Oh, and the inside door handles have A LOT of wear, looks even worse in real life than in the picture attached below. Are they difficult and/or expensive to replace?

Also, the lid on the arm rest between the front seats won't close. Is that possible to fix or do I need to replace the entire arm rest?

 

My JTD is smooth and quiet at anything over 10 mph, I think you are looking at a new FW plus clutch TBH, my gear leaver moves quite a bit when driving but not sure if its spose to or not but most of my cars have done that to some extent anyway

 

carbon wrap the door handles

 

The door handle is part of the whole door card I think.

 

Yes, that's true, you can't replace these separately.

 

If the clutch is heavy and notchy also then it may just need the actuator mechanism lubricating. Seems to be a very common problem and easy to do as a first attempt to see if it improves things before resorting to changing clutches.

Airbag light is supposed to flash for a few seconds when you turn the ignition on, just indicates a system check.

 

I have JTD and can confirm the 1.9 Fiat diesel engine is like a tractor at tickover.
Compared to my wifes BMW diesel it sounds like a tank so wouldn't worry too much about that one.

The airbag light is supposed to flash and then go out. If it stays on you have a problem.

Never noticed any movement in my gears, sounds like worn bushes maybe ? I believe you can replace them quite easily and it should make your gearchanges better.

Carbon wrapping sounds like a good idea on the handles, they all do get very scratched but in general interior wear on GT's is excellent.

The CD thing Ive never heard anything like that, a new stereo is only about £40 off ebay so probably quickest option.

Thermostat, mine was doing exactly the same in the winter and I thought the thermostat was stuck open. But recently its been going to bang on halfway. So it may be normal behaviour, is it still quite cold in Sweden ?

And not sure about the arm rest, I'd have thought it would have serviceable parts such as spring for the latch etc.

 

Temperature never reaches 90 C, varies between 70 and 80 C on motorways

same as mine ....in the summer, you should find that it stays at, or about 90.

 

Thanks for the input everyone.

Glad to hear the airbag light is supposed to flash. Don't remember my previous GT doing that, but it's been a year and a half so I probably just forgot about it.
Hopefully there's nothing seriously wrong with my engine then, and it sounds like with some luck I won't have to change the entire clutch as well.
Will probably be taking the car to a garage to change the cam belt as there is no recorded service history, just to be sure. Will ask them to check the engine and clutch, though they probably haven't seen many GT JTDs before as they weren't sold in Sweden until 2008, and even then only a handful a year.
I welcome further opionions, of course.

Regarding the temperature - I bought the car in Italy (where it was hot) and drove the car back home, about 3000 km. Not a single time did the temperature reach above 80. My JTS stayed at 90 without fail even at cold temperatures, so I immediately figured something wasn't quite right. Lots of people report that changing the thermostat will fix this though, and I guess it could be a worthwhile investment.

Attached some pictures, the first one showing the tail fog light, which I believe is working fine. Yet the system check when I turn the ignition on says there is a problem with it. There's only one tail fog light, yes? The other one is clearly the white reversing light.
Second picture shows a speaker looking thingy inside the small compartment next to the handbrake lever, where I would like to put my phone. Any idea what this is? My old GT didn't have it.
Lastly, the side indicator is a bit unstuck, it won't really click into place as it should. There is a crack in the "arm" of the fixture as is (vaguely) seen in picture three. I assume this is the problem, or am I doing something wrong? Should be a cheap part to replace hopefully.

Edit :By the way, isn't the JTD supposed to have two tail exhaust pipes, like the V6?

 

Will ask them to check the engine and clutch, though they probably haven't seen many GT JTDs before as they weren't sold in Sweden until 2008, and even then only a handful a year.

The problem with getting a garage to check the clutch is that the standard conclusion you'll get is a new clutch is required, especially if it's slipping. They won't consider that a seizing/binding release mechanism could prevent the clutch from fully engaging leading to slip. Freeing up and lubricating the release mechanism allows the clutch to fully engage and the slipping goes away. This is a useful thread:

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-147-156-and-gt/239672-stiff-heavy-clutch-alfa-gt-jtdm.html

Having said that if the car has high kms then it could just be slipping because it is truly worn out.

 

I had a rear fog warning on my 147, worked fine, a cleanup of the plug and bulb cap seems to have sorted it.

Speaker looking thing is the mic for auto volume for the stereo, you have Bose right?

Side repeater is def broken, but a replacement set can be had for about £15 on eBay.

Can't help you with the exhausts, but at a guess, then you should only have one.

 

For the thermostat, do a search on this forum for the 'thermostat check' thread. I believe the petrol JTS and TS normally should read 90 degrees and the diesel slightly lower around the 80 to 85 mark.

As for the central console, looks like a microphone for a handfree kit?

Yes there is only one rear fog light.

As for the exhaust, yours is the correct type- oval design. Later diesels as from 2007 have a twin tail pipe such as the V6. If you do a search of a cloverleaf version you will see this also.

Goodluck with the car it looks lovely.

 

Both my GT JDTm & 147 JDTm go to spot on 90 every trip!

 

Engine noise at idle, the 1.9 is quite rough in my experience but they can sound especially rough at idle (or the 2.4 at least) if the aux tensioners are worn. Worth a check. Put up an audio clip/video if you want to be safe, in case it is over and above usual 1.9 roughness.

Temperature is just the thermostat and will need replacement.

 

Thanks for the replies so far.

Unfortunately, there might be a bigger worry.
After driving for about 10 minutes, and then leaving the car for about as long and then starting up, I got a warning message saying the oil pressure was low.
Fortunately, I was very close to a garage, where they changed the oil and filter.

This apparently didn't help though, as I now received the warnlng message again after doing roughly the same thing - 10 minutes of driving and then stopping/starting the engine.

Any ideas what might be causing this?
Currenly sitting in the car trying to decide if I should have the car towed or if I should attempt to drive the 5 km home.. sigh.

Edit : Thought I should add that the oil level has always been close to max, so that's not an issue.
Also, there has been some smoke from the back on heavy-ish throttle.

Edit 2 : Waited for the engine to cool down to 50 C, started it up and drove home without the warning message appearing. It has only appeared when re-starting the engine when it's still hot.
I still have no idea what might be causing these problems though.
I guess the next step would be to take it to a garage and have it pressure tested?

 

Ok, so I had the oil pressure sensor replaced and this seems to have fixed the problem, though I haven't been on any longer trips yet. Fingers crossed.

I also managed to replace a couple of bulbs, but when trying to replace the right side fog light lamp, I noticed the clip that's supposed to hold it in place was missing entirely. Nothing wrong with the actual bulb.

I'm assuming that to be able to fit the clip, I have to remove the whole headlight, which means removing the front bumper. Correct?

 

Ok, so I had the oil pressure sensor replaced and this seems to have fixed the problem, though I haven't been on any longer trips yet. Fingers crossed.

I also managed to replace a couple of bulbs, but when trying to replace the right side fog light lamp, I noticed the clip that's supposed to hold it in place was missing entirely. Nothing wrong with the actual bulb.

I'm assuming that to be able to fit the clip, I have to remove the whole headlight, which means removing the front bumper. Correct?

Yes bumper off to get the lamp out

 

According to my manual that grille thing by the handbrake lever is a coin holder.

 

Thanks for checking the manual, and there is indeed a coin holder, but my confusion concerned the speaker looking thing below it.

Someone mentioned earlier that it is a microphone for the steoreo's auto volume. Makes sense, even though my last GT, which also had BOSE and was almost brand new when I bought it, did not have one.

Looks like I have something to do tomorrow then, if I have to remove the front bumper.
Also, still can't understand why the car tells me the rear fog light is out, when it's working perfectly and I've cleaned both the bulb and the cap.

 

Ah right, I think that's some after-market thing then.

 

Regarding the door handles,i had the same problem with mine..... along with loads of other people i think!

I did this thread to show what i did with mine,search ALFA GT INTERIOR DOOR HANDLES

 

Linky :thumbs:


alfa-gt interior door handles

 

Cheers for that evel....i couldnt work out how to do the link!

 

Hi, Had a GT diesel, sold it, felt sick and just bought a second one today so, my thoughts after owning 2 (and driving the second one for over 100 miles or so today)

1) Fog lamp - used to play up on the 1st GT I had - the seal was broken and had allowed in water. I cleaned it up, which helped for a week and then it started up again - bought a new lamp (ebay from a car that was being scrapped - cleaned, resealed anf fitted and had no more problems.

2) Exhaust - JTD pre 2007 ish has a single oval pipe. some people with twin pipes actually revert to the oval one because they like it better - keep the oval...Looks GREAT.

3) Temperature - 1st GT would not get above 85 whilst on a run. New GT sticks at 90 degrees and DOES NOT MOVE AT LL - must have had a problem with the old thermo but it never bothered me and I never did anything with it.

4) Indicator - ebay and replace it.

5) Gear lever moving - did it on the old one and the new one does not move at all. New one had the clutch replaced by the previous owner so this may cure it, may not - a lot of people seem to suffer with it but it doesn't seem to matter too much to them.

6) Arm rest - you should just be able to replace the locking mechanism/latch - few quid.

7) door handles - Never really bothered me - HOWEVER, I can see how it could be annoying - perhaps really fine grit sandpaper? Don't know.

8) Pay attention to the Oil Cooler pipes for sure - thread about them.

9) idling -they are noisy but it is a diesel lump. I remember my sister saying "what a racket" when she heard the first one - second one is not different!!!!!

I wouldn't worry too much about the car - Alfa's get a bad press because people neglect them, in my opinion. You will be the one who starts to look after this beauty.

I have only one real piece of advice - DON'T EVER GET RID OF IT - IT'LL MAKE YOU SICK ONCE IT'S GONE!!!!!!!

I hope I have helped to some degree!

 

Thanks for the input everyone, much appreciated. And thanks Back2Alfa for the boost.

I have been able to fix most of the initial upsets, including a thermostat change which resulted in the temperature now stabilizing at 90 C. Also replaced the clutch, but this did not fix the gear lever moving around. Doesn't really matter that much to me though.

However, there are still a few quirks I've been wondering about.

Firstly - the fuel gauge is very unreliable. If I have 5-15 liters in the tank, the fuel gauge shows anything from completely empty to 25% full. It varies every time I turn the ignition on! Could this be battery related?
The engine runs fine, so I can't imagine it being the MAF, as has been the case in some of the threads here.
If it is the actual gauge, would changing it be a complicated procedure? I can't even seem to be find the actual spare part anywhere, despite searching for fuel gauge/fuel sensor etc.

Also, the brightness of the dash lights is very low, even when the dimmer is on max. I can hardly see the odometer reading etc. in normal daylight. This was not the case with my last GT. Anyone know if there is an inexpensive way to fix this? Or does the dimmer switch only affect the actual "redness" of the km/h and rpm gauges etc and not the odometer display? It doesn't seem to make much difference how high/low I set the dimmer switch.

 

Your fuel gauge is fine my GT does the same , so did my last 2 156's.

 

I have the same issue with the handles and have been looking at leather clip over covers on ebay which looks like the easiest way to improve the look otherwise its new door cards.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALFA-ROME...VERS-red-/280696252117?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item415acce6d5

Also when I serviced my JTD I noticed it was much quieter when just ticking over