[NJAlfa164S]

I bought my 164 about 3 weeks ago. Cosmetically, it's not bad for an 18 year old car. The only problem is that the trunk does not close correctly. When i close it, it locks, but the ends and side nearest the rear window does not close completely. Water does not leak in, but I would like for it to be flush. Here are some pics:

 

[Alfisto Steve]

Being an S and if it has gas struts or heavy duty springs you probably have sprung hinges. Is side of body panels bulged at all?

 

[NJAlfa164S]

It has the heavy duty springs and no, the sides of the body panels are not bulging.

 

[Alfisto Steve]

It has the heavy duty springs and no, the sides of the body panels are not bulging.

You probably have bent hinges then and may have to use a strong cable and come along attached to a fence or wall in your garage to disconnect and move to farthest forward hole in retainers at rear of trunk.

As for hinges you may have to remove and heat and bent them back to retract front of trunk.

Inspect body sheet metal where hinges pivot to be sure it is not damaged.

 

[NJAlfa164S]

Thanks Steve. I appreciate your help.

 

[Del]

Somebody probably tried to close the lid with a large box in the trunk and bent a hinge. Just get new/used hinges from somewhere, and change them over, rather than trying to rebend them.

The lid on my S, with the springs only, opens/closes just fine after 155k miles. No chance of screwing things up as you can do with the struts if you are not careful. The LS has struts (and an S spoiler as well), and I'm very careful to not force the lid when opening or closing it. Too many people get in a real hurry and force things, causing damage somewhere.

 

[NJAlfa164S]

Actually, I was told the trunk is the way it is because the PO previously had ski racks. I don't know, but maybe he put too much weight on them?

 

[Del]

Could be, the rack being pulled up at the front due to some sort of problem when the skis were attached. Maybe the ski tips caught on something overhead (low bridge) and were pried up and back, thus bending the hinges up. Moron.

Just replace them with used ones. Everything should be fine, unless the attachment points in the lid are pulled/distorted. Either pound them back into place or get a used lid. I have a good and cheap used one from an S, but that won't do you any good, being available for local pickup only, sorry.

 

[Michael Smith]

Don't overlook the possibility that the trunk lid itself has been bent by too much pressure from the ski rack. Too much tension on the mounting straps could bend the lid. Also, downhill skis can be very heavy and the trunk lid mounted rack would be in a very high speed area of air drag. Too bad because the 164 comes with built in door frame mounting points for a roof rack, which mounts the right rack directly into the perimeter of the roof where it joins the doorframe opening, part of the rollover structure and very strong. Thule made a rack that fit as did Alfa themselves.

 

[Del]

Exactly. I use the Alfa supplied rack, as the Thule is/was not available here in the US. Tried to get one but they said, don't bother us.

The weakest parts of the Alfa or Thule rack are the little bolts themselves, and the rack attachment plates. Still rather strong. I haul lumber on that Alfa rack.

Those little bolts are kinda special shaped under the heads. Most people have no idea they exist. Would like to get a spare set from someone parting out their car, hint, hint.

 

[italcarnut]

If you need, I have an extra trunk lid and a pair of hinges.

 

[Michael Smith]

My Alfa rack came with the special screws. I am now missing one of the locking covers, didn't lock but felt like it had and flew off like a Milano Verde gas cap.....

 

[AlexGS]

For what it's worth, I found the perfect tool for removing/refitting the springs. It's sold as an "exhaust mounting rubber ring remover", basically a hook with T-handle, very useful to hook onto the spring and pull safely.http://www.ipdusa.com/Universal-Products/Miscellanous-Tools/Exhaust-Hanger-Tool/p-202-620-256/

I also have had no problem with the hinges but I find the springs get a little weak. The striker pin (fitted to the rear panel) for the latch can lose its rubber and become a loose sleeve, giving erratic/bouncy closure. I filled it with hot-melt glue and no problems so far.

-Alex

 

[Del]

My 91S had the little bolts already installed in the car. The rack itself didn't have them with it. I assumed that all the 164's had those installed as standard. Maybe not?

Checked the 94LS, and it has the bolts installed, so all must come with them.

 

[Michael Smith]

My 91L also had the bolts installed in the roof rack mounting holes. I meant to say the rack kit also came with a set of the same bolts but with slotted heads instead of phillips.

 

[Del]

The ones in the LS are star drive heads rather than slot or phillips.

 

[NJAlfa164S]

Thanks for all of the advise. My mechanic has tons of spare ALFA parts. I will talk to him maybe sometime this week and see if he can take a look a look at the hinges and springs to see what the problem is. I tried to see if I could find the problem, but I couldn't find anything.

 

[planner3357]

So what you guys are saying is stay away from trunk mounted racks? I was thinking of picking one up for my bikes...

 

[Del]

I suspect that yes that might be a problem, as those tubular hinge arms don't look to be that strong, although I guess you could get away with it as long as you didn't catch the rack, skis, bicycles, or whatever on something and end up prying the forward edge of the lid up, bending the hinge arms. If you had something such as bicycles mounted there, maybe at high speeds air loads on the bicycles might be enough to pry the lid up. Don't know, might be an interesting problem to calculate the bending loads allowables of that setup.