Dazzler

Hi

Don't know whether anyone can help with this, but amate of mine is experiencing a very strange problem (described below in detail). Does anyone know whether this is a common problem with this model, or experienced similar problems in other makes and knows the possible causes?

Thanks
Darren

First happened on the motorway - had made about 40 miles then out of the blue lost all power while doing about 80....
Pulled over and the engine wouldn't turn over for about 30 mins then came back to life. Tried to drive it again
but it died striaght away. Had to get towed. I washed my car earlier that day with a power wash - so I assumed some water
had got in somewhere....

Same thing has happened 4 or 5 times over the last week. I'm driving along (sometimes just pottering along in traffic) and
all power goes. Nothing on the dashboard complaining about overheating or oil....
The last time it happened the steering locked up and I didn't have any brakes. Again it came back to life after an hour or two.

Got a brand new battery 2 months ago, new spark plaugs last year, plenty of oil and engine coolant. Engine sounds perfect.

Any ideas would be welcome! It's a manual 156 2.0 t-spark.

Sbradley

Having owned a variety of Alfas over the years, the most likely is a black box that's failing as it gets hot.

What does the tacho do when it dies - drop down with engine revs or immediately drop to zero although the engine is still being turned by the wheels? If it's the latter than you're just about guaranteed that it's an ECU/ignition problem...

SB

Dazzler

Thanks for the reply SB, I'll check with the owner and will let you know

Dazzler

He gets the following :-

The revs immediately drop to zero. On the motorway, the engine was still being turned, but when power goes while I'm not doing much speed it doesn't turn over and
steering locks up etc.

Sounds very much like the ECU doesn't it?

Sbradley

Yep, sounds that way

SB

Andy M3

Can I just say [without taking the ****] that you should tell your mate to get a fire extinguisher. The only reason I say is because a chap at work had similar problems with his '99 car. The burn marks are still on the hard shoulder of the M18. Safety first and all that.