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Torque Converter bolt loose
Bought a second hand 166, 3.0 litre eng plus 4 speed sportronic gearbox, 2004 model done only 35,000km, a week ago. Beautiful car and fantastic drive. Trip computer said that, for the previous 11,000 km, the previous owner has averaged 47 km/hr. Bit of a waste of car I thought.
Drove it 500 km that day. Put it in the garage that night and as I was about to switch off I heard a tapping or rattle from the engine. Turned off but thought I would restart to check out the noise. No Start. Engine locked solid.
Engine and tranny now removed. Found one of the bolts holding the torque converter (TC) onto the flywheel had dropped out and, after rattling around in the bell housing, jammed between ring gear and starter motor. Wrecked the starter motor (broke the pinion and the motor housing). The crunch had caused the locating peg for where the TC mounts onto the gearbox spline to break off so the TC is pretty sick also.
Does anybody know whether these units have done this before. TC mounting bolts should never come loose. The only reason it lasted 35k is probably because, at an ave of 47km/hr, the engine had never broken a sweat. To me it seems it could only be an assembly fault and Alfa should
1 pay for for the repairs and
2 find out whether it has a habit of happening i.e. is it recall material.
Be interested in your views
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