159 Overheating Issue with a solution...

[Chef Bruz]

My First Alfa My First Post

I have been flipping a few cars during the CV19 slowdown and I "Inherited" a 159Ti JTS 2.2 6 Speed from a mate for the right money.

I'm falling in love with this car despite it's faults and I've been in automotive since the 90's.

I NEVER fall in love with cars.

I mean I like em, but I don't name them...

Primarily, it was overheating.
Me mate got it as a non runner and bodged it up a bit to get it to work.
Basically the issue was random overheating and soft liquorice hoses for the cooling system.
Sometimes it would run fine and sometimes it would randomly overheat (according to him).

It overheated on me once.
After driving 25km on country roads at 100kmh with the oil temp gradually rising until the "Have Engine Checked" light came on and I shut her down and waited for it to cool down.

I limped back home and there was no further high temps, the oil only got to 110 before shut down and the engine seems OK now.

Gina (as I have named her, the FIRST mechanical contrivance I have actually anthropomorphised to this extent) had traces of oil in the cooling system from a previous oil/water cooling failure, which I believed had been "bodged up" by  a previous owner. There is evidence of the repair in a resin "filling" in part of the heat exchanger. I replaced the heat exchanger anyway.

I tested the cooling fan operation by removing the connector from the coolant temp sensor and the low speed fan came on immediately.

Despite running the car up to 90 degrees coolant temperature (with the sensor reconnected the fan didn't come on at all...

I didn't wait for the high speed fan to come on and shut her down.

I had the Air Conditioning OFF during this test.

I was taken aback by the price for replacement hoses ($2000!!! WTF???) and sourced serviceable hoses from a wrecked vehicle. I noticed Eastern European vendors on Ebay selling second hand hosed for 120 Euro!

I replaced the thermostat while I was fitting the new (used) hoses and for good measure put in a new coolant sensor. I haven't boiled the old thermostat to see if it was failing in the closed position, but I'll do that soon...

I also put some Liquid Intelligence  239 through the cooling system and when I drained the system there was a little oil sludge in the water, but I wouldn't have thought the radiator was blocked with sludge. I performed this operation twice and gave the rad a good flush.

Three hundo spent on this cooling system so far and I'm not convinced I have identified the issue.

If you've read this far you are now about to be rewarded, because my Climate Command System, although operational, had no temperature digits showing in the display.

The system was operating and the temperature and fan selection seemed to be operating properly, just no temp display digits.

Another hundo later I've sourced the correct replacement unit for my particular model. (Why the hell do Alfa have different CC modules for different engines?)

Anyway, I fit the new CC module and voila, for the first time, as soon as I start the car, the slow speed fan comes on (for the first time)??

BECAUSE OF A FAILLING COMMAND MODULE IN AN ADJACENT SYSTEM??

Or was it because I discovered the FOURTH BLEED SCREW in the actual radiator itself, the one you open and close with a $2 coin...

This one is not mentioned anywhere else on the web, I can't remember where I found this info now.

And despite the Italian bloke in WA I spoke to saying, just run it up to temp with the radiator cap off and shut it down and it will bleed itself overnight... This kind of worked for me.

Since the repairs I have driven the car for a half a tank of premium and it's not overheated again (touch wood).

It's pretty cold in my neck of the woods now (like under 10C) and the water temp gets to 90 and stops while the oil temp has never got above 90 degrees.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate your comments

[Chef Bruz]

So today the water temp goes up to 90 and the oil up to 100, I pull over and the fan isn't on at all. I KNEW I shouldn't have posted that solution.

forst time it's done ithis in the 200km I've driven her...

Anyone tell me please what the normal temps are for the car? Oil AND Water please???

and anyone else cut themselves on the door handle whem the covering peels off? It's like a razor???