An Oz record I'd rather not have!!

[Gary687]

Folks

Bought a new 1.4 Giulietta 6 weeks ago and have covered 3,000kms and it has been brilliant thus far - but it left me stranded last night!! Anyway, Alfa Assist roadside guy rocked up and could offer no help, neither could Sydney HQ as 'they've never had a Giulietta break down before' apparently so it seems I hold the record for the first ever Oz broken down G!! Not ideal...

Anyway, just seeing if anyone else has had this/can shed any light on this incident as I got away with it by luck/timing more than judgement and it could so easliy have been a lot worse with a wife and young daughter in the car....

We'd been driving for 70-odd kms without a hitch at 10.30pm on the motorway when without warning, I lost all engine power. The revs dropped to 0 and I was basically reduced to coasting.

I had a barrage of warning messages come up on the dashboard one after the other - 'fuel cut off unavailable', 'VDC unavailable', 'steering correction unavailable' and so on - seemingly every talent the car had was 'unavailable'!! I still had all lights, radio, windows etc etc so the problem wasn't a battery one (and subsequent testing showed it to be 100%)

Luckily there was next to no traffic so I coasted down a slip road and off the motorway and stopped. Hazards on I tried to shut off and restart but nothing - completely dead from a turning over perspective but still had all electrics. Every time I tried to restart I just got the warning messages one after the other so it was to no avail.

Luckily some helpful other motorists pushed me into a layby to await help. The roadside guy had none of the new error codes for the ECU and Sydney HQ also didn't have them apparently so there was no method of diagnosing the problem so it was towed away head hung in shame!

My question is obviously has anyone heard/had anything like this happen before and does anyone have any thoughts as to the cause?

Being a brand-new car I'm loathed to just let Alfa hit the 'reset' button as clearly something made it do this and what's to stop it happening again only this time with a huge truck behind me and nowhere for it or me to go??? The consequences for all 3 of us could have been horrific last night and I definitely do not want a repeat of this....

Cheers

Gary

[Gary687]

Just in case anyone is interested....

Anyway, from Alfa just now on the phone, apparently a wire somehow came adrift from it's housing inside the actual engine bay and came to rest on the air conditioning compressor. Over time, the wire has obviously got hot, melted and caused a fuse to blow that led to the complete shut down we experienced on Friday night.

Apparently never seen/heard of before so they've taken a bunch of pics to send to Alfa in case there is need for a recall to put this right etc....

******** or not, apparently they're happy they've sorted it and we'll be getting the car back serviced and ready to go later today.

Fingers crossed.....
G

[Brad M]

Over time, the wire has obviously got hot, melted and caused a fuse to blow that led to the complete shut down

Technically, I expect it was the wire melted then shorted a circuit to blow the fuse.
I'm curious to know which wire fell of as it should have meant something didn't work.

Hope all is well now and ongoing.

[Gary687]

OK the official wording on the invoice is 'Blown ECU power fuse - confirmed complaint and found fuse blown due to harness rubbing on engine. Replaced fuse and repaired and insulated harness and relocated. Tested OK'

So there we have it folks. Car is back, wahsed and vacuumed inside and looking schmicko once more. If it comes up again I shall let you all know 

Cheers

G

[w47ty]

I still blame driver error!!

[Gary687]

Stick it right up yer rusty!! 

[Evan Bottcher]

Good result, a relatively minor fix - shame it left you stranded though.

That would never happen in a BMW *ducks*

[ANG156]

OK the official wording on the invoice is 'Blown ECU power fuse - confirmed complaint and found fuse blown due to harness rubbing on engine. Replaced fuse and repaired and insulated harness and relocated. Tested OK

Yeah there always some things that can be improved even on a new car. I know when my folks picked up their 159 2.4 JTD then engine cover was rubbing ever so slightly on the aluminium pipe. I tried moving the cover over a bit but gave up and added some plastic condiut in that area to stop it wearing the pipe. Put some personal touches to it and i'm sure it will treat you well.

How does the GQV compare to the GT and Brera you owned in terms of driving?

[Gary687]

I love all the cars dearly and really wish they'd return that love and care sometimes but being cars - and Italian ones at that! - that ain't gonna happen ha ha!

Anyway, as to the comparison of the cars, in my opinion (which obviously may differ from others!) -

GT - a true masterpiece of an engine. Very strong from very low down all the way up the rev range and vastly powerful with a wonderful sound. Very hard riding with a heavy clutch which made general town driving slightly less relaxing than it might have been. Also, the front half and interior was too 147-like which looks wise I've never been the biggest fan of personally.

Brera - IMO the most beautifully-designed mass-produced car on the road. Even now I still gaze lovingly at it as do many other road users. With the 2.2 engine, I liken it to an elite athlete with asthma! It looks amazing but goes nowhere fast. That suits me as I've done all my speeding and I'm getting old now so for a cruiser it is brilliant. The build quality is on a par with anything from Germany too and that is very pleasing. Yes, it's had some annoying issues but other than being let down by ATECO (absolutely no surprise there!!!!) they were sorted out. Disappointingly useless rear seats though...

GQV - mine is the 1.4 MA (see below) but my best mate has the QV and I've driven that a lot. That engine blows me away and it goes like a cut snake! It has all the urge and potency of the GT's without the heavy nose as it's a very light engine and way, way better fuel consumption! That engine is a cracker make no mistake.

The 1.4 MA again has a similarly astonishing engine - quicker than my Brera. Does suffer a bit from low down turbo lag but moves along very sharply if the boost is kept up...and we have halved our monthly fuel bill compared to the GT. The suspension and handling set up is,IMO spot on. It is a wonderful mix of compliant, comfortabe ride without being soft and wallowy - they've struck a great balance for sure. Nice and roomy by comparison, we added leather and twin roofs which was a very good move as it lifts the cabin wonderfully. Slightly disappointed in the overall build quality of certain items - the air con dials feel very flimsy, some of the arm rest plastics/door card feel very low rent - but other than that,it is still a very distinctive shape that looks fresh and alluring. Having said that, at RRPof $47,000, I think it's about $10,000 overpriced when compared to other stuff on the market....but what else is like an Alfa??? Ha ha!