General Just bought one

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General Just bought one

bobhenry999

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Dec 5, 2008
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colchester
Hi everyone,

I have just bought myself a Croma and joined the forum.
Mines a 1.9 Multijet Prestigio Automatic, in a pale gold metallic (not sure what its called) with beige leather, Sat Nav and the 18" wheels.
Picked it up yesterday and drove 200 miles home, and loved it. Really relaxing and comfortable. Seems like a really good car with great spec, hope to enjoy many more miles in it. I would add some photos but don`t know how to add them to the message, can anyone help please.

Bob
 
Welcome! You've got a good one there. I've got a Prestigio, but a manual without the leather and sat nav. I wish I'd hung on for one with the beige leather, as it looks absolutely stunning.

Photos please! Just reply and use the yellow "Insert Image" button at the top.

Perhaps we should have a poll/sweepstake on what your first fault will be... From my experience, a Croma is a very nice but slightly troublesome partner.
 
Hi,

Sorry to be so thick, when I click on the tab to enter an image it says "enter the URL of your image".
What on earth is that.
 
Guys,

Think I might have sussed the photo problem.
4313861003_0ec32160f5_m.jpg
4314588524_599369269b_m.jpg

4314598964_55cc80e936_m.jpg
 
Hi Bob

May I ask how much you paid ? I'm selling shortly - Eleganza auto, same colour - but don't want to under/overprice.

Cheers

Tony
 
That's a proper posh car, very very nice. Imagine what that would cost if it had snobby badges on it.

I always chuckle when I see someone with no money left driving a Saab 9-3 1.9D, knowing that we're both driving basically the same car. Except mine has loads of space. And theirs looks pretty. Ah well, you can't have everything. Someone said my car "isn't ugly" - I know what they mean, it's not horrible but not a dream car either. Unique is good in my book though.

I'll take my bet on the EGR valve. You must let us know when you get your first fault :D
 
Yep the old Croma, despite it's issues is equal to/same as but actually better than the Vauxhaul & Saab variations. Four reasons (in no particular order) 1) Fiat engine 2) Italian styling 3) Fiat badge 4) price

Regarding the EGR problems, there is a 'holed' blanking plate that Fiat do that reduces the amount of crappy exhaust crud recyled via the EGR valve but still allows sufficent gases through to not cause an ECU error condition.

The part number is 71751468 and will cost you around £13. You could of course make your own :)
 
Guys,

Thanks for your comments regarding the EGR valve, its booked in for thursday, so I will let you know the outcome.
"Two Tone" I paid £5995 for mine , if thats any help, its done 45000m.

Bob
 
Guys,

I paid £5995 for mine , if thats any help, its done 45000m.

Bob

We got similar value for money then. Mine was also exactly £5995, but this was about eight months ago. It's a 56-reg Prestigio 1.9D 16v with 39k miles (2.5 years old when bought). It's the same as yours minus the leather and sat nav. So newer but not as posh.

But I did have to replace all tyres, brake pads and discs after buying it, and a few jobs needed doing under 3rd year warranty. All OK in the end though.
 
Regarding the EGR problems, there is a 'holed' blanking plate that Fiat do that reduces the amount of crappy exhaust crud recyled via the EGR valve but still allows sufficent gases through to not cause an ECU error condition.

The part number is 71751468 and will cost you around £13. You could of course make your own :)

Interesting. Do you know whether this is likely to increase or decrease fuel consumption at all?
 
Interesting. Do you know whether this is likely to increase or decrease fuel consumption at all?

Haven't got a clue at the moment. I just decided to get the plate on order, and the normal two gaskets and ready for use when I decide to/or have to clean the EGR valve.

Having done a first pass read of many forums re: EGR blanking, pros, cons etc. etc. I'm not entirely sure where WE (yes all us Croma owners) stand overall on this front.

If MPG is reduced (a little) I'm inclined to accept it on the grounds that less crud in the valve, inlet chamber and over the swirl valves is a better economy in the long run.

What I'm really interested in finding out about is swirl valve failure in the Croma/Alfa/Vauhall/Saab units. This I'm not entirely sure about, even if it affects our engines. It is a problem in other makes, especially some BMW units.

If there is a serious potential problem with swirl valves then I may consider dissabling mine in the fully open position. Won't affect full bore/power performance but could affect low rev bottom end performance. Could also increase exhaust soot content at low rpm which could be an additional factor to take into account with DPF systems.

If you are prepared to shell out some cash then one can dump all the EGR, swirl, and DPF but doing this will also take some experimentation.

e.g. I've already designed (in my head) an effective EGR bypass that should make the car/ECU think nothing has changed. Cost to implement is greater than the £15 spent on the EGR restriction plate. Not much greater. Infact I'm thinking of both doing the restriction and the bypass.
 
Nick, there are 2 real specialists on the AlfaOwner.com site, alfa tuner in St Helens and AHM somewhere near you in Hampshire. After searching some of their posts you may find it worthwhile to contact AHM for advice.
 
Nick;

Swirl valve problems are well-documented in the Alfaowner website, however I'm not sure how well you'll get on with disabling it as the ECU keeps a rather close eye on that area. With regards to the EGR side of things, complete blanking may be inadvisable for two reasons:

1. The engine is designed to have a certain amount of 'inert gas' mixed with the intake charge, removing the inert gas effectively 'leans off' the combustion mixture which can result in higher catalyst temperatures and premature failure.

2. As some of the exhaust soot is re-burnt in the engine, directing all of the exhaust gas straight out the exhaust will increase the load on the DPF, leading to increased regeneration.

I'm changing the cambelt on my 2.4 :)eek:) in the next couple of weeks, and will be servicing it & changing the EGR valve at the same time. While it's all in pieces I'm going to fit the blanking plate you describe and post the results. Partial blanking would seem like a good compromise.

I still haven't got round to trying out the FiatECUScan software - mainly because my wife's H*u*d*i decided to eat an automatic gearbox bearing and trash it's head gasket at the same time, so I've been - shall we say - somewhat busy for the past couple of weeks...

At this point I would like to say that the Croma is really nice to drive, and I've missed it quite a lot - I've borrowed a Renault Scenic in the meantime and it's just not the same (n)
 
FastFiat in Stockton reckon they have done this many times on the multijet engine without any adverse effects.

I read somewhere that it can knack cars fitted with the variable vane turbo, but most people I seak to reckon that's b*ll*cks.
 
FastFiat in Stockton reckon they have done this many times on the multijet engine without any adverse effects.

I read somewhere that it can knack cars fitted with the variable vane turbo, but most people I seak to reckon that's b*ll*cks.

I assume you are referring to the EGR reduction/restriction mod?
 
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