[graham]

After never having any electric problems on my 155
apart from blown bulbs, easy fixed, I have encountered my first problem a minor quirk with the internal fan. Engine fan works fine. Problem is with interior fan.
Fan is working fine on full power, no rattles or busses or anything "Speed 4" but fan is not blowing on speeds 1,2 or 3.
Most confused by this.
Is there a separate fan for the lower speeds or some resister box somewhere in the system which controls these lower speeds which needs replaced? There only seems to be one connection to the fan with 2 wires, load and earth, but there are 4 wires coming from switch into loom. I suspect there is a connector behind radio which I dislodged when I put the original radio back in. Been a bit busy recently so I thought I would ask before investigating. Dash has never been apart and I am reluctant to go investigating all over the place when Im sure theres a simple reason for the problem.
Any advice much apreciated.

 

[JOC]

hello graham !
there is only one fan, it's in the right footroom !
i had myself problems with strange smelling when fan activated on 3 or 4 !
in the left edge of the right footroom is an resistor mounted, it stucks in the black plastictube
fitted with 2 or 3 screws, maybe the resistor is gone or you have a contact problem, so it
was on my car, the contacts were bad and it overheated !
hope this would help you !
best wishes, markus

 

[graham]

Sounds correct but on right hand drive things look diferent, cant see a black plastic tube anywhere.
On my right hand drive car the fan is in the pasenger foot well. Left side. There is a conector to a dark red piece of plastic screwed into the back of the fan housing with 4 wires to it but this doesnt look as you describe. Could be on a right hand drive car the fan housing and resister placement are different. I may check under this red plastic cover although I suspect the resister is probably loose behind the radio and it disconnected as I slipped the radio in.

 

[jimybob]

this is indeed a resistor fault if you look just next to the fan there is a small thing about 1 inch by 2 inches held in with 2 or 3 screws and has one or two connectors on it,if you take it out it should look like a small coil in some cases like a black heat sink its this bit that is at fault if the fan only works on max speed.

 

[graham]

Thanks Lads. This indeed was the problem. All fixed now.

Im starting to be of the opinion these days that the Alfa 155 is no where neer as riddled with problems as we would be made to believe. Starting to wonder about my decision to get rid of it, still deposits payed on new motor now.

Regarding electrics. Well actually have had a few problems dispite what said above but this is first one that took more than an hour for me to work out and fix. I mean look at the fan, I had a Chrysler Avenger that developped a fan fault once, would have had to remove whole dash to fix loose blade on fan, never did it too much work. Alfa 155 Fan easily accessable, (for a fan). Components prone to failure all easily removable (OK dificult to locate without manual or advice.) but easy to replace. My headlight washers packed in once. suspected wiring fault non of the kind. Timer cut out relay switch was jiggered, 5 minutes to relace it. Door mirror electric stopped working, took it apart found its only like 2 little scalectrix motors in there. Bit of sewing machine oil on the motors and some grease around the gearing and all fixed. Oh as this topic was discussed the mirror glass has a round plastic clip on the back you can lift glass out after you have unclipped it all the way around. you can help clip off with a very thin screwdriver as you move mirror around. mirror shell held on by only one little screw on inside top corner behind mirror. can be removd without taking glass out. bit hard to get in with glass still inplace without good magnetic screwdriver.
Mirror elecric workings, very very simple just open it and see, service motors. (Sewing machine oil better than 3 in 1)
Dash lights packed in, actually started flashing on and off. Oh no this must be dodgey wiring loom I thought. Investigate and bulb had actually gone
but filament was still making ocasional contact inside bulb. 95p job. Brothers Citroen ZX when his dash lights packed in they were of such a weird and stupid design encased in bespoke Citroen plastic twist in screw even the Citroen garage didnt stock them. Also talking of Citroens
on some models they actually have the smart idea of making every wire on the car grey so you aint got a clue whats what.
Moving away from Electrics. Changed my own disks
6 months back. From what I remember of same job on an Austin Metro, last time I did this , a job I did for a friend. Metro was far harder to get the pads in. As for the VW camper van I owned. You need to apply 260Lb/ft to the nut on the back axel to tighten the drums back on. Imagine what a ******* they were for me to get off.

Anyway its such a good thing this site is here because we are led to believe these problems with Alfas are impossible to fix and thats what makes them bad cars. With the knowledge base were building up here these problems aren't so bad at all.

 

[ALFAPAT]

Hi Graham,read with interest the bit on mirrors ,are the glass bits that simple to take out , both mirrors on mine are broken on the vertical movements,if I have problems I will be back here(stay around) wink Also where is the headlamp washer relay as I have connected the pump to the windscreen ones at present ,no power to the headlamp pump? frown

 

[graham]

THeres a secondarry fuse box above the main one, put you fingers along bottom of dash on the right hand side, far edge just besides door you should feel a little box, like a relay. If you get your head under you will see it is grey. give it a good shake and it probably will start working again, then after a few squirts stop again. If you remove the lottle bit of dash, think theres only 1 or 2 screws and a couple of clips at top. One screw is in the middle at side , shines in your face when door is open. Wire the washers back how they were and start by giving the old timer a good shake to see if it starts. It probably will. Replace the thing with a new one for piece of mind. Its a clever idea but a bit over the top. The headlight squirters are so powerfull that they only stay on for 1 secoond even if you squirt screen for 5. Thats what the timers for. Stops you draining your water so quickly.
In daylight push mirror around with your fingers against it. See screw in corner, remove screw. Back of mirror comes off. Dont drop it, its a fragile looking bit of plastic, and you dont want to chip its paint. Move mirror aroundand see, circular plastic clip on back, un clip very carefully with assistance with screwdriver endand some tugging. Theres a sticky pad on the back holding it in as well. be gentle because theres also a wire into mirror for heating, dont want any damage to that. 3 screws hold in motor wind box. Its hard though to get the wires to unclip.
Once unclipped wires you can open the box.
Motors are just held in place by the box no solder or any thing.

 

[ALFAPAT]

thanks Graham I will havea go at this at the w/e,have printed the detailed instructions off,they will be a great help.