While the AFM is removed, I spray some TB cleaner at the shutter to fix a little stickiness. Start up car and hear a SSSSSSSSSSSS. Great, the elbow for the vacuum line to the cruse is split. Replaced with fuel hose. Not an elbow, but it will do and I am tired of buying these cheap Chinese elbows that last 1 year or so before they fail. Now I hear a SSSSSSSSSSSS coming from the vacuum tanks under the L front fender.
This sounds very familiar!
How about this for a funny story...
I've been too busy with work to spill the beans about my latest purchase - a 1999 166 with 3.0V6 and Sportronic (auto) gearbox, 111,500km. Bought for NZ$3000, which is US$2555, quite a lot, but still I could not resist saving this 166.
The previous owner has poured so much money into this car in just the last couple of years, including:
- Three 'Premium Services' ($500+ each), in all three the "injection warning light" (on one invoice called the "hose light") was to be investigated - every six months.
- About $1000 for tyres.
- A $4900 cambelt replacement service (including water pump and 'dogbone' upper torque-reaction engine mount).
- A $200 air filter replacement.
- A $3009 bill for when the transmission wouldn't come out of Park one morning, which required a heater matrix replacement ($480+$900 labour) and replacement of various ECUs.
In March a final diagnosis session for the injection warning light drew the following comments: "Engine is very "flat", lacks power. Suspect that as well as the engine temperature sensor $237 and the O2 sensor $747, the airflow meter is faulty and the throttle body assembly requires repair, plus the cam timing may be incorrect." This diagnosis cost $490 (including an oil change). The owner elected not to replace the engine temperature sensor or O2 sensor.
In all this owner had clocked up only a few thousand km in the last couple of years at a maintenance cost nudging $10,000 and all without knowing there was a release button for the bootlid/trunk lid (in the glovebox). Understandably, he has sworn never to buy an Alfa Romeo again.
I picked up the car and immediately noticed that, as well has hardly being able to climb a hill, there was a muted banging noise and the occasional pop. Going over 3000RPM the engine management failure light came on (a red picture of a fuel injector in non-EOBD compliant cars, rather than the orange engine outline of EOBD-compliant cars). I guess the injector looks a bit like a hose, hence the name "hose light".
I drove gently for the 1.5hr trip home.
The following day (and this is where we finally get on topic), I listened to the engine idling unevenly and heard a SSSSSSSSSSS. I sprayed brake cleaner all around the chrome pipes, fuel injectors, throttle body etc., no result. I rested my hand on the plastic resonator box that says "do not load" (i.e. don't press here), and the engine just about stopped. Why did I do that... well, it's a bit like touching the paint under the 'wet paint' sign, isn't it.
I then found the rubber trunking (similar to that on the 164) to be in the condition you see in the pictures. I cleaned and degreased it (had obviously been split for a long time, probably caused when the dogbone bushes failed), and wound some insulation tape around it (the really expensive type that cost
$1 for the roll), and went for a drive.
Was delighted to find full engine power and no injector warning light.
How someone replaced the air filter (buried deep below that resonator box) without noticing the condition of the trunking is beyond me. There is, of course, no fault with the airflow meter or the lambda sensor, and I cleaned the connector to the temperature sensor just in case, since there was indeed a historical fault code lodged for that (I have the software to talk to the car through its 16-pin connector even though it isn't EOBD compliant). What's the betting someone just forgot to plug the sensor back in after some other work... connected it later and didn't clear the code...
I think the moral is clear - no amount of expensive electronic diagnostics and "premium services" at generic service centres can replace the "eyes and ears" detective work that Charles describes.
New intake pipe is on the way over from England, having proved impossible to get in NZ and the five 166s I know of in wrecker's yards all have intake pipes with tape wound around them. How can a piece of rubber pipe cause so much trouble... but even at about $200 for the replacement, I still think I'll be getting better value than the previous owner. I do intend to sell the car, though.
Meanwhile my 2003 156 Selespeed clocked over 250,000km the other day, which is about 31,000km in my care (probably the highest mileage I have covered in any one car). And it's a Selespeed!
-Alex