Hi, first ever post. love affair begins with expensive Italian. Need some answers and reassurance.
I Have today (despite lots of advice not to as they always go wrong) purchased from e-bay a 1996 GTV TS 16v in green for £1000. Car was mot'd on monday and passed without any advisories, its a clean car with 85k. Having had a lovely drive home of about 20 miles I parked it on the drive and set about cleaning it a couple of hours later there was a pool of fluid under the nearside front (believed to be clutch fluid) and no clutch (undrivable). Is this the slave cyclinder if so where do I find it in the engine bay, as i will attempt do it myself.
Secondly the car came with only 2 keys, having done lots of searching on this site I now realise I have only 1 master key and 1 service key I believe I am missing 2 actual keys. (should I worry). should this car have remote locking and alarm, if so how do i go about doing it. I have no key code card. The service key operates all locks except the glovebox which Im not to bothered about. I think this is just a base model but any advice of what to check would be most welcome.
Its a great looking car and just that 20 miles has me hooked.
Thanks Steve O:
First off it could well be the Clutch Slave cylinder, if you do a search on here I think you'll even find pictures of the thing and maybe even a " How To. " First of all though check the reservoir, this is a combined brake and clutch one and is on the engine bay rear bulkhead. Obviously if it is clutch fluid that has leaked this will be down on level. A new cylinder is in the region of £30 and is a 30 minutes job if you know what you are doing, I had a new one supplied and fitted for £60 at the local indie which I thought was money well spent as it saved me the hassle ! From what I can remember though the pool of liquid seems to be in the wrong place but I could well be wrong on this. Clutch Slave problems are very common though so with any luck this will be the problem.
Don't worry about the keys, just take your working key to the key man on your local market or Timpsons and have new keys supplied, cut and cloned for about £20 each. If you do have the brown master key then stick it safely away for use in the unlikely event that your ECU completely loses it's marbles.
So far as I know few, if any ? early GTV's came from the factory with remote central locking, my 97 one certainly doesn't have this. It's probable that this feature was part of the META alarm system that was fitted by the UK importers. This is a notoriously unreliable system and has been removed on mine for which I'm thankful !
Good luck with the clutch, if that's what it is, get it fixed and enjoy the car !
Excellent thanks for the info, have just spent most of the day doing bits and bobs and have rechecked what I thought was clutch fluid leaking this is in fact water leaking from the screen wash bottle (or at least that what it tastes like). Have topped the fluid level right up and had a little drive and the clutch is not returning fully all the time, so I guess a new slave cylinder is required. Great news re the keys & alarm. Thanks again steve o
:thumbs: Well the leak is certainly in the right place for a Washer Bottle leak.
You have the classic symptoms of imminent Clutch Slave Cylinder failure so would be an idea to get this replaced or at least have it checked. Of course it could just be air in the system but as you said that you had to top up the fluid it does sound more like a leak. Not a massive job so no real worries.
Keep an eye on the oil level and get into the habit of checking it regularly and keeping it up to the max mark. Some TS like a drink and some don't but get into the habit anyway. You didn't mention anything about the timing belts so just for info bear in mind that these should be changed at 36K/3 years, whichever is the soonest . Bit of an expensive job this but best not left to chance if you want to keep the engine in one operating piece !
Mine is also a green one, Verde Tropica Metallic, have a look at my gallery and see if you have the same colour, not too many green ones around, seems it wasn't a popular colour.
Enjoy the car Steve, lots of smiles per mile with a GTV !
Thanks for your tips. Have topped up both the water bottle & clutch res to the top to see if there is any loss, typically its now started pouring with rain,so cant do much at the moment.
After reading lots of posts I think I know the answer so have decided to buy a slave cylinder and have a go at doing it myself as this is a car I intend to keep,plus i have never trusted dealers.
nige005 nice GTV I have not seen many green ones around, I think it looks great it, was one of the reasons I bought mine. Had a red 145 cloverleaf a few years back that went very "pink".
:thumbs: Good luck with it all Steve, I don't think you'll have any real trouble getting things sorted.
This Alfa pinky red thing seems to be a fairly recent sort of issue. As you probably saw in my gallery I've had a few red ones and they didn't fade. Rust, yes, fade no ! I reckon it's down to the modern paints, 'elf and safety at work here ?
The green seems to wear well, no problems on mine except for a few chips on the mirrors and the usual supermarket dings and scrapes you would expect for a car nearly 12 years old. I also got mine from eBay and to be truthful I did want a red one. However at the time this seemed to be the best car for the money and so I went for it. Was a little nervous as I waited for it to arrive at Ipswich railway station thinking that I might hate it.
First sight of it and I was sold, it looked great !
Hi mate
Sounds like a nice car - fairly unique colour. I had a suspected leaking clutch slave cylinder prob recently which I had fixed by a garage. So I'd be interested in finding out how long it takes you. I take it that you have located it in the engine bay now .. ha ha?
My alarm/immob is operated by a round brown fob and not the button on the ignition key. So I'm guessing that my alarm is not OEM. It is a bit quirky. Sometimes get a few beeps when I set it and sometimes I don't plus another quirk or 2.
I also don't have the ECU key. Everyone seems to agree that this is not something to panic about.
I know I said I was going to do it my self but its not stopped raining so ive just put it into my local garage for a check over and to have the clutch checked. I have noticed that the check strap on the drivers door is retained by a bolt and not a roll pin does any one know where i can buy the roll pins as the door is clonking when its opened and closed. Hopefully will get good or bad news tomorrow, always a worry when you first but a car (is it ok or a dog). Will update soonest.
lol, just noticed their link text...'the only AND the best', hmmm, i think the two are mutually exclusive, but...grammar apart, they were half the price of my local alfa dealer.
Well, it's not strictly true in either sense is it? :tut:
These guys specialise in GTV's and they recently quoted me less than half of that quoted by Lyles who are only marginally cheaper than a dealer too, in my experience.
There's also FAST at Stokton on Tees, who specialise in FIAT and Alfa who are very, very knowledgeable (which is n't to say that Lyle's arent of course);
Let me now how you get on as FAST were the only ones who pinpointed my erratc idle issue accurately, they also ahev the full ALFA diagnostic laptop too.
All things Alfa are GTV specialists too, don't forget.
Well thats one relationship ended, ihate it when they have issues. As i said car was taken to local ind garage for a check over and suspected slave cyl changed. Shocking news Wednesday afternoon clutch thrust bearing gone, but more importantly balance belt snapped and laying in the engine, cambelt never been changed, various other leaks and problems discovered, all requiring lots of money to put right.
On a goog note phoned the seller who offered full refund without question, stated he was unaware (im a little suspect on that one) but any way the search continues, if anyone knows of a "Good" GTV/SPIDER please let me know. There really is nothing else that compares.
Will continue to enjoy this great forum.
Steve O
Aww man!! you must be gutted. It must've felt like the bad end to a great love affair. I have to say that a later comment about getting things checked out beforehand was a little unfair. I asked about the cambelt when I bought mine (I had a chain driven beamer prior to that) and was told no, it was refelected in the price. I had a clutch replaced entirely recently when the RAC pointed out that it was leaking when I called them to a breakdown. It has actually been leaking for a while (maybe since I bought it). It was only becuase I had it parlked for 24 hours in one spot that teh puddle was noticeable. The RAC said that the master slave cylinder was leaking. But the indy garage I useds aid it would be £100 more for the complete clutch, and seeing as I had switched from an Auto (the beamer) to a Manual last August I thought I'd go for it. I suppose its a bit like getting the water pump done when you have the cambelt stuff done? I also had the cambelt done at the same time as the clutch as it hapens, along with a few other bits. Anyway good luck in finding your next Alfa love affair. Just like the real thing they tend to creep up on you unexpected. My Alfa had lived most of its life 2 miles just away from me ..... and it was love at first sight (even tho my girlfriend actually found it on Autotrader)!
Bad news! For future reference the service key is not meant to open glove box. It is so you can lock away items in there when it goes for a service. Why not ask if members of AO who live close to you would mind going with you to see the next cars you wish to inspect/buy? (Where in East Sussex are you?).
Sorry to be a pain Steve but just reading everything quickly, shouldnt you have checked everything thouroughly before buying the car like taking it to an Alfa spcialist first etc and especially with the cam belt shouldnt that have been checked as well ?
Dont mean to sound pompous as Ive done exactly the same as you and bought cars that were a learning experience as well !
Ask us on the wiebsite here if you find another car and well let you know what we think. Nige is an Expert with GTVs !
i agree with Fred,it could of been alot worse and i think the dealer is being very very good by not putting up a fight...rememeber to check it over well when you go and get another...
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