Alfa 164 grinding noise on accelaration

Just purchased a 91 164L RHD at very cheap price. Car is very impressive for its age and I would compare it favourably to my 166 3.0 sportronic performance and handling wise. Just one area of concern. Under acceleration (moderate) with L/H lock applied there is a terrible grinding noise that appears to come from R/H front wheel. My first thought were that the wheel bearing or CV was on the way through. Noise also apparent under latter stages of braking but not nearly as loud. I have removed the front R/H wheel and found that the rubber bush that connects the sway bar to the lower control arm is severely perished. Is this likely to cause the aforementioned problems or should I be digging deeper.

Interesting how much cost Your car 91 164L?

I payed Aus$3000 (About $US 2500) . I figured that the engine alone is probably worth this amount. Only 147000 klm on it and a good service history. My yearly service on the 166 costs at least this much.

Originally Posted by Mark Simpson

I payed Aus$3000 (About $US 2500) . I figured that the engine alone is probably worth this amount. Only 147000 klm on it and a good service history. My yearly service on the 166 costs at least this much.

Wow... !
That seems like a lot of money to me, but then the Australian car market has always been different to ours.

Last week I bought my '91 164. Tidy condition, well looked-after (two owners since new), some paint chips/cracks on front bumper and a large number of bonnet stone chips. Otherwise good - leather interior not split or torn. Manual transmission, driving pretty well, no obvious faults. WOF (Warrant of Fitness) until September, registration (road license) until January.

The price? NZ$1000, which is AUS$890.

Two of my friends had the gall to tell me they thought that was too much for such an old car, and that it should have been $500...

Anyway I love my 164, and I'm now thinking of selling my 2003 FIAT Stilo Abarth - hopefully it's still worth $18,000!

As for the grinding noise - I would suspect a front wheel bearing. Has the car passed a roadworthiness test lately (I presume it's not called a WOF there) - ours are every six months so not usually long to go before the wheel bearings are checked again...

Maybe with the wheel off you'll be able to see where there's been metal-metal contact - e.g. the brake disc shield may be simply out of place and rubbing on the disc.

Cheers,
-Alex

I had something that sounds very similar on my 166.

A very loud metal "rattling" noise coming from the front wheels. I don't know if the 164 has the same parts but it turned out to be the small dust/heat shields fitted behind the front brake discs that had become lose and were flapping against the inside of the discs making one hell of a noise! You say its bad with left hand lock, well so was mine because more air was getting at the little shield making it "knock" even faster against the inside of the brake discs.

Just an idea to look and see if your 164 has these shields and if they are the problem? "Good Luck"

Originally Posted by Mark Simpson

Just purchased a 91 164L RHD at very cheap price. Car is very impressive for its age and I would compare it favourably to my 166 3.0 sportronic performance and handling wise. Just one area of concern. Under acceleration (moderate) with L/H lock applied there is a terrible grinding noise that appears to come from R/H front wheel. My first thought were that the wheel bearing or CV was on the way through. Noise also apparent under latter stages of braking but not nearly as loud. I have removed the front R/H wheel and found that the rubber bush that connects the sway bar to the lower control arm is severely perished. Is this likely to cause the aforementioned problems or should I be digging deeper.

I have exactly the same problem and it is being looked at right now. I was told that it was oversized tyres and I didn't believe it. Having replaced them with the correct size, it's still happening.

The current problems I have in that area are engine mounts and the wrong spring seating plate on the R/H side. I'm going to get all this replaced and see if that makes a difference. It really is quite an unnerving noise.

I'll let you know how I get on.

My problem seems to be that the spring seating plate is incorrect and is rubbing on the car when under compression and turning left. Gonna replace this next week and see if it works.

Yours could be different though as you say under acceleration, but it's when the suspension's compressed that it happens to me, if I accelerate and the front lifts, the sound goes away.

Check this:
Under the front suspension spring lower cup, there is a bearing that allows the shock absorber (leg) to rotate while the spring stays still, these seize up and grind whenever the steering is turned.

Actually, I think in the case of a seized/seizing bearing, that the spring is 'wound-up' (it's being dragged around). Because the springs are wound clockwise, (I think?) they will only wind-up when turned against the spring direction (to the right, I believe).

So the noise could be the main springs trying to 'climb' up their retaining cups instead of staying still.

These bearings also pit, leaving indentations, so even if the bearings do rotate to some extent, they mess up straight line stability.

Part number 0060501446 Listed at £21.36 + vat 1 per side

Changed mine last week, what a difference! Worth the cost.

Ammendment to my previous post.

The front suspension springs are wound anti-clockwise and in the case of seized bearings, would resist turning to the right.

I am an expat Kiwi myself. Your 164 sounds exceptional value. Thank god they are not so cheap in Australia - I would end with too many of them. In fact I just bought another one - an 89 model with Zender body kit and in pretty good order as well. This time $1500. In retrospect I probably paid too much for the first one but when you look at the sum of its parts eg $1000 worth of new tryes it was still quite a good deal.

Hey thanks everyone for your input. Still havent got round to tracing the problem as I have bought another 164 in the interim. Found the radio volume knob helps disguise the problem.