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I testdrove and bought one, swapping in the GT

Its a 2008 1.4 78hp progression in white, with the 17" sportpack wheels, roughly 110K miles and generally in good nick and original. Will be picking it up next tuesday, as they need to fish a broken dipstick from the sump and replace a gearbox mount rubber.

Im pretty stoked, its a lot less car then the GT, but the same interior size and utility, much cheaper and more economical, and imho, the mito is a very nice looking car. Currently planning out my mods.

 

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Just picked up my mito, after being ~10 years out of them. It'll take some getting used to from a GT, but i do like the look of it so very very much, im quite chuffed with it.

 

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Fitted a 2013 veloce spec diffuser to my paltry 08 progression Looks much better then the standard body colour valance

Was about an hours work, including putting a bandaid on my nose because i hit myself in the face with the bumper while trying to remove the old valance

 

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yeah, i think a body coloured panel/diffuser there makes it look less sporty then a mito should imho, and it is an easy swap. (the OEM ones are anyway)

Alfisti also sell non-OEM options such as this: Alfa MiTo Heckansatz / Heckschürzenspoiler - Alfa Romeo Shop - Tuning, Styling, Fanartikel und Modellautos

I just thought that that particular diffuser looked a bit too abarth-500 for me.

@AliB79 is that cloverlear badge on yours stock, from some particular version? Ive got the classic QV stickers on the way, but considering mine isnt a QV im not entirely sure how i feel about fitting them, but i dont want the green cloverleaf somewhere on the car, for good luck (as alfa started it)

 

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I got mine from qverde.nl, but its an oem part, so any dealer or largerparts reseller should be able to get you onne

 

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Did some minor maintenance (spark plugs, air filter), which taught me a few things:

• the garage gave me the wrong size filter
• the stock airbox looks restrictive as all hell
• the stock airbox on my car has a broken bracket
• i suck at putting those damn single use hose clamps back on

So long story short, im seriously looking for a good aftermarket induction setup. Ive got the non-turbo 1.4, so there arent any bolt-on kits from what i can find, so current thoughts are getting a BMC DIA (same idea as the CDA, but no carbon and thus cheaper) and some silicon hoses.

 

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Swapped out the front brakes for fresh brembo discs and pads. Routine job except for the fact i bent one of the backing plates a bit which rubbed onto the disc making horrible noise at first... Easily fixed though, and well needed, considering the discs were well past their minimal thickness.

 

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@gazza82 Thanks for the reply! Ill consider getting a K&N panel, did you modify anything about the tubing? To me the trumpet of the hose feeding into the airfilter housing, and the hose between the housing and the throttle body also looked rather restrictive. And to top it off, one of the brackets on my airbox is broken, so it is only held on by the mounting points left and top.

Ill check out the scuttle drain as well by the way, mine is an 08 NA, so chances are it still has the short hose.

 

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I suppose that makes sense, a 1.4 doesnt need giant tubing to breathe, it just looks restrictive to me.. I know i wont get serious power increases for peanuts anyway (and im not really interested in huge power, else i'd have bought a T-jet), but if i can remove some restrictions/inefficiencies then im all for it.

Does the K&N panel also produce more noise? Im not looking for a real barry experience, but a bit more noise when flooring it wouldnt be a bad thing

Edit: just ordered a K&N panel and a proper screw type hose clamp, they wont get here before the weekend though, so i wont get to put it all in on sunday when i have tinkertime

 

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Hmm, i always thought those weird clamps were a cost thing, it seems cheaper to just stamp a bit of metal in that shape then making a proper screw type clamp.

Either way, the one i took off was to attach the hose to the throttlebody, i doubt ill overtighten that one to the point of messing something up, but ill keep an eye on it.

 

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Fitted a set of new alpine speakers, including some sound deadening foam, sadly there is still some resonance with heavy bass, but a-well, sound is better and it was a learning experience doing this.

Then i proceded to take off the rear bumper in search of the cause of a wet boot, only to realise it wasnt coming from the tail lights. It seemed to come from lower down, but on refetting the inner C pilars, i noticed the isolation material around the seatbelt reels were very wet... So i no suspect it was the tailgate loom hose which i correct a few weeks back.. so i threw in a moisture-eater and am now hoping for the best.

The next thing i wanted to do was take off the bumper to plastidip the grill, only to be met by some very resistant screws underneath, and given that i was working on the street, i said sod it, next time.

The final job was polishing the headlights, they were OK-ish, but clearly yellowing, and i had a lens restorage kit on the shelf, so why not? Ill tell you why not.. after two hours of causing myself RSI rubbing the polishing pads on the lenses, it did clear up, but not exactly like new either... Worth the hassle if it saves me from having the buy new lenses soon though...



All in all a relatively productive day, but i would've preferred some more noticeable outcome in the end. I dread having to take the front bumper off though.

Which leads me to the following question, is replacing the front logo a bumper off job? I can hardly imagine it being that, since the lower bolts are rusted shut, but the garage replaced the logo about a month ago...

 

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Just fitted a K&N Panel filter and replaced the temporary zip-ties attaching the air hose to the throttlebody with a proper hoseclamp. Off course i made sure to not overtighten the hoseclamp, and promptly kept wrenching when closing the filterbox and ruined one of the screw-holes I didnt feel any extra resistance, so you know, kept going...

 

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@WantAGTA what kind?

 

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Oh very nice, that should defo fix the lack of torque

 

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Just put nearly a full tube of high grade glue/sealant into the roof seams and put the runners back in, fingers crossed this fixes the leaks at the rear of the car. Yesterday i discovered my right door was soaking wet inside, which is why the speaker wasnt making any sound anymore, so now it is all drying out, and fingers crossed again that once i reassmble everything, the moisture will stay were it belongs, on the outside of the car...

Seriously though, im not terribly impressed with the build quality on this car, to be expected for a cheap entry level machine, but the GFs Seat definitely seems sturdier.

EDIT: also changed the cabin filter (dont know why the youtube tutorial claims 75min for the job..), cut the airbag warning from the passenger sun visor (i think those are a terrible eyesore), tipped up some stonechips, and finally added some QV stickers on the wings, surely those are nearly as good as actually having a turbo

Nah kidding, i always put QV stickers on my alfas, for good luck, my 147 had em, my GTs had em, and now my mito has em too

 

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Was a difficult job to change the rear diffuser? Can be a DIY job? Any needs like speacial tools?

From memory, you need a 8mm spanner, philips screwdriver and a torx one, im not sure which size. A 1/4th socket set with extension and a u joint will make te screws in the wheel arches easier, and doable without jacking or even taking the wheel off.

Once you get the rear bumper off, the diffuser is held on by three 8mm bolts and clips

Id say half an hours work once you know what you are doing and have the socket set, took me an hour the first time

Honestly, i highly recommend it, the veloce diffuser looks so much better then the body colour valance

 

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had to de-ice the inside of my windshield, found out there is water in one of the headlights, and discovered my right doorspeaker has again decided it prefer to be a non-speaker again.

So yeah, excellent start of the week.

 

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Fixed my audio troubles, turns out it wasnt water that was causing my issues, but the adapter plugs that i ordered were just a bit shoddy, so i cut them off, made a direct connection and heat-shrunk it.

That is not to say i wasnt an idiot with regard to moisture, the OEM speakers keep the connectors on the dry side, and during the conversion i had put them on the wet side, so i fixed that on both doors as well.

Happy to have proper sound again

 

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Just wanted to go to the garage to pick up some non-alfa bits, mito's battery is flat...

Third goddamn alfa leaving me with a flat battery THIS YEAR. Thankfully this one should be a good bit cheaper to replace then the 3.2 GT

 

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Just had the battery replaced, there was an undersized 44ah battery from a DIY store brand in there, paints an interesting picture together with the ditchfinder tyres.... (and the battery tester said it was shagged)

Now its got the biggest magnetti marelli unit the box would fit, which is a welcome in these days of very few miles and low temps.