Don't think I've seen your Brera - I'm in Fulwood. We have very rare cars in these parts .

Other than driving like an Italian for a good run to blow the cobwebs away, which I'm sure you've done, can't help on the chugging thing.

In terms of specialists, I've heard good things about Ferdi's at Lytham Ferdis Garage, though not needed anything too specialist on mine yet so haven't tried them.
Nothing at all in the Preston area as far as I know, other than the Fiat main stealer on the docks, not that I'm recommending them.
I take mine to Eldon Street Garage Car Repairs - Preston | Eldon Street Garage Ltd, run by Steve Smith, a proper car nut, and reasonable prices.
They like Alfas - One of his lads has a GT & Steve had a GTV. He also has an immaculate E-Type Jag! He was tinkering with a V12 Jag when I was last there.

 

Alfatune in St Helens seem to be the go-to people up your part of the country going by recommendations on here.

 

Have you tryed checking the air mass meter?
Easy to undo check & clean if that's the fault only thing i can think of other than that is a good service no dout your all good with that or coil pack.... it could be down to a simple sensor a plug and play device should tell you an error code any garage can tell you for £15 who has the right device i would contact a specialist on that though

hope you get it fixed

 

I can only agree that Alfatuner in St Helens is the man to se. He (gus) is on here a lot, I'd recommend dfopping him a line

cheers

 

Daft question, is it overdue a service?

Before you check the expensive options, issues like this can be caused by clogged air or fuel filters or tired spark plugs etc.

 

Plugs.

 

Thanks for the replies guys and I will probably start with getting my Brera serviced as it is going on for 12 months since its last full service at Mangoletsi and I've been working away so not had many long run outs in it this year but lots of short journeys.

I picked-up on another thread that someone with a 159 2.2 petrol had same issue after filling up with fuel and the same thing happened with my Brera so just hoping it is that but hoped the Redex would cure it? I gave it a good run out and accelerated great but still chugging away when stopped!

Cheers for the recommendations on Alfa specialists in the North West and I have heard good things about both Ferdi's in Lytham and AlfaTune in St Helens so I think I will give one of them a ring about booking a service and investigation into the engine warning issue.

Thanks again,
AndyMoth

 

A bit further south, but these are good. They also have an old 156 loan car to use.
Allitalia Ltd :Independent Italian Auto Specialist : Alfa Romeo : Fiat : Lancia : Classic and Modern Italian cars : spares and repairs : Italianspares on line : New and used spares available
I've given up with Mangoletsi (whom I bought my car from) as they don't bother phoning back when I've asked for quotes.

 

I wouldn't deal with Mangolesti
i don't trust them it's a long story but i wouldn't go their.....Ever

 

Not a specialist but if you wanted to use somebody in Preston I used ADS in January when I was getting a misfire and i'm very happy with the work they did.

 

Thanks for the recommendations guys and I will definitely be using an independent Alfa specialist. I wasn't planning on using Mangoletsi after the last full service that cost me almost £300 and they didn't even bother to wash my car, which is just poor customer service! They did change the timing chain and tensioner about 4 weeks after I bought the car from them without any issues but it was still under the Alfa warranty at the time.

 

Just to give you an update on the "Chugging" problem with my Brera 2.2JTS, I have been to see Gus at AlfaTune to have a diagnostics check run and it threw up a fault and misfire on Injector 2. As the car pulls away well but runs rough on idle this points towards the Injector rather than a spark plug or coil failure according to Gus.

He has advised me to run a dose of Wynn's Injector Cleaner through an 8th of a tank of petrol to see if this clears the muck out of the fuel system (this problem started literally as I drove off the garage forecourt after filling up with Shell Unleaded!) I may still need to have the Injector changed to solve the problem but at least I know what the problem is now.

Thanks again for all your advice guys.

AndyMoth

 

if it was me

I'd change the spark plugs air & fuel filter at the same time as using the injector cleaner also get the Brera on the motorway for a 50 mile blast or so

 

Did you ever solve this as mine's just started doing the same

 

And three, had a similar event last night going home from the office; The car (a 1.9 JTS 159) ran fine in the morning, but when I went to start the engine to go home, it wouldn't keep minimum revs at all - it'd start, go up to the usual 1250 "cold start" rpm and then crawl down, splutter and die in seconds. In that phase, it wouldn't respond to accelerator pedal inputs. Never seen anything like that from this engine before, it was reminiscent of how old carburetor engines behaved when flooded.

If I kept the RPM above 1000 at all times, the engine would go; Being a software engineer, I immediately thought about an electronics/software issue (how do they say, know your chickens...), but after I managed to drive home - also taking advantage of the late hour of 11pm to give it a bit of an Italian tune up, magic happened - the car seems fine now; Although, I haven't tried a cold start yet as I was rushing for the train and had no time to check this morning; Also, haven't checked the ECU fault codes yet (check engine light wasn't on).

The car got a new air filter, new sparkplugs, new oil filter and fresh 5W40 oil in mid-August - it has to be said, I also had fueled it yesterday morning, after leaving it sit the week end with a nearly-empty tank. It was probably just cr@p in the fuel system, but I'll need to recheck...