[Hurri]

Got sorted with a body shop to fix my dented passenger door.
Chipsaway wanted £432, found these guys who had a workshop with some nice cars in. A hundred quid cheaper and going in on the 19th.

Got two dents removed from my car by local paintless dent removal man - very reasonable 100 quid. Recommended and very fast if you're down my way. I'm sure I'll be needing him again, this car seems to be very easy to dent... Chris is a top bloke and has his own website here Dent-tech - The home of paintless dent repairs only downside is that he's a VW man!

 

[Hurri]

Added some bling - Super wing badges positioned the same as on the Veloce. The last Giulia Super model used to be badged with Super badges so I think the modern equivalent should be as well! and to my mind much better than slapping a cloverleaf on the side. Alfa Workshop had the badges off the shelf but it is a standard Alfa part.

This morning I dropped the car in at Auto Asylum who are my local window tint specialist and Paul spent a couple of hours fitting 35% carbon tint on the rear windows. Again, I wanted a factory look and 35% is what manufacturers tend to fit - not sure what Alfa fit as standard but this looks like the cars in the showroom, (although almost all customers of Auto Asylum go for 20% apparently) .. Have to wait a few days for the tint to dry out but it looks very clean, no obvious edges and I know (as I've tried) that installing tint properly is not a DIY job, despite what you might be led to believe by Youtube!

 

[Hurri]

A few places offer the gearbox remap as well, this is apparently undetectable, I wonder if it would help the lag? My experience with my Bluespark box has been the same, the box seems to make the lag more obvious, not change the timing.

 

[Hurri]

Picked up my Giulia from Thames, they have had the car since last week and fixed a CEL which was due to a faulty water pump, as well as replaced the fuse for the battery sensor, They thought that the Bosch AGM battery I had fitted was moving and causing the fuse to trip, and couldn't suggest any solution other than putting back in an Alfa battery, so I've broken out the high strength zip ties and secured the battery strap so its not going anywhere. The supplied battery strap in the car seems a bit lacking in friction so it doesn't hold very well, Something to fix properly at some point!. I have some high strength velcro strapping that would work well, I'll post when I do it.

Aside from that irritant, I asked them to deal with the other things that make this car a "true Alfa": the parking sensors going off the whole time in P mode, and the alarm going off if an ant walks across the back seat. As a result I'm pleased to say they have now upgraded the ECM from 1071->1093, the BCM from 724 to 726 and the IPC from 183C->203E.

The parking sensors now turn off in P and seem to behave (more) normally, switching off at speed (the sensor button off switch illuminates over 10mph. As a side effect, the trip recorder display on the instrument cluster is improved - and wonder of wonders, I was shocked to find the auto start stop was working perfectly, which it never has in this car before. It will take a bit of time to get used to it, and it will be interesting to see what difference it makes to fuel mileage, even if it causes a bunch of other issues. I guess if I don't like it then there are a number of ways of switching it off again - pulling the battery sensor fuse appears to be one of them.

 

[Hurri]

I bought this one as it's cheaper 😀

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001710157964.html

Good deal, I noticed a massive list of those for just about every vehicle going!
Does yours work like the Epsonix one? In other words it defaults to off but if you're stuck in a traffic jam you can turn it on again?

 

[Hurri]

Which model is this please? @Hurri I might be in a minority, but I would really like the Stop/Start to work properly on my 2018 Diesel!

Diesel Giulias are the rarest and deserve special attention in my entirely unbiased view. Maybe a thread on them

Mine has a 19 plate but I think its an 18 model year, or possibly earlier, diesel super. To get the SS to work I have had a new Bosch S5A11 AGM battery (which I wangled out of the dealer when my old one flatted on collection), a new battery sensor fuse and the reprogramming above. The software versions should be the same as on your car, find someone with MES and get them to scan it for you, or if you're near Berkshire happy to meet and do the same. No idea if the software fixed it or any of the other measures, I think it was the fuse most likely. The Bosch battery is the same as recommended on here by various people but Alfa dealers won't like it as it is slightly smaller than the original. As I said, nothing that a bit of packing can't fix.

 

[Hurri]

Always difficult to troubleshoot if multiple changes made! How long have you had the battery fitted? I would expect a new battery to get S/S going but the question is for how long will the IBS system keep it charged enough … ?

And when you say fuse, do you mean literally a fuse or the sensor itself (the “Smart Shunt” SMART SHUNT | LEM )?

The battery was replaced some time back, so that's not it, but I am pretty sure that it helps as I was looking at the voltage on it after installation, and it clearly does a better job of keeping charge than the old one. You can also see lots of posts reviewing the battery from other car owners saying 'fixed my Landrover start stop, made my Mercedes work' etc. SO, I think worth getting one of these fitted if you can, to replace your existing battery if you're needing to drive a lot in heavy town traffic. Only issue is the size being different to the old one, and that really is not an issue IMHO.

S/S has never been working for me since I bought the car a few months back. It would tell me periodically that it wasn't working, even with the new battery, but that's it. It's only recently that I got MES so was able to figure out that the battery sensor was not functioning. It was the fuse that was replaced by the garage, which one, I'm really not sure but the part number was 10529190 which looked like a substantial butterfly fuse, when I briefly saw it before they chucked it in the bin. Cost a fiver. The fuse diagrams are here and there are a lot of fuses, couldn't tell you which one, but I think it was on the battery terminals if the garage thought that it was getting knocked by the loose battery.

If you can find someone local to you who can scan your car you may pick up that sensor error. Its super cheap to pick up an OBD scanner of some sort and I think a good investment for this car. Pretty much all OBD scanners can run a DTC scan for you and read error codes, they just won't be as informative as MES or AlfaOBD, or be able to reset them. A bluetooth OBD reader is about 10 quid.

 

[Hurri]

Lucky sod. Meanwhile...

Set of 4 Alloy Wheels 8,5j + 10jx19" genuine ALFA ROMEO GIULIA Quadrifoglio | eBay

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£1500

Bargain..
Here's some for £1750 plus customs and shipping.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225110874057

 

[Hurri]

Just realised that yours is a 2019 car and mine is 2018, so perhaps these upgrades will not apply to mine, but I suppose I may as well ask the dealer anyway …

Its a 2019 plate but I'm pretty sure that it's 2018 or earlier model wise because it doesn't have the SGW fitted which came on later cars. S/S is still working for me, but Thames haven't cured my check engine light due to the EGR valve. Car still runs and drives fine though... anyone know where I can get a wiring diagram for this car?

 

[Hurri]

Today's purchase - I've blown all of £2.10 on a 100mm M6 stainless bolt. Equivalent in function to one of these Park release tool Wouldn't be surprised if at some point I need to get the Giulia towed, always handy to keep in the boot. I might put heat shrink on the bolt so that it has the regulation 32mm(?) of thread that the official tool has. Discussion here

 

[Hurri]

Great Idea, I've found plenty of discussion and images of where to screw the bolt, but where is it located on the car, ie how is it best to access? my 2017 is pretty low and it would be nice to know where to start fumbling around !

[/QUOTE]
If you follow the links in the post to the US site with the tool, it shows you where to screw the bolt in

 

[Hurri]

If you follow the links in the post to the US site with the tool, it shows you where to screw the bolt in

Thankyou, but my question is where is this on the car, I know it's under the car and it goes in the side of the gearbox somewhere, but where do I start looking, ie is it drivers side level with drivers door handle, or somewhere else, I did look on line honest, just couldn't find it. As the car is only 100mm from the floor it's not easy...
[/QUOTE]

This video might help, you'll be looking to do this when the car is cold as its just behind the front wheels near the exhaust downpipe, so quite hazardous if the car is warm. Like the video you'll probably need a mirror to locate as its not possible to see easily from the side of the car.
Giulia transmission unlock

 

[Hurri]

Not any more... With some jigsaw bodgery, a bit of half inch ply and a cheapo footrest off eBay I have packed up the height of the footrest to my satisfaction and made it look, while not exactly factory, at least not like a lump of ply.

View attachment 982104

Great minds.. I have just shelled out the princely sum of 26 quid (Ali Express does it again) to get the full triple set of Chinese 'sport' pedals that appear to be identical to yours. I'm sure that fitting the brake pedal is going to be a b*stard, but your plywood mounting of the footrest is a masterstroke. Question is, what is attaching the plywood to the underlying carpet? Is is bitumen leaking out the side there?!?

 

[Hurri]

The solution isn't perfect, the footrest, despite cutting a few mil off the left hand edge, is still a bit too wide. So if I lean too heavily on the right hand edge it'll want to peel off the adhesive pads. Some fettling to do I reckon. Or perhaps get myself a 3d printer for Christmas...

Yep, I think I need to attack that bit of plastic with a dremel or a pull saw.. it looks way too wide as it came from China.

 

[Hurri]

Can you share a pic?

Yep... see attached thumbnail. Notice that the 'built in' footrest is somewhat narrower behind the new plastic piece (this is not attached, just positioned to show the sizing).

It may be if you have an LHD car, then the footrest is wider as you're not right next to the transmission tunnel, so an Italian car would be fine? I've seen Chinese cars with these fitted in other videos and they look okay. I would think I'm going to need to trim all the way up to the aluminium on the plastic on the left side (or very close) and then do something similar with plywood per @Gwegm to bring the rest forward a bit to improve leg comfort.

 

[Hurri]

sometime I would like to have a better support also on my version

Ali Express is the cheapest source for these (in my experience). Other online retailers often charge crazy prices for the same thing.

 

[Hurri]

Finally fitted my 26 quid of Chinese bling to the pedals and footrest.

The existing brake pedal came off easy, I just got a bowl of boiling water and put the pedal in it to soften the rubber and add a bit of lubrication, and then just pulled the top off. The soaking took 20 seconds or so and removing the rubber likewise. The hot water made it easy to remove the rubber 'location peg' in the pedal, so I could reinstate if I wanted to. Although I was equipped with lots of tools, didn't need any of them in the end. To fit the new one I just used the same hot water to make the rubber more flexible for the new pedal, lubricated with a small amount of washing up liquid and it went on no problem. Washing up liquid is good for this kind of application when you want lubrication to fit rubber but then have it secure once dry. All in all much easier than expected.

For the accelerator pedal, touch of washing up liquid, slid on no problem over the existing one.

For the footrest, I reshaped it a bit to fit, not sure it is the 'right way up' but I like it! Hacked off one side (left on the photo) with the old Japanese pull saw, which removed an inch or so and made for a better fit, then tapered it in on both sides at the bottom from the metal insert. (By the way a decent Japanese pull saw is a worthy investment if you don't have one, they are somewhat pricey but you get ultra precise cutting and clean edges on plastic, carbon fibre and wood, and even though they are a hand tool, plenty fast enough on most materials.) Finally cleaned the underlying footrest carpet bit in the car to improve adhesion, then ran the sticky pad on the back of the footrest under boiling water to get it ready for action (before peeling the plastic off) and then applied it. Seems to be stuck solid at the moment. I may put something behind it to improve foot position but thought I would give it a go as it is right now for a bit.

Of course I then had to go and test the car to make sure it worked - as you do

More cheap as chips Chinese improvements coming soon!

 

[Hurri]

Been experimenting with LEDs for my DRLs.. looking good at the moment, managed to get the power consumption down to 3.2W and no errors on the dash with the lash up circuit I soldered up yesterday below. Will report back once I've done more testing. Of no interest I'm sure whatsoever to 99.99% of Giulia drivers unless you're in the exclusive 'cheapskate Super' club

 

[Hurri]

I like my zenon lights. But how is the effect of your LEDs?

To be honest I don't know as I've not fitted them in the car at the moment to test beam pattern, dazzle and so forth. Wanted to solve the electronics first and make sure I had no errors and they work as expected. Looking at the way the car is varying the output voltage on the light circuits, I'm not done with that yet, although basic functions seem to work. I'm sure that your Xenons not only look better but ARE better than the stock halogen lights. These are cheap Chinese LEDs, my only criteria was that the bulb mimicked the halogen in terms of how the LEDs are positioned and shielded so the beam pattern should be the same. Of course they claim to be crazy powerful but we shall see whether that is indeed the case!

 

[Hurri]

Rewired the LED circuit so it can fit in the car without any mods. Fabricated a special H15 connector plug so that it could plug it into the car. Bit of a challenge (which is what I like!). Anyway, connected it up and no errors on the dash, load resistors not even slightly warm and works just as you'd expect it to so.. success?! Nope... its way too bright in my humble opinion, and other road users are not going to be thanking you for searing out their eyeballs even in broad daylight with DRLs. @danardi I think that if we were going to compare lights, these would be way more powerful that the Xenons. The DRL was approximately twice the perceived brighness of the halogens, and full beam lights up my house in broad daylight. They are crazy bright. If you want the most powerful lights on the Giulia, LED would be the way to go, but I think I'll stick with my Maruta 5000K bulbs, you loose a tiny bit of brightness on full beam but colour is improved, and more importantly they are legal and don't burn your eyes out when you look at them.

More work is required on the electronics, I still like the idea of running with 10W bulbs rather than 55W so I may yet come up with another version with the DRL to make it behave like a DRL rather than a full beam headlight