The 250,000 mile Alfa thread

[Rupert]

He was saying how small it was

This is 'murica! Land of the garages

Six bedrooms, six car garage, 100 sq ft lawn.

[cawimmer430]

He was saying how small it was

This is 'murica! Land of the garages

It certainly beats my spot! 

[cawimmer430]

Oh yeah, spotted a black one a few months ago!

[ifcar]

Making up for unreliability by buying another unreliable car.

If the probability of either car being dead at any given time is 50%, then he'll have a working car 75% of the time!

My parents would do that, but I think they had up to five unreliable cars at one point in the '80s -- already-old Volkswagens and Colts.

[cawimmer430]

My parents would do that, but I think they had up to five unreliable cars at one point in the '80s -- already-old Volkswagens and Colts.

The Mitsubishi, Dodge or Plymouth Colts?

[Madman]

The Mitsubishi, Dodge or Plymouth Colts?

Does it really matter?  They were all the same.

[cawimmer430]

Does it really matter?  They were all the same.

Germans love details!!!

[Rupert]

Weeelllll, looks like I blew an oil line or something. I stopped at a light, and the idle shot way up, so I pulled into a parking lot, and as I did, oil smoke poured into the cabin through the vents and from under the hood. Shut it off, smoke cleared, nothing seemed amiss, but a few minutes later, there was a decent sized oil puddle under the car. Still starts and runs fine, except the high idle, so I'm not too worried about catastrophic anything yet. It's gonna be a buried part, whatever it is, so I just towed it to the guy who works on the 944 sometimes. :P

It's probably the same thing that's been causing a slight oil smoke smell in the cabin sometimes, so hopefully that gets solved at the same time...

As I was sitting there waiting for the tow truck, a dude on a scooter pulled up and kind of tried to help out, which was pretty funny (LOL yeah, this is just like the Civic you probably drive). He was into the car, though, and girl on the back of his scooter thing was slammin'.

[Raza]

Well, that's one way to meet girls. 

[Vinsanity]

(LOL yeah, this is just like the Civic you probably drive)

He was probably thinking to himself, "yeah this is why I drive a Civic"

[Rupert]

Probably.

[Rupert]

Well, that's one way to meet girls. 

I should break down in a cool car at least once a week!

The Alfa has got me a lot of attention in the last couple of days, but other than this girl who wasn't really there for the car anyway, it's all been from dudes.

[Rupert]

Hey, at least it passed the emissions test yesterday! It was only 1 PPM under the idle HC limit, though.

[Secret Chimp]

Hell at least that's all that happened. Way better than actual damage from oil loss.

[Rupert]

You ain't kidding. Oil pressure was fine, too, when I briefly started it after the fact. Hopefully it's a cheap part with under three hours of labor.

[cawimmer430]

The Alfa has got me a lot of attention in the last couple of days, but other than this girl who wasn't really there for the car anyway, it's all been from dudes.

Laconian, want to trade your G37 for a 164? 

[Raza]

Laconian, want to trade your G37 for a 164? 

[Rupert]

Uh, yeah. I just talked to the mechanic, who finally had the time away from the Ferraris and 911 Turbos to look at the car. Other than a few small leaks, which I knew about, nothing seems wrong. He drove it for a while, too. 0_o

[Rupert]

Hypothesis is that the coolant (which is this weird waterless oily stuff) boiled over, which caused the oily smoke stuff, and the IAC valve got stuck at the same time (maybe coolant spilled on it and cooled it rapidly). It was a hot day and the car was running warm, so that seems, like, possible, I guess. Car runs and drives as usual.

Little bit of oil on the exhaust coming from various small leaks getting blown back onto the exhaust pipe (not the header), and that's the cause of the oil burning smell. Might be good to make some kind of shield to keep that from happening, since I'm not paying to fix the leaks.

[Raza]

Good thing it's not serious.

[S204STi]

If I owned a collectible car, I'd fix the shit out of everything, including leaks.  Then again, I have the skills, tools, and access to a hoist...

[Rupert]

I'm not either spending months fixing leaks or $2000 to have them fixed on a car I paid $1500 for that has 250,000 miles. This isn't a project car.

[S204STi]

Fine then.

[Rupert]

It's not rare enough, IMO, to really go crazy on preserving and making perfect. If it was, I wouldn't have bought it!

[Rupert]

Power steering pump is whiny and noisy as hell. I bet that's somehow related to all this. I got a little smoke the other day after I had driven it hard for a short time. I was driving it hard the first time, too. Could the power steering pump be burping its fluid (which is pretty oily) onto something hot? I looked closer, and the above theory about boil-over seems pretty implausible with the way things are laid out and stuff.

Guess I better buy the manual, after all.

[Rupert]

Or just a busted power steering hose. That seems to be a thing on these cars.

[Secret Chimp]

Can you park and steer against a curb to load the rack and see if you can get any squirty smoke to happen?

[Rupert]

That doesn't sound like a good idea.


Might try it eventually, though.

[Secret Chimp]

That doesn't sound like a good idea.


Might try it eventually, though.

Well if it's leaking on its own under load when you're driving it, what's the difference?

[Rupert]

Applying forces to the steering system that it wasn't designed for?

I think it's also RPM related and not cornering related. This last time in particular, I was accelerating hard but not so much cornering hard. I think I just have to get in there and try to see something. I mean, I know the pump is whining, so it's probably out of fluid.