I’m new to Alfas, and on the hunt for a 159 Sportwagon 2.4 manual. Now beginning to realise how few of these there are! I recently went to go see on for sale, which initially looked very good in the listing, though when I arrived the dealer said he’d found an issue with the engine not starting/ running right.
The car took about 5 attempts to start, as it would splutter and die shortly after starting, unless you gave it a little throttle. It then idled a little lumpy/ smoky before smoothing out, although still with a slightly rough idle, as though it was occasionally missing.
I decided to check the codes with my scanner, and after it initially sent my scanner into a weird boot-looping issue which took a lot of plugging/unplugging to get it to connect, finally produced these codes.
P0262 – Cylinder 1 Injector Circuit High
P0271 – Cylinder 4 Injector Circuit High
P0274 – Cylinder 5 Injector Circuit High
P2148 – Fuel Injector Group A Supply Voltage Circuit High
P2014 – Intake Manifold Runner Position Sensor/Switch Circuit Bank 1a
From what I’ve read online and on these forums, these all seem to be short circuits between various parts of the engine loom and ground. One theory I’ve seen is that the loom can wear through its insulation/ sheathe on one of the vac lines, causing the short. Does this seem likely, and is it the sort of fix an amateur mechanic with some electronics experience and an engineering background could reasonably fix, or is the fault more complex? Is it also likely to have damaged the ECU/ injectors?
On the test drive, it seemed pretty hesitant below 2k rpm and didn’t seem to build any boost until above this (EGR valve probably stuck open). Once above this though, the boost hit like a hammer and it went very well. I suspect it may have been remapped, though without the paperwork I have no idea.
Aside from these issues, it only had the service book in terms of history, and had 20k miles since the last service, though all prior ones had been ~10k apart. No idea about any previous work done, although the clutch felt very new. Cambelt was due as it was last done 60k ago. I couldn’t get a good look at the front subframe as it still had the undertray, but the glimpse of the corner I got through the wheelarch looked a little brown, which likely doesn’t bode well for the rest. The rear suspension arms looked pretty brown too.
The dealer bought it at auction, and now seeing what’s wrong with it, I think he’s very keen to get rid of it ASAP. I’m now debating with myself whether to throw a really low-ball offer (like half of the asking price) since there’s so few out there, and use the money saved to fix the wiring issue myself, and get all the other work done (cambelt/water pump, egr blank, check the remap, inspect the subframes) at Autolusso or similar. Anyone with more experience got any thoughts on this? Also, if you know of anyone selling a good one of these, please let me know!
The car took about 5 attempts to start, as it would splutter and die shortly after starting, unless you gave it a little throttle. It then idled a little lumpy/ smoky before smoothing out, although still with a slightly rough idle, as though it was occasionally missing.
I decided to check the codes with my scanner, and after it initially sent my scanner into a weird boot-looping issue which took a lot of plugging/unplugging to get it to connect, finally produced these codes.
P0262 – Cylinder 1 Injector Circuit High
P0271 – Cylinder 4 Injector Circuit High
P0274 – Cylinder 5 Injector Circuit High
P2148 – Fuel Injector Group A Supply Voltage Circuit High
P2014 – Intake Manifold Runner Position Sensor/Switch Circuit Bank 1a
From what I’ve read online and on these forums, these all seem to be short circuits between various parts of the engine loom and ground. One theory I’ve seen is that the loom can wear through its insulation/ sheathe on one of the vac lines, causing the short. Does this seem likely, and is it the sort of fix an amateur mechanic with some electronics experience and an engineering background could reasonably fix, or is the fault more complex? Is it also likely to have damaged the ECU/ injectors?
On the test drive, it seemed pretty hesitant below 2k rpm and didn’t seem to build any boost until above this (EGR valve probably stuck open). Once above this though, the boost hit like a hammer and it went very well. I suspect it may have been remapped, though without the paperwork I have no idea.
Aside from these issues, it only had the service book in terms of history, and had 20k miles since the last service, though all prior ones had been ~10k apart. No idea about any previous work done, although the clutch felt very new. Cambelt was due as it was last done 60k ago. I couldn’t get a good look at the front subframe as it still had the undertray, but the glimpse of the corner I got through the wheelarch looked a little brown, which likely doesn’t bode well for the rest. The rear suspension arms looked pretty brown too.
The dealer bought it at auction, and now seeing what’s wrong with it, I think he’s very keen to get rid of it ASAP. I’m now debating with myself whether to throw a really low-ball offer (like half of the asking price) since there’s so few out there, and use the money saved to fix the wiring issue myself, and get all the other work done (cambelt/water pump, egr blank, check the remap, inspect the subframes) at Autolusso or similar. Anyone with more experience got any thoughts on this? Also, if you know of anyone selling a good one of these, please let me know!
