i feel your pain

i am battling emissions atm.

failed for having twice the co reading allowed, back up in a couple days.

fingers crossed or i am up the creek.

 

Change you Lambda.

 

Oh no, Partsgateway don't have any headlights available

I have made a few enquiries on ebay but I am not sure what they are selling will fit my car. I assume all 146 headlights are the same?

Also I have been told the adjuster problem is quite common on 146's does anyone have any experience with these as I have no idea how to fit them? I do know that the passenger side headlight is loose so it might be difficult fixing it as I think the adjuster was attached to it from what I have been told, maybe I am getting the wrong idea though?

I'm confused lol

 

have a word with rgwm or Autolusso for lamps availability, the only differnce over the years is the electric motors for levelling, later ones had them, early ones not, 145 and 146 both the same.

I think you have the rest covered pretty well.

HTH

PS Is there any one nearby who could swap their lights for a couple of hours

 

I've managed to get hold of some headlamps from a 146 year 2000 model. Cost me £90 inc next day delivery through www.1stchoice.co.uk, i little steeper than I was hoping for but roughly in line with what I have been quoted elsewhere, although I did see a '97 model pair on ebay for £40 inc postage.

Have also bought some EBC rear discs of ebay as they were the cheapest i could find, £50 delivered for the pair.

Now all I need to do is find someone who will fit it all in exchange for a couple of pints down the pub lol. Any takers? :lol:

 

So Nearly £800 so far,perhaps it would have been cheaper to buy another 146 and break the one you have?

 

lol, in hindsight yes but I didn't think it would cost anywhere near this much. I spent £430 when I took it in for its service and they noticed a few really bad problems, if it wasn't for that the service would have cost me £80. I also spent £220 on 4 new tyres as they were all nearly gone. I then spent £50 on the MOT to take it up to £700 total. Now I have spend £140 on 2 headlights and 2 rear brake discs. Once i take it in for its MOT again at a cost of another £50 I will have spent ~£900

Its my fault for not sorting the problems as they came up, i just let them build up and now I am paying the price. Unfortunately I love my car to much to break or scrap it.

£90 for a pair of headlights I need to put my prices up.......

It was £30 for each headlight and £20 for next day delivery plus £12 VAT. TBH the guy phoned me up really quickly with lights from my exact model so I am happy considering no one else replied to my queries. If I didn't hear anything I would have asked you. Out of curiosity how much could I have got some headlights off you for?

you are using new pads as well as discs, aren't you?

Yes, the pads were changed during the service a couple of weeks ago but I was told the discs were ok and didn't need changing. When i took the car in for the new tyres they told me all the discs needed changing soon as they were close to the limit. And then when I took it in for its MOT it failed on the rear discs. When I save up some money the next thing I am going to get is new front discs as well with some upgraded pads.

I will give changing the headlights and discs myself a go as I can't afford the labour fees of garages. I just don't understand how the MOT centre can quote me £150+VAT for rear discs fitted. Discs aren't expensive and how long will it take them to change the discs?

I think points 1-4 are easy to fix but point 5 is just guesswork. The garage assumes new discs will sort the problem but I have a feeling that even with new discs it will somehow fail on that point. I am literally cleaned out for the next month so if it fails again I will have go without a car for a month

 

£90 for a pair of headlights I need to put my prices up.......

Although to be fair, finding good 145/6 headlamps is a trick - very common for the adjusters to break loose and the internals to flop about.....

Fitting the lamps is a piece of cake.....remove the front grill - a few screws then prise the side pieces off - then 3 10 mm nuts each side - providing the studs don't shear.....spray plenty of WD40 on the threads well before you start trying to undo them.

Rear discs again not too hard, but ensure that anyone trying to replace them winds the pistons back into the calipers, don't just try to force them back in - and you are using new pads as well as discs, aren't you?

 

Hey Smaky,

Ref the headlights, did you check the height adjuster switch position???

Unfortunately I am about as much use a chocolate teapot when it comes to trying to fix my car myself. I have relied on other peoples opinions when it has come to checking these things. The guys that did my service said the adjusters on both headlight, manual and automatic, do not work at all. I know the automatic adjusters do to work as I have never been able to adjust them using the switch in the car but have never tried the manual adjusters and kind of took their word on them not working.

Obviously the service wasn't that good as they never picked up on the bits they should have been checking in the first place.

The guys that did the service seemed like really nice people, chatty and open. They were honest in there opinion and I didn't feel like i was being ripped off (unlike the MOT centre quoting £150 to fit rear discs). They picked up on and sorted all the problems i asked about and even some I had forgotten about and told me about problems that needed sorting in the future such as the headlights and sump. I don't know why they missed the rear discs as they told me they were ok. However I do know that they don't do MOT's so maybe they believed the rear pads they fitted would rectify the problem??? With the headlights they told me it was possible it would fail the MOT and recommended I got them fixed as soon as possible and that I would be taking a chance on taking it in without fixing them. I took the chance and took it in for the MOT and it failed so thats my fault for not sorting it.

My brakes scared the hell out of me this morning. I was about to park and was going a little fast into the space as is was straight on so really easy to get into so I put my foot on the brake pedal and the pedal juddered under my foot, maybe the ABS was kicking in but it felt like the car wasn't going to stop. Luckily it did but it was a bit of a hair raising moment

 

Hey Guys,

Just an update.

I got a mate of mine to do the work on my car over the weekend, luckily all he wanted for the trouble was a bottle of whiskey

Unfortunately the company that I bought the headlights from managed to damage one of them so they only sent me the passenger side and refunded me the other light. I don't know why but I managed to get lucky here because when my mate replaced the passenger headlight the drivers side headlight auto adjuster started working to, result

So the headlights now work and I replaced the rear discs with EBC discs and he also checked the handbreak. He said it was fine, I was dreading needing to replace the calipers or possibly the cable (which wouldn't have been so bad). I think the parking brake efficiency issue was down to the discs as one of the discs was quite bad like only the inner half of the disc was being used, the out half looked like it had hardly been touched, maybe due to the old pads wearing down on one half?

I have it booked in for a re-test tomorrow so fingers crossed it will all be sorted.

 

Hey,

My car has finally passed its MOT.

I took it in yesterday and it failed again on the headlights being dipped too low and the parking brake efficiency being to low. When he told me I got really frustrated because I had spent so much money on it and I thought it would just be more money on top. Unfortunately the guy at the garage thought I was getting angry at him and he took exception to it. Nearly got into a fight but managed to calm it down after explaining why I was angry, oops.

Anyway, he showed me the headlights lined up against the machine they use to check them and showed me the drivers side headlight could not be manually adjusted, the mechanism just spun and spun. I had a quick look at the other headlights manual adjusters and noticed that the black cogs were missing from the drivers headlight making it impossible to adjust the way he was trying. He got a pair of pliers and managed to adjust them. With the parking break he took the car out to get the breaks hot and did the test on them again and it just scraped through. I will need to sort that out by this time next year, might be the capilers or the cables, not sure yet.

So he charged me £35 in total because the retest was half the original fee (£48) and he said they are supposed to charge me full whack for the 3rd test because the government charge them as they are the rules apparently so he added a £11 on top, i don't know if this was to cover what they are charged to do the test but I don't mind that much, at least this ordeal is finally over.

Who ever said Alfa's were expensive to repair , £800 in total

 

Ouch!

 

At least you got it throught in the end, my poor 146 went straight from MOT fail to scrapyard , terminal tin worm underneath then walked out of scrapyard with a lump in my throat didn't realise how much I loved that car until she was gone.
So now I'm looking for another 146 (a Ti this time) or a GTV.

 

Best to try getting the mot done before paying out for expensive work. that way you can make a decision on whether you think it's worth it! good luck for next year

 

At least it passed mate, :thumbs:

(Just don't think of the fact you could have bought a GTV Twinny with full MOT for the price it cost to go through, :lol: )