Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Z3 Returnz

[Schaefft]

Work has continued yesterday and today.

Got the alternator out, turns out the mounting bolts for it were finger tight... Unlike the GTV/Spider the subframe doesn't have to be dropped to remove it, only the droplink mount had to come off fortunately.

Naturally its a "rebuilt" unit from a company called "AutoElectro", a British company specializing in rebuilding alternators and starter motors. I wanted to see whether it was rebuildable by myself. It pretty much looked original aside from one component.

The voltage regulator was new, the original having been replaced with the cheapest junk thats available and would fit this alternator according to the part number. Looking at the price AutoElectro is selling these alternators for (around 220 quid plus core charge) you can imagine what their profit margin is. For junk that apparently lasted 5000 miles... I've tested the rectifier diodes (seem to work fine) and ordered a new Bosch regulator that will hopefully arrive somewhat soonish.

I've also removed the leaking power steering pipe today. Surprise surprise, more bodging. The hardline was cut out and replaced with a section of high pressure hose (not sure why, maybe rusted out?). The problem is that the hose fittings were never tightened on one side, resulting in the leak that basically made it impossible to drive the car. I understand why someone wouldn't bother considering the abysmal accessibility down there. However, this was clearly done by a garage who really should try harder to make sure the entire job had a point in the first place.

To top it all off, I had to use the car jack to break the oil sump plug lose. I also know the reason why the garage overtorqued it, they never bothered to put a crush washer on it. Also the genius of Fiat/Alfa at work right here, its impossible to take that filter out without causing a mess.

So just to recap: The exhaust was blowing because they reused a gasket that shouldn't have been (while using mismatched bolts to hold it all together). The alternator mounting bolts were finger tight, the alternator itself from a supplier that only used the cheapest Chinese junk to rebuild their alternators. The hose all of the previous components had to move out of the way for wasn't tightened up properly resulting in a bad leak. The oil change that was most likely done at the same time (filter is behind the alternator, also Alfa branded) resulted in a sump plug that was overtorqued because they didn't use a washer at all.

It's mindboggling to me how much of a shitshow a "professional" can be paid for. Literally everyone involved in this job screwed up, resulting in the car being abondoned again for years. I get it if this was done by someone hacking shit together on their driveway, there are multiple things indicating that this was indeed done by a well known Alfa specialist though. At least I now know who to avoid in the future. I just hope they didn't screw up this badly while doing the timing belt.

[Dave_Q]

On the PS hose, I had a mate who worked in a garage specializing in BMW/Merc/Porsche and if they ever needed a hose like that they would just take it down to Pirtek who would either make up a new one to match or I guess in your case use the ends and splice in a new hose?

I never really asked why this was their standard procedure but I guess time is a factor, ordering a hard line like that from the manufacturer is likely to leave a car stuck on your ramp for a day or more, whereas Pirtek were normally while you wait. 

Obviously there is no excuse for sending it out pissing out everywhere but that was my experience FWIW.

[Schaefft]

4 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

On the PS hose, I had a mate who worked in a garage specializing in BMW/Merc/Porsche and if they ever needed a hose like that they would just take it down to Pirtek who would either make up a new one to match or I guess in your case use the ends and splice in a new hose?

I never really asked why this was their standard procedure but I guess time is a factor, ordering a hard line like that from the manufacturer is likely to leave a car stuck on your ramp for a day or more, whereas Pirtek were normally while you wait. 

Obviously there is no excuse for sending it out pissing out everywhere but that was my experience FWIW.

Yeah, removing the hardline is impossible on this car without removing the entire steering rack, which is a huge job. I'm not sure how that hardline ever got damaged though, it's one of those areas that's impossible to reach, surrounded by other hardlines which are all perfectly fine. It's the execution that's shit though. I'll also use some Teflon tape to make sure I'll never have to touch it again.

[Jim Bell]

Good progress man. Putting right all the specialist garage work is not something a second hand car buyer should be tasked with but you don't seem to be daunted by it. Car looks fast even jacked up on the drive. Looking forward to further improvements. 

[Timewaster]

I can't recall the exact quote, but I do recall Derek Matthewson saying that history from a one make specialist was not necessarily good news and many were to be given a wide berth.

[Conan]

I find nearly all one make specialist to be either (or both) absolutely shit or (or and) booked so full the car might rot away to nothing before anything getting done.

[PrinceRupert]

1 hour ago, Timewaster said:

I can't recall the exact quote, but I do recall Derek Matthewson saying that history from a one make specialist was not necessarily good news and many were to be given a wide berth.

Thing is, if you're not double checking all their work, how do you know what they have or have not done, or if they've done it properly? My TVR goes into a well-known specialist each year and I tell them to fix anything they find wrong with it, no questions asked.  It would be very, very easy for them to add things in that don't need doing to pad the invoice, or not do things they say they will do etc.  Did the same engine mount two years in a row for example!  I just had to trust it was necessary (apparently due to the position of the manifold they do go very quickly if you use in traffic...).

[Cookiesouwest]

I don't think being a specialist garage is the issue. Some will be good and some won't. No different to any general garage that you could use.

A specialist garage has just decided to concentrate on one mark or model of car, to make their lives easier (or because they have a passion for that mark).

Doesn't mean they are any good.

[PrinceRupert]

5 minutes ago, Cookiesouwest said:

I don't think being a specialist garage is the issue. Some will be good and some won't. No different to any general garage that you could use.

A specialist garage has just decided to concentrate on one mark or model of car, to make their lives easier (or because they have a passion for that mark).

Doesn't mean they are any good.

True, but also you're much less likely to put your car into your local garage and say "go over it with a fine tooth comb and fix everything". I know my local garage is very good if you say "please replace the backbox and the front wishbone" but the couple of times I've put something into them with a vague problem to diagnose and resolve they've been less good.

[Schaefft]

The powersteering hose went back into the car, threat sealer and heat reflecting tape added this time around. The alternator also received it's new voltage regulator today. Well, the powersteering system now appears to be leak free! However, still no charging happening, the battery light is still on and voltage at the alternator output post to chassis is just the battery voltage while running...

Guess some diodes on the rectifier are dead after all, I couldn't figure out how to test them individually other than generally testing the rectifier as a whole, the test checked out.

Bought a used alternator on ebay now which hopefully arrives before I leave for the US on Saturday...

[Schaefft]

Great news! Contrary to the "rebuilt" unit, the 23 year old used alternator actually works! I spent 2 hours today trying to get the alternator back in the car, a crowbar and hammer were necessary so you can probably imagine how fun* that was with minimum accessibility. My heart sunk for a moment after starting the car and still seeing the dreaded battery light. Fortunately it went off after a few seconds, the alternator charges with around 14V at idle now. Thank fuck...

That means that it should be pretty much ready for an MOT now! I'll probably see in 3 weeks when I get the chance to book it in again. I drove it up and down the estate today to check if everything is functioning correctly, it actually feels great to drive and sounds glorious banging through the gears so definitely something to look forward to coming back.

A few small items I didnt want to leave out in this thread. You can still buy new OEM center armrest lids for 35 quid so the old one went straight in the bin, no clue what happened to it.

Much better, small things like this instantly elevate the interior:

I've also had to replace one of the taillight bulbs. Not really hard at all, pop out a few clips and its right there:

It would have been even easier had I noticed the access hatch before...

And that shall be it for now. I also wanna use the upcoming trip to get a few parts for the various fleet members I wouldn't easily be able to get from the UK. I might even give the local junkyard a visit to hunt for some treasure. Stay tuned!

[Schaefft]

Two Alfas naturally!*

Mr. @sdkrc was generous enough to offer his Twinspark 166 to me. No collection thread unfortunately as barely a day has passed since I returned from holidays.

For the money it was offered to me there is absolutely nothing to complain about with this one. While the crank pulley wobble is concerning (I might bother buying the right socket to try tighten its bolt) the car does run and drive, still has 8 months MOT and does everything you'd expect a car to do.

I really only bought this for the parts. I might however be tempted to keep this around for a bit as its always fun to own a car you just don't have to care about whatsoever. The steering wheel, center console trim, Xenon headlights (didnt even know it had any!) and many other bits and pieces will eventually go into the Busso 166. Until then I'll see how things go with this one. It even came with an almost complete tool kit and jack in its original Alfa Romeo branded pouch!

Thanks again sdkrc, it was good doing business with you, 10/10. I hope the funds will help get the Lexus through its MOT!

[hairnet]

 molto bene

[sdkrc]

Yell if you want a loan of the Ribe socket set I bought. Completely forgot that could be useful. 

Also, this is how I got the Alfa toolkit, if it's in this pic and wasn't left in the kit then I'm sure I've still got it somewhere. The screwdriver will be floating around, I'll post it when it turns up. 

I think the 166 is a great car, well put together and dynamically interesting. The twinspark is a fucking terrible engine though and lets it down. I'd love to have seen a 1.9tdi engine in one of these rather than the beefcake 2.4jtd they got in Europe. 

[Schaefft]

1 minute ago, sdkrc said:

Yell if you want a loan of the Ribe socket set I bought. Completely forgot that could be useful. 

Also, this is how I got the Alfa toolkit, if it's in this pic and wasn't left in the kit then I'm sure I've still got it somewhere. The screwdriver will be floating around, I'll post it when it turns up. 

I think the 166 is a great car, well put together and dynamically interesting. The twinspark is a fucking terrible engine though and lets it down. I'd love to have seen a 1.9tdi engine in one of these rather than the beefcake 2.4jtd they got in Europe. 

I've shuffled around a few things in the boot, I'll see if I can find the handle for that screw driver somewhere. And well, I put the pulley and belt back on the engine and had a go in it. The power difference between this and the 3.0 is very noticeable, I actually don't think it has full power as it just doesn't feel quite as peppy as I'd imagine it to feel in first gear. There's definitely a bit of a stumble from idle, maybe the iron bru fix didn't resolve the air leak in the intake boot, maybe the issue is somewhere else.

If the bodywork was in better shape it'd be worth investigating. For now I'll probably just leave everything be and see if anything changes.

And thanks for the offer, I might actually have a set that works with these bolts. Why the hell would Fiat use that type of bolt on anything? Certainly the first time I've seen them.

[Kringle]

The twinspark I had was a peach, peppy and full of zing despite the size of the car. All the power was at the top, very Italian.

I hope that this stays on the road, when I saw that photo on the Alfa 166 Facebook group I thought, ah ha I know who that is!

As an aside I had two very big glasses of Sicilian red wine on my balcony in Marina di Ragusa today and very nearly bought your E38! Maybe I'll try three tomorrow and see how I go.

[320touring]

Is the answer to " what is better than 1 Alfa?"

0 Alfas?

@sdkrc thinks so🤣

[Schaefft]

12 hours ago, Kringle said:

The twinspark I had was a peach, peppy and full of zing despite the size of the car. All the power was at the top, very Italian.

I hope that this stays on the road, when I saw that photo on the Alfa 166 Facebook group I thought, ah ha I know who that is!

As an aside I had two very big glasses of Sicilian red wine on my balcony in Marina di Ragusa today and very nearly bought your E38! Maybe I'll try three tomorrow and see how I go.

Haha, I still haven’t put up the E38 for sale anywhere else yet. It’ll get dropped off at the body shop on Friday to have the paint on the bonnet sorted however! I could really use the space around here right now! I’ll create an ad on the usual places once it’s back.

12 hours ago, 320touring said:

Is the answer to " what is better than 1 Alfa?"

0 Alfas?

@sdkrc thinks so🤣

To be fair, if it wasn’t for the cosmetics it wouldn’t take much to get this car back into shape, it’s definitely in better shape mechanically than my V6 one when it arrived here. It’s much easier to work on as well, the twinspark engine takes up so much less room unsurprisingly. It’s almost a shame to break it for parts.

The 3.0 166 is insured from Saturday and will go in for an MOT that day. Fingers crossed it’ll pass without too much trouble.

[Schaefft]

Just drove the Twinspark to Tesco as Mr. sdkrc was generous enough to leave the car taxed and insured until end of the month.

There's definitely something going on with the exhaust, the drone at motorway speeds is nuts and the needle is at 3500rpm at 70 in 5th. As was mentioned before, gearing just seems strange, especially for an executive car like this. It feels very nimble however, the direct steering definitely helps, the engine does feel somewhat underpowered however. Lots of noise and no torque. Almost the direct opposite to what I usually drive. I'll have a better comparison with the V6 by Saturday.

The car is very good at looking less shabby in photos.

[sdkrc]

I'm getting the feeling I may have oversold this car...the drone is awful, I thought it was the gearbox at first but then dismissed that. Exhaust sounds plausible but I didn't see anywhere it could be blowing. 

The gearing is mental. There is a 6th gear btw but it's essentially the same as 5th. Long 1st, short 6th. Lolwhut. It makes me want to drive another one that's well sorted to compare.

The interior also looks incredible but only in photos. It's the car you wouldn't want to meet on tinder. 

[Schaefft]

4 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

I'm getting the feeling I may have oversold this car...the drone is awful, I thought it was the gearbox at first but then dismissed that. Exhaust sounds plausible but I didn't see anywhere it could be blowing. 

The gearing is mental. There is a 6th gear btw but it's essentially the same as 5th. Long 1st, short 6th. Lolwhut. It makes me want to drive another one that's well sorted to compare.

The interior also looks incredible but only in photos. It's the car you wouldn't want to meet on tinder. 

The car is a perfect parts donor and doesn't really need to be more than that, the rest are just observations. I wanna get a good idea of what it's like to drive a TS 166, probably the last chance I'll ever have! But yeah, it's hard to tell what is just "typical" Alfa and what's just broken in one way or another. I'll get a better idea once I've been behind the wheel of the busso longer than a few minutes to compare.

If someone wanted to this could be a pretty decent car again, just hard to justify really.

[Schaefft]

Well, the 166 went in for its MOT today, and things didn't quite go as planned!

As you can see below, most of these things will be easy to sort. I'm hoping that the caliper on the parts 166 will be useable. The rest is just a washer pump (apparently used on every car of the 80s), a set of wiper blades and a generic exhaust hanger.

The real issue however is the powersteering leak, as it appears to be dripping from exactly the same spot it did before, despite my best efforts to fix it (which it was for a little while). Which is an issue as it'll be hard to really do any better job other than replacing the section with the original hardline (#7 in the diagram), which would most likely be a steering rack out job, not something Im particularly keen on doing myself.

Since the leak will most likely come from the compression fitting (which was loose the first time I diagnosed it) I feel like there's going to be relatively little else I can do. Powersteering stop leak won't work either as it mostly works on leaky gaskets (temporarily).

At least the 30min drive to and back from the MOT station was convincingly fun enough to consider getting it sorted properly. The aftermarket backbox will probably go into the bin though, the drone is just too much. There's probably a better alternative out there.

In other news, the GS received a wash the first time in months, still a great car although the battery is on its last leg. For some reason the new front brakes are squeeky at low speeds yet again, I'll have to do a little research to see if there's anything I can do. You'd expect quality Japanese brake pads to be dead silent...

I was looking into the OEM wooden steering wheel available for it. They are much easier to find in the US, it just didnt work out while I was there. Also turns out front bumpers for these are $$$, and breakers lack the ability to keep them in decent shape the moment they come off the donor, so all need paint anyway... The search goes on.

[sdkrc]

😎 

I was skeptical about power steering stop leak but it solved a pinhole leak in the high pressure line on the V90 for a good 6 months. Worth a shot for £11?

Lucas Oil 10008 Power Steering Stop Leak, 355 ml https://amzn.eu/d/8kjyszY

[Schaefft]

27 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

😎

I was skeptical about power steering stop leak but it solved a pinhole leak in the high pressure line on the V90 for a good 6 months. Worth a shot for £11?

Lucas Oil 10008 Power Steering Stop Leak, 355 ml https://amzn.eu/d/8kjyszY

Thanks, as much as I hate using stuff like this, it's probably not going to hurt much either.

And yeah, it certainly is noisy. The neighbor already complained, that's the first time in almost 5 years.😂

[Schaefft]

I just realized, the line that was replaced is not a high pressure line, it was a hardline coming out of the steering rack, going into a rubber hose being connected to another section of hardline with nothing but a hose clamp (number 8 in the diagram). The garage didn't replace an entire section of hardline, instead they replaced the hose and (for whatever reason) shortened both ends of the hardline somewhat. I have no clue why they didn't just flare both ends of the remaining hardline and stuck a hose on it as this is just the line going into the PAS cooler, but thats exactly what Im going to do.

This will replace the 3 points of a potential leak to just two, which are simple hose clamps.

[Schaefft]

Quick need to vent: After working every night after work this week to sort out every single issue on the MOT sheet the car just decided to shit its powersteering pump. At 63k miles.

What an ungrateful pile of junk... I tried to air the system multiple times now, no luck. No powersteering pressure at idle speeds. If I'm lucky the powersteering pump of the TS is a direct fit (edit: of course it isn't) but I might not even have enough pas fluid at this point...

It absolutely makes sense to me that the only thing keeping Fiat alive is the 500 right now (a car hardly bought by people interested in anything but style). They simply cannot build a decent car thats not a total pile. And this was a well mainted example for most of its life!

[Schaefft]

So as you can tell from the above post my plan to have the 166 retested and on the road by today didn't work out. Fortunately the pump was fairly easy to extract, even if it doesn't look like it at first:

I've opened up the pump to check what could cause the lack of pressure at idle speed, aside from a bit of dirt on the low pressure side I couldn't really find anything wrong with it however. It could be as simple as a gasket or the check valve being stuck open relieving built up pressure when it shouldn't.

I don't really wanna risk putting the old pump back in the car so I just bought a used replacement pump (the type I need is exclusive to the V6 models of the first 2 years) for 40 quid, fingers crossed that will solve the issue. The only other alternative would be waiting two weeks to get one from Autodoc / get one used from Europe (as they are readily available everywhere aside from the UK) or buy the single other (overpriced) used pump from the specialist breaker.

Before all of this drama I spent the last couple of nights replacing more stuff on the car to get it to pass. As mentioned, the wiper pump was sized so the donor 166 supplied a replacement (had a look before, the pump was supposed to be used in a million different models, turns out that was the headlight washer pump...), the wiper blades have had it on both cars as well.

Apparently 166 also like to seize up handbrake cables so a new one was sourced from the Alfa specialist, I'm hoping that the other side is doing its job still. The hose was used to replace the section of high pressure hose shown further above as this section of the system wasn't even pressurized anyway.

Alfa is using this pivoting arm to balance brake force across both sides, you have to lift the center console to reach it. Since the cable was seized up the best tool in the world was used to get it out of there.

The handbrake mechanism from close-up. The single cable is attached to the handbrake lever, a nut on the cable is the only way to adjust tension, theres no way to adjust left and right cable separately.

The new cable needs to be threaded through the undercarriage above the exhaust and then through the hole below, since you cannot really see any of this from either inside nor underneath the car it took me a while to realize that you could just pull the cable over the sheet metal the hole is stamped into, the t-shaped end of the cable would never fit through it otherwise. It's all quite a bit of a pain if you are doing it on a driveway for the first time, a thread on a Swedish Alfa forum fortunately saved the day. A bit of string helped pull it through the two layers of sheet metal.

Since the caliper seemed a bit sticky as well I took it apart and regreased it, the piston got new rubber seals as well. No pitting on the piston, I think the sticking mostly came from the cable being stuck in place.

Done. The kit didn't come with new bellows for the slider pins, fortunately these were still in decent shape. A new bleeder valve was included however so that was replaced in the end as well.

Crossing my fingers that this will sort any sticky calipers and issues with the parking brake...

On a side note, should anyone feel sorry about the donor 166, this nice little hole in the front apron was hiding behind the arch liner. No clue how that happened, if I had a guess the sound insulation trapped moisture there, fortunately mine is solid in the same area:

So yeah, after all this the powersteering pump decided to shit the bed, hopefully I can get one next week, slap everything back together and somehow still get it through a test before it all needs to happen from the start.

In other news about cars that actually don't suck, my Corona finally has a working radio! The Celica GT Four specialist finally had an amp in stock, the sound system of both cars is so similar that I felt it was worth a gamble. Never did a piece of 30 year old tech feel so valuable to me:

Well, it worked and I can now listen to an actual functioning radio, however one that can only go up to 90.0 FM frequency, which means the only station I can listen to up here in the North East is BBC Radio 2...

I tried the CD player only to get a disc stuck in it (which was retrieved a little later), the tape deck does however work which means my bluetooth adapter is once again coming in handy!

The Cadillac received new radio knobs from my junkyard tour in Tennessee as well, mine were strangely brittle and were impossible to find for sale anywhere. The old ones literally fell apart in your hands:

The car now also got a working remote (old one had a chip snapped off the circuit board), like the Corona's amp or the radio dials above these are very hard to source model year specific parts, so getting these few things sorted really feels like a significant step forward.

Another step forward was getting the green E38 back from the body shop today. And I have to admit that I am quite impressed by the results, its impossible to tell (for me) where they blended the new paint into the fenders. My goal was to make this car more presentable, there are still paint issues in other areas but having the hood sorted really made the biggest difference. The only thing left to do now is clean it again and get the ads up.

[mk2_craig]

7 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

 

 

Y THO 

[High Jetter]

Beat me to it! 

[Schaefft]

Quick update! The E38 has sold within 3 days, goes to show the different markets now vs. last October/November when it took 10 times as long to sell a better example for the same price, right when the cost of living crisis became a topic on the news.

I've also received my replacement powersteering pump for the Alfa yesterday, a very lucky purchase as it was only 40 quid and impossible to find on ebay as the description was mostly just the part number.

Went into the car very quickly after work, all sorted now, the car passed it's MOT this morning.🎉 Not before trying to sabotage it all again by pulling the handbrake cable out of one of it's mounts naturally.

Only urgent thing left to do is sorting out the noisy aftermarket exhaust, everything else will be comfort features and cosmetics going forward. If this car wasn't so fun to drive it'd probably be scrapped a long time ago just by being such a pita.

What an eclectic selection of cars we got here now though!