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[londonbhoy]

Hi all,

Wondered if anyone could offer advice.. I have a GT JTD which is 3 years 1 month old (Typical that the waranty's just expired!) and has 30k miles on the clock. About a month ago, as I was pulling away from static, something happened and the rev counter started to go up and down between 2 and 3 thousand revs and the car wouldn't go above 10/15 mph. This was despite me putting my foot down. Even when I changed up gears, it stayed the same. However, on slipping into neutral and pressing the accellerator a few times, it returned to normal. At the time I thought it may have been something to do with the bluetooth as at the exact moment I pulled away, the phone rang. Anyways, about a month later, the exact same thing only this time, the car was already moving. Problem resolved again by giving it a few revs in neutral. However... tonight, it happened again a few miles from home and this time it didn't get better. The car limped home and even when in neutral, and I put my foot to the floor, it only goes to about 3-3.5 thousand revs and very slowly at that!

I see a lot of posts on here about timing belts and water pumps etc but I have to admit to being the least technically minded person on the planet and they don't mean anything to me and I wouldn't know any signs and symptoms even if it were something like that. Another thing that may be relevent.. even when I'm cruising on the motorway, at a steady speed, the engine sometimes feels like it loses a little power. This is esspecially the case when the rev counter is just below 2 thousand revs for some reason. Oh, one last thing..It recently had a service and MOT but seemed fine before that!

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

[deepshark]

Be at peace - this is not a dire mechanical problem, most likely.
A bit of digging on the net revealed that there are a minimum of 2 places where things can have gone horribly wrong (and some of this is my own experience)

1) Open the bonnet, and be ready to be handy with a screwdriver - it is very possible that either a plug has come loose (very unlikely) on one of the air sensors in the engine bay, but more likely that one of the clamps has sprung off the whole air intake manifold system. This happens, and a good solution is be prepared to purchase a number of small hose clips to keep the pipes nice and air tight. From my experience, the sort of rubbish you are experiencing is likely possible if the pipe coming from the inlet pipe (big black one between the filter box and throttle body butterfly, with small pipes coming out) may have come loose on the vacuum sensor - which looks like a small metal cylinder, wires out the back, one pipe terminating in the intake manifold, and clamp holding it in place. When loose or OFF (groan) - the problems you have just described will plague you, with a possible oily smell out of the bonnet too.

2) Purely electronic ! You are right to suspect the Bluetooth integration, it sounded fishy that the engine went haywire (quite literally) after your phone rang. Best suggestion - pay Alfa whatver they charge for an OBDII Motronic analysis, and determine whats gone weird. You will also most likely gain a firmware upgrade in the process, to prevent this problem in future - bonus !
If something is broken or needing a service in the engine bay, the Motronic System will be able to tell you what that part is. Almost all the electronics in a modern Alfa are by Bosch, so a replacement will be reasonably easy to get, if a trifle expensive.

So check the engine bay first, and if all is present and correct with no loose pipes, then its crawl to the Alfa workshop. Also, plenty of worksops advertise on here too, so have a look around.

[londonbhoy]

Thanks mate.. It's in the garage now so hopefully nowt too costly!