Hello everyone,
I have had a MiTo 1.4 Multiair 105 HP (without turbo) for 3 years. I am in love with this car and at the beginning of my life (I bought it from my brother) I had to repair the Multiair unit because the pump thread was loose and also some tappets were loose. Also, the unit itself was not very clean because the previous owner (Swiss) decided that changing the oil every 30,000 km was a good idea. However, in order not to bore you with all the details, I tried to collect as much data as possible about the Multiair unit, its operation, causes of failures and so on.
The general consensus among forum users is that the first generation Multiairs were a disaster, with visible failures, and that the 2013 Multiair units have been improved (I can't figure out exactly how, I read somewhere that the oil pipes have been widened) and failures have become exceptionally rare. On the other hand, the mechanic I visit occasionally (I work on my own car 80% of the time) actually said something interesting and scary at the same time. He said that the first generation Multiairs were actually very high quality, as they only had mechanical failures, while the newer Multiair units have solenoid failures after only 40,000 km. The mechanic also mentioned a bizarre case where he replaced someone's Multiair unit and had solenoid failures only a year later, with only 6,000 km on the odometer! This mechanic works exclusively on Italian cars and is quite reliable, especially among the Alfa Romeo community in my country.
My question is:
- Are the newer Multiair units actually better than the older versions released between 2009 and 2013? Has anyone had a solenoid failure?
- Should you use a 0w-30 if your Multiair unit is newer or should you use the original 5w-40? I know they did this because of emissions but maybe the newer units are designed to run on thinner oils, I never understood that.
- How does the oil circulate in the Multiair unit? I understand that the oil stays in the unit even if you change it but how exactly does this happen?
I will add that my car runs great and I have driven about 43,000 km since the Multiair was repaired. I use Moly Top-Tec 4100 5W-40 fluids as my oil and it meets all the specific requirements. I am afraid that when the original Multiair eventually fails, it will be replaced with an unreliable module that will fail no matter how I treat the engine.
Thanks for reading about my problem!
I have had a MiTo 1.4 Multiair 105 HP (without turbo) for 3 years. I am in love with this car and at the beginning of my life (I bought it from my brother) I had to repair the Multiair unit because the pump thread was loose and also some tappets were loose. Also, the unit itself was not very clean because the previous owner (Swiss) decided that changing the oil every 30,000 km was a good idea. However, in order not to bore you with all the details, I tried to collect as much data as possible about the Multiair unit, its operation, causes of failures and so on.
The general consensus among forum users is that the first generation Multiairs were a disaster, with visible failures, and that the 2013 Multiair units have been improved (I can't figure out exactly how, I read somewhere that the oil pipes have been widened) and failures have become exceptionally rare. On the other hand, the mechanic I visit occasionally (I work on my own car 80% of the time) actually said something interesting and scary at the same time. He said that the first generation Multiairs were actually very high quality, as they only had mechanical failures, while the newer Multiair units have solenoid failures after only 40,000 km. The mechanic also mentioned a bizarre case where he replaced someone's Multiair unit and had solenoid failures only a year later, with only 6,000 km on the odometer! This mechanic works exclusively on Italian cars and is quite reliable, especially among the Alfa Romeo community in my country.
My question is:
- Are the newer Multiair units actually better than the older versions released between 2009 and 2013? Has anyone had a solenoid failure?
- Should you use a 0w-30 if your Multiair unit is newer or should you use the original 5w-40? I know they did this because of emissions but maybe the newer units are designed to run on thinner oils, I never understood that.
- How does the oil circulate in the Multiair unit? I understand that the oil stays in the unit even if you change it but how exactly does this happen?
I will add that my car runs great and I have driven about 43,000 km since the Multiair was repaired. I use Moly Top-Tec 4100 5W-40 fluids as my oil and it meets all the specific requirements. I am afraid that when the original Multiair eventually fails, it will be replaced with an unreliable module that will fail no matter how I treat the engine.
Thanks for reading about my problem!
