bembo449
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2012
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- gainsborough , lincolnshire
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- Mercedes Cl500, shitron dispatch
I thought I'd share this with you all as it goes to show that the silliest of things can cause really big head aches when repairing cars
I bought an Alfa Brera 2.4jtd last year and not long after it developed a coolant issue where it would be fine for say 200 miles then all of a sudden the temp gauge would shoot up and all manner of warnings would pop up on the dash , so on finding pressure in the coolant system ( but no loss 0f coolant ) I worked my way through possible causes , thermostat , waterpump , blocked rad , heater matrix non of which were faulty , eventually I realised the head was cracked ( wtf ? ) so after some research I found out that the old alfa 156 2.4jtd head would fit and it was stronger with thicker valves to boot , now this 5 pot engine is very labour intensive to work on so I spread the work out over a few of weeks as there was no real hurry to have it running again , what I didn't bank on was having a month off the spanners due to ill health . Anyway having eventually got it all rebuilt , timed up , it refused to start , triple checked timing , all connections , battery fully charged , plugged in and checked all sensors were working etc but nothing , then it occurred to me how long the fuel had been sat in the fuel filter ( around 10 weeks ) so I emptied it out , topped it up with fresh derv and after a bit of cranking it started ! So it just goes to show that simple things can cause lots a headaches and that one should never forget to check the basics
I bought an Alfa Brera 2.4jtd last year and not long after it developed a coolant issue where it would be fine for say 200 miles then all of a sudden the temp gauge would shoot up and all manner of warnings would pop up on the dash , so on finding pressure in the coolant system ( but no loss 0f coolant ) I worked my way through possible causes , thermostat , waterpump , blocked rad , heater matrix non of which were faulty , eventually I realised the head was cracked ( wtf ? ) so after some research I found out that the old alfa 156 2.4jtd head would fit and it was stronger with thicker valves to boot , now this 5 pot engine is very labour intensive to work on so I spread the work out over a few of weeks as there was no real hurry to have it running again , what I didn't bank on was having a month off the spanners due to ill health . Anyway having eventually got it all rebuilt , timed up , it refused to start , triple checked timing , all connections , battery fully charged , plugged in and checked all sensors were working etc but nothing , then it occurred to me how long the fuel had been sat in the fuel filter ( around 10 weeks ) so I emptied it out , topped it up with fresh derv and after a bit of cranking it started ! So it just goes to show that simple things can cause lots a headaches and that one should never forget to check the basics