[italcarnut]

Got my 164L Auto back on the road and inspected yesterday.Now to work out all the weird quirks. Every once in a while the spedo stops working, The drivers window doesn't work, I replaced the switch, checked the fuse, I think its the doohickey, industry technical term, under the right side of the dash, by the footwell, that operates just that window. And to put a cherry on top, the fuel gauge doesn't work. Does anyone have a diagram of the fuel gauge circuit?

Thanks lads.

 

[SpiralArchitect]

Does anyone have a diagram of the fuel gauge circuit?

Thanks lads.

Everything you'll need is there.
http://193.219.82.238/~manual/Workshop manual's/Alfa Romeo 164 Workshop Manual - CarDisc.rar

 

[italcarnut]

I clicked on the link and all I got was a bunch of letters. I have the car disk, but it doesn't address the fuel gauge. To make matters worse, I took off the rear wheels while doing some work and found the wires from the ABS on the right rear are fried. Weird!

 

[SpiralArchitect]

I clicked on the link and all I got was a bunch of letters. I have the car disk, but it doesn't address the fuel gauge. To make matters worse, I took off the rear wheels while doing some work and found the wires from the ABS on the right rear are fried. Weird!

The link should have gotten you a transfer. Since you have a cardisk, refer to "service mantual - wiring", page 314.

Fuel quantity transmitter has three wires. Black is ground, connects to a grounding point on the right side of trunk. Check for resistance between black wire and battery negative terminal. Should be close to zero.

Other two wires are purple and purple black. They go to connector, circuit board to right rear wing G170. Indicator lamp switches when purple black and black close (a switch in the fuel level sender closes purple to ground when fuel goes low). Purple wire controls the indicator needle. Level sender works as a variable resistor. I suppose resistance increases with the decrease in fuel level.

Don't be tempted to open the fuel tank if you can avoid it. Do as much as you can with the multimeter and avoid working in a trunk full of petrol fumes.

 

[italcarnut]

G170 is under the right side vent and I opened it up and sprayed electrical contact cleaner in there, connected it and disconnected it several times. Still nothing. The only thing I can think of is a bad ground at the trunk terminal since the low level light doesn't come on either. Thanks for showing me the page. They call it a fuel quantity transmitter. I think they learned english at Walmart. We call it a fuel tank sender unit. Anyway thanks for pointing it out to me. Good advice!

 

[SpiralArchitect]

G170 is under the right side vent and I opened it up and sprayed electrical contact cleaner in there, connected it and disconnected it several times. Still nothing. The only thing I can think of is a bad ground at the trunk terminal since the low level light doesn't come on either. Thanks for showing me the page. They call it a fuel quantity transmitter. I think they learned english at Walmart. We call it a fuel tank sender unit. Anyway thanks for pointing it out to me. Good advice!

I too suspected a bad ground when you mentioned the burned wiring. Do check the resistance between the black wire at sender and the actual battery terminal. Having both a bad gauge and a bad light seems far-fetched for now. Either it's the ground, the sender or the wiring between sender and control panel. A multimeter is essential here, if you don't have one you're owing yourself one.

I confess I never had this issue on the 164, I had it in the '90 Passat we had. We took the sender out and the potentiometer in it was covered in diesel wax. Not pretty but once cleaned, never failed again.

 

[italcarnut]

Yes, fortunately I have nothing to do with a diesel. So, it's the ground or the sender unit. My money is on the ground. Now, if I can figure out whats wrong with that bloody speedometer.....Wow! so many Citroens. I am partial to the 205s, but they are are all interesting cars. We don't see many here in the States.

 

[FrencheGTV]

My speedo is the opposite, it sometimes works but most of the time doesn't. Also the trip and odometer don't work, I drove it 600km home from the PO's house, it only registered about 200km and since then it hasn't moved.

 

[SpiralArchitect]

Yes, fortunately I have nothing to do with a diesel. So, it's the ground or the sender unit. My money is on the ground. Now, if I can figure out whats wrong with that bloody speedometer.....Wow! so many Citroens. I am partial to the 205s, but they are are all interesting cars. We don't see many here in the States.

My granfather was a mechanic. My father saw some of the greatest things Citroen made coming out: the DS, the CX, etc. He was always a big fan of Citroens, then he made friends with the local dealer. He was once offered to trade the Passat for a brand diesel XM, he sadly declined and bought the Mercedes a few years later. The Saxo is my sister's, it's the only troublesome Citroen we had. Fortunately we solved it's problems with an email directly to Paris. We did the same about the rusting on the Mercedes but they didn't even cared to reply.

I've always been a great fan of Alfa Romeo and was about to buy a diesel CX when I stumbled across the 164. Don't regret it, but I'd still like to have a CX. Until then I shared the petrol ZX with my mother. I still find it great fun to drive, especially on dirt roads and cobble. The passive rear suspension works amazing and the car is still very dependable.

I'll take some time to see if I can help you with the speedometer. Hope the fuel gauge issue gets solved soon. I once ran out of fuel in the Mercedes on my way to the hospital (dad had broken a finger) in the middle of a medieval bridge with a sharp climb in each end.

 

[Alfisto Steve]

Yes, fortunately I have nothing to do with a diesel. So, it's the ground or the sender unit. My money is on the ground. Now, if I can figure out whats wrong with that bloody speedometer.....Wow! so many Citroens. I am partial to the 205s, but they are are all interesting cars. We don't see many here in the States.

Ground your purple wire at G170 and see if your fuel gauge needle pegs.

Ground your purple-black wire at G170 and see is low level light comes on.

As for speedo chances are sender at tranny differential or wiring conector is flaky/bad. Check for 12v at pink-black wire at sender connector. If you have 12v from speedo cluster at that wire then if connector terminals for that wire and output gray wire are good you should have about 5v when you are running tranny in gear with about 2000 RPM on engine.

 

[italcarnut]

Thanks Steve, Good advice!

 

[italcarnut]

Didn't get to check out the car since my wife took the car. She calls me thinking I was going to be pissed off at her since she went to fuel up and broke the fuel door. Boy those things are made of junk! Anybody have an extra door that you are willing to part with?

 

[Del]

How did she break it? All you do is push the button to open, and push on the rear of it to close.

 

[italcarnut]

I think she accidentally bumped into it or something. I didn't ask. she felt bad as it was.

 

[Alfisto Steve]

I think she accidentally bumped into it or something. I didn't ask. she felt bad as it was.

It happens. I have broken one and even rebroken one that was reparied.

If you have both pieces you can repair/glue with epoxy or even JB Weld.

Squeezing together locking pins to remove hinge is hard part. Spray hinge pins with WD-40 first and use curved needle nose to compress them.

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/289434-post14.html

 

[italcarnut]

I was going to use Crazyglue, but JB weld sounds like the way to go! Thanks Steve.

 

[Del]

Have to admit, they should have made that bracket out of metal, but then again, the way the cheesy metal inside door handle breaks off, maybe it is as good as it gets. I do try to be very careful around the ones on my 164's.