Dead 166

My ex's 166 2.0 TS died recently whilst in the garage's hands. She blamed them and they invited her to get an independent inspection done. She did and it cost her 400 quid, with the upshot that it wasn't the garage's fault, but the shells on the crankshaft failing (I think!). This was put down by the inspector as a manufacturing fault. She rang Alfa and two different people promised financial help for a rebuild, so she has sent in the report and is now waiting to see what happens.

I told her not to get her hopes up, bearing in mind Alfa UK's record on this, but you never know, she might get lucky now the ethos is supposedly changing under the ex-BMW guy.

I will keep you briefed on what happens and try to get more details of the exact cause of engine failure.

Ian

Isn't this the problem that occurs when the car's been run low on oil? Or is that something else. I thought it hand something to do with crankshaft failure.

Originally Posted by badgers_nadgers

Isn't this the problem that occurs when the car's been run low on oil? Or is that something else. I thought it hand something to do with crankshaft failure.

That's what I told her when it first happened, but the independent inspector - who completely dismantled the engine - said the oil was ok and that it was a manufacturing flaw. He also said he's seen plenty of these faults in TS engines. Yikes!

IIRC it's got nothing to do with having low oil at the time, I think it's if it's ever been run low in it's life. Worth doing a search for as I recall there's been a few threads on the subject.

However Alfa would have to prove that the engine oil level had run low. Does the low oil warning light register on the diagnostics memory?
If it does and nothing shows on a diagnostics then Alfa have no defense whatsoever.
icarlisle - could we have the name and address of the engineer. He might have some useful evidence for other 166 engine niggles ie cambelt and tensioners!

Hmm, I remember an article a few years about manufacturing problems with the oil passages on the crankshafts, and a number of fairly low life failures. This was probably back in about 2001 / 2002, I was worried at the time and wrote to my local dealer about it. Their answer was non-commital as you might expect, I seem to remember them talking about making sure it was topped up with oil.

You never know, Alfa may help with the cost. When my cam belt went at 69K (Due at 72K) because I had full dealer service history Alfa paid half the £3K engine rebuild costs.

I have to say though, my service manager at my dealer was excellent and did all he could to press my case. (See dealers can be good!!)

Good luck anyway!

Originally Posted by badgers_nadgers

IIRC it's got nothing to do with having low oil at the time, I think it's if it's ever been run low in it's life. Worth doing a search for as I recall there's been a few threads on the subject.

Yep, that's what I told her as well, but the engineer says it is definitely a manufacturing fault.

I'll try and get hold of this engineer's details and post them. Sounds like he's pretty good.

Ian

Originally Posted by icarlisle

Sounds like he's pretty good.

Certainly does. Let's hope Alfa cough up!