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Alfa 159 Sportwagon jtdm TI

Introduction

Alfa 159 Sportwagon TI jtdm

So picked this up this morning, quite happy today :)

Just before i drove it off the forecourt.
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Next to my dads car (one of my old cars lol) who kindly took me to get it
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I have decided to call it Urchin in memory of Richard Brown, not sure it suits the car but it feels right.
Well i decided i don't care about having a full garage service history for this and set about servicing it myself instead, money helped make that decision if i'm being honest.. So changed the air filter and the oil and oil filter y'day - complete nightmare considering how simple a task it was. Still want to change a few bits but they were the important bits that needed doing.

Also got some stickers, car is being cleaned inside and out on saturday so will stick them on after, and you can see the car in the flesh at Mitcar on sunday if you are attending ;)
 

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forgot to mention, also removed my egr valve - removed the electrical part from it and stuck it in my sonic bath for half hour or so. Had a slight stutter under partial load, i suspected the egr was sticking. Cannot tell you whether it was the egr or just the need for a service but that has gone away completely now. (y)
 
well its been a while.... This car is still around.

Just for info on what has happened since i posted on this... I left the car in York for family to use when i moved house to the South-West in Feb 2014. The stutter returned and the car became worse and worse until was pretty much undriveable and wouldn't start very well. It was taken to a 'specialist' in York who changed the egr for a new, genuine one and then the car worked again but i was told it wasn't quite right still. But it worked and my dad and uncle were using it for work (alot of motorway miles). It one day ended up outside my house as my dad was working nearby so came to stay over for a few days.

I had a look and discovered that the 'specialists' had fit the egr without the restricting gasket plate which they are meant to have. So I just got a blanking plate and fit that and the slight miss it had sometimes low down went away immediately. So it now has a blanked egr and a little device in the OBD port that stops the car reporting egr errors due to the blanking plate. I also changed the diesel filter while he was there.

And then since then i have really seen the car at all, but i made sure they kept it serviced etc, it has had new cambelt and fluids, filters etc etc while its been in York.
Recently however, its not been being used and has been sat on my old drive (house is rented out to friend of the family, so i could leave it there and i even still have stuff in the shed nearly 2 years after moving haha).

So I have been trying to arrange getting the car down to my current house for a few weeks without having to pay for a train or something to get upto York to collect it. My dad was flying to Denmark yesterday and drove it down here on Saturday so i could drive him to the airport on Sunday morning and then come home in the alfa....

...and so, at long last - Urchin is home :woot:
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And I can report on the whole it has faired quite well - few little things to sort out though. The battery was totally dead after being sat for a while and wouldn't take charge so its had a new battery and since then it says the 'vehicle protection system is not available' when you take the key out - and I am told when it first was started up the engine management warning came up for the first day (multiple starts and few hundred miles done that day) but since then has been ok. So need to plug in MultiEcuScan and see whats it thinks is wrong with them.

It needs a bloody good clean inside and out! And there is lacquer peel on the roof bars so need to get them painted. And there is some kerbing on the wheels. So thinking i might get the wheels, roof bars and mirrors painted to match in a different colour, bronze is what i am thinking atm but not 100% decided on that yet.

The rear brakes where rebuilt for the MOT (just a couple of weeks ago) but looking at them it looks like they have put the wrong pads on them as the outside half of the disc is still all rusty, so need to buy some pads and look into that.
 
have regularly cursed myself for not getting a V6 Q4 159 and lpg'ing it rather than the diesel but meh, its still a nice car. I will admit that most BMW i have been in i have thought were nice cars, but not sure i could bring myself to own one.... well maybe some of the classics but not a new one. (Apart from maybe a 1 series M)
 
So should have updated this i guess....

All the springs are on and this is how she now sits - they are cobra springs, used them on a few cars and always been impressed by quality and ride of them so went for them. They are ever so slightly lower than stock TI springs, which is more noticeable on the front than the rear. The ride is still very good, you can hardly feel any difference at all in ride comfort unless going really slowly, like manoeuvring speeds - say going over a speed bump in a car park, then it feel a tiny bit more 'jiggly' than stock but out on the road its basically the same.

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New tyres and alignment 2moro, my wallet aches!
 
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Re: Alfa 159 Sportwagon TI jtdm

Well well... It's been 4 and half years since she left, but like a homing pigeon, she returns!
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Not seen the car in eons but it appears my uncle took very good care of it generally speaking. Interior is all still nice, he's even had the roof bars and mirror caps painted, they were starting to look rough when she left in 2016.

But.. it's a non-runner. Don't know exactly what's up with it but it's arrived with no injectors fitted and apparently had low or no compression in one cylinder.

So right now the battery is off and on charge, only had 3.4v in it but is apparently quite new so fingers crossed it takes a charge and we'll go from there I suppose.
 
Re: Alfa 159 Sportwagon TI jtdm

Well had a chat with my uncle as to what happened. Sounded very much like it could have eaten a swirl flap.

So I set about stripping stuff off in order to get the inlet manifold off and....

https://youtu.be/iOnx5CJoAp8

So it's definitely eaten some swirl flaps. So I kept going to see how bad the damage. So cambox off first, that looked okay and also no visible damage to any of the rockers etc

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Next the head and well it's a mess in there. Cylinder 1 looks okay but full of some gritty stuff no sure why or how. cylinder 2 looks like it's eaten part of the flap or at least something has been in there. Cylinder 3 and 4 where flaps were completely missing are indeed mullered.
I'd say the bottom end is salvageable and the heads scrap but probably makes more sense to just buy a replacement bare engine at this point.

https://youtu.be/YgOPNODPXkI

So at this point I'm gonna drop the front subframe, it's very crusty looking but I'm hoping a clean up and lick of paint is all it needs, if it needs a subframe too I might just throw in the towel with it. Mostly cause it's money I don't have spare at the moment and also alot of time of which I don't have much spare either.

Further updates when I find time to drop the frame off.
 
Re: Alfa 159 Sportwagon TI jtdm

Well I guess I'll update this, not much has happened so far really, only had a few spare hours here and there.

I started taking subframe off, got most the bolts out/loosened, disconnected the steering rack and ARB from it, disconnected bottom arms from the spindle so they can drop with the subframe. And then all 4 bolts across the front are just spinning, snapped captive nuts off inside chassis.

So that's as far as I have got thus far, what a pain in the arse.
 
Re: Alfa 159 Sportwagon TI jtdm

so not a huge update, still not really had much spare time to work on it, and i destroyed one of my feet about a month ago and only just got to the point i can hobble about again..

But the subframe did come off in end and it looks fine really. Needs a good clean up and paint etc but its solid, so the car will live to fight again. eventually haha.
 
Re: Alfa 159 Sportwagon TI jtdm

Well still not sorted this, but did finally find a day to mess yesterday...

engines out, split from box and stuffed in garage.
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replacement ordered along with a new clutch kit and DMF. the DMF looks to be fine but it has over 100k on it and I found one for a very good price.

There is also already a big box of service parts for said engine waiting already
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Oh and I also have stripped, cleaned and de-flapped the inlet manifold, that's a seriously messy job!
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Re: Alfa 159 Sportwagon TI jtdm

a big present arrived
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unfortunately I'm due to go away so this is gonna have to wait a week or two at least. But set about stripping some bits off because I wanted to move it into my garage and my neighbours car is also broken meaning this had to scoot between them 2 cars without a hoist or anything so lighter and smaller the better lol.
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Gonna have to buy a few more pieces me thinks, at the bare minimum a cranks seal lol
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But managed to get it in the garage without damaging any cars in the process, phew!
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and stuffed the old one back in too, really struggling for space now!
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and the pile of not needed so far.
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Off to see Eklipze3k next week and fix his leaky Alfa so this will have to wait, give me a chance to order some more gaskets and seals etc as this needs more swapping over than I hoped.
 
Re: Alfa 159 Sportwagon TI jtdm

brief update, no pics or anything as not much has happened.. But i have stripped it down to the point i can pull the inlet manifold off today and.... it has already had deflapped inlet which bodes well, someone loved it anyway :woot:

I've ordered some seals and gaskets etc and new crank pulley as the one on my car and the one of this 'new' engine have some worrying cracks in the rubber part. Overall so far this engine looks to be alright

Hopefully all the new bits will come 2moro or friday as the weekend looks like it might good weather wise atm.. more updates to follow.
 
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Watching this with interest, I've just come from a 159 2.4, and gone through a lot of this work myself.

Oh the subject of bronze wheels there's a black 159 Ti saloon near me which used to be owned by one of the Autolusso lads, it looks pretty smart, I did look at doing it to mine, but went for Aston Martin tungsten silver in matte finish as the bronze didn't suit Alfa Red
 

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