the 147 certainly is more interesting then all the new econoboxes ive driven from work

In related news, ive managed to silence the rear fog light warning by taking the light out and putting it back in again, and then is an ODBII readed on its way to tackle the EML and airbag lights

[stewjohnst]

I didn't really have time to dig much further on Sunday after swapping the MAF - I did reconnect to the ODB before I was summoned for Sunday roast and noticed there was no voltage on the Lambda Signal 2 after the Cat.

I'm sure this isn't a good thing but as I have no idea what I'm doing, I have no idea if this was related to the car/sensors being warmed up or not or just something generally broken or whether it even matters? (You can probably tell the underside of a bonnet is not my natural habitat).

To make sure the car was nice and warmed up, I drove the car to work, a good 30 minutes and 25 miles of rev limited but spirited driving and then connected up to the ecu.



You can't tell from a screenshot but the other voltages are fluctuating properly but Lambda 2 is notable by its absence, if it matters.

I'll go do the usual wire wiggling tonight that seems to work so well on the car but I'm guessing I'll be putting my hand in pocket for a new Lambda probe?

Thoughts welcome

[Vitorio]

stewjohnst said:

I didn't really have time to dig much further on Sunday after swapping the MAF - I did reconnect to the ODB before I was summoned for Sunday roast and noticed there was no voltage on the Lambda Signal 2 after the Cat.

I'm sure this isn't a good thing but as I have no idea what I'm doing, I have no idea if this was related to the car/sensors being warmed up or not or just something generally broken or whether it even matters? (You can probably tell the underside of a bonnet is not my natural habitat).

To make sure the car was nice and warmed up, I drove the car to work, a good 30 minutes and 25 miles of rev limited but spirited driving and then connected up to the ecu.



You can't tell from a screenshot but the other voltages are fluctuating properly but Lambda 2 is notable by its absence, if it matters.

I'll go do the usual wire wiggling tonight that seems to work so well on the car but I'm guessing I'll be putting my hand in pocket for a new Lambda probe?

Thoughts welcome

Does it have two lambdas behind the cat? from what i can tell (i have a 1.6, totally different exhaust piping), the 2.0 has two pre-cat lambdas, and one behind, so having two pre-cat signals, but only one behind in the readout would make sense to me.

[davebem]

Why is it that all the parts that fail on these Alfas are always made by Bosch?

[Vitorio]

davebem said:

Why is it that all the parts that fail on these Alfas are always made by Bosch?

I didnt know bosch made suspension arms and big end bearings

[stewjohnst]

Vitorio said:

Does it have two lambdas behind the cat? from what i can tell (i have a 1.6, totally different exhaust piping), the 2.0 has two pre-cat lambdas, and one behind, so having two pre-cat signals, but only one behind in the readout would make sense to me.

Thought that might be the case

In which case I think I might have a bigger issue - Namely the ECU being convinced I'm driving around in an Auto...

I'll get a screen grab but the ECU is convinced I'm in an Auto, in 3rd gear and doesn't recognise the clutch being pressed.

[stewjohnst]

Vitorio said:

I didnt know bosch made suspension arms and big end bearings

On the plus side, mine has had two new upper arms to get it through the last MOT so not everything is falling apart on it

[wseed]

12 years ago I bought a 147, kept it a few years as I could never find a car to replace that was as nice a place to be for the money I wanted to spend. When I did eventually come to buy a new car I couldn't bear to trade it in for the pittance I was offered and so the logical thing to do was keep it. I still like to drive it when the other half who I gave it to lets me.

stewjohnst said:

There's a clonk in the front suspension over big bumps but otherwise it seems ok.

Unhelpfully, the sticker on the timing belt cover says 54000km so I either assume that was miles and leave it...or I assume it was km and budget £200 to have someone change it as the car ticked over to 70,000 on the way home.

Suspension as others have said it likely bushes. 54000km is the 34000 mile interval that's recommended to change the belt. Down from the 72000miles that the service book originally showed.

RicksAlfas said:

ASR warnings are often a sign of a poor battery voltage. They need a tip top battery voltage reading to satisfy the computer. Sometimes a quick rev of the engine on a cold morning will turn the errors off as the volts creep back up from a cold start.

Indeed, I saw this on cold mornings for 3 years before my batter finally gave up. A new battery has got rid of the error now. Turning the car off at the 1st set of lights and restarting kept the error at bay for the rest of a journey.

RicksAlfas said:

Squeaky clutch pedal and front suspension knocks are standard.

Clutch pedal squeaks are likely due to the split pin wearing on the connector on the side of the pedal. Worth changing before you loose use of the clutch at a busy junction. Mine's worn through twice, a spare is now in the coin drawer just in case.

Vitorio said:

and the regular airbag shenanigans

Try checking the connector under the passenger seat. worth disconnecting the battery for an hour before you disconnect it for safety.

It looks like your pics so your boot badge badly faded. Your Alfa is likely reacting to being neglected <£2 on a new set of badges will fix all the issues. Well maybe not but it will smarten up the looks.

[Vitorio]

wseed said:

Try checking the connector under the passenger seat. worth disconnecting the battery for an hour before you disconnect it for safety.

I know, ill be checking the connectors, but it is my understanding i need an ODBII tool to reset the fault anyway, but that is currently being shipped here.

[wseed]

Mine threw up a warning light once re the airbag and it was because my mum had shoved her handbag under the seat. I unplugged and then reconnected it and the light went out when I restarted the car. No OBD connector needed,.

[stewjohnst]

I narrowly missed out on creating twice the work for myself on here...

There was a badly listed 2.0 Twin Spark on a well known auction site that had plenty of bits and bobs I could have swapped over - It went for a smidge over my fag packet maths of £250 of viable parts so it has gone to someone else.

If I'm honest, it would have probably led me astray over winter with those heated seats and non faded badges so, not unlike discovering your girlfriend has a slightly fitter sister you'd like a crack at, it is safer to declare such things out of bounds and move on

Speaking of moving on, a most enjoyable blast home was had down country lanes today as I found myself pelting along to Wagner's ride of the Valkyries on Classic fm and wondering just how far through the floor I could get the brakes to fade.

Classic isn't my usual choice of music but the cup holder design in the 147 means that whenever you have a decent sized cup in there it stores whatever is on at the time into channels 4,5 and 6.

[bearman68]

Enjoying this thread. I've had trouble with the crank sensor on these. It's hard to see off hand why a crank sensor would cause it to not rev over 4500 rpm, but worth mentioning. Crank sensors sometimes don't throw codes, presumably because the engine can't be running if the crank is not turning.