Last week when I was taking my buddy Mike to the airport after his trip down for the Gator Bowl, I noticed on the way to the airport that the engine oil pressure gauge in the 164 was noticeably lower than normal. As we continued to drive along it continued to get lower and lower until it was perched at ZERO! So I pulled over just to check the oil level. That was fine. There were no unusual noises from the motor and the engine temp gauge was not rising. Additionally the low oil pressure light had not come on, so I crossed my fingers and continued on, fretting all the way.
Well, nothing seemed amiss during the trip so when I got home I surfed over the www.alfabb.com to see if others had experienced similar issues. Sure enough, there were numerous posts about sometimes flakey and unreliable oil pressure senders in the Alfa 164 models.
The oil pressure sender is a little electro-mechanical device that screws into the engine and senses the oil pressure and sends an electronic signal to the oil pressure gauge in the car to display the engine oil pressure.
I hoped that the issue was just a faulty sender unit and not something more critical. So off to the web to my favorite Alfa parts ordering place, International Auto to order a sending unit (not to pricey at just over 40 bucks).
Tonight I went about replacing the old unit with the new one I received today. It's in a very tight location which is not too easy to get at but with a little persistence and experimentation I got a wrench on the sucker and got it off. On went the new one and then the moment of truth.....I fired up the 164 and the gauge once again sprang to life, yielding an excellent oil pressure reading. Yahooooo!
Tomorrow I get to replace a couple more bits of fuel injection hose on the Alfa Spider, so I am looking forward to some bloody knuckles over that job :=)
Anyway, at least I'll sleep better tonight...
Buried deep in there, the new shiny silver guy is now in place!
Ahhhh, good oil pressure!
Old sending unit
4 comments:
Yep, after you checked the oil on the way to the airport, I kind of thought that would be the culprit. Great work Mr Gouldawrench! (Italian version)
You never cease to amaze me. I'd been out 200 bucks on something like that from an unscrupulous mechanic!
Peace
Greg
It was actually a simple job. Thank God for the internet as I can read about these issues and see if attempting to fix these things is within my grasp.
Good thing you don't live closer or we would be all truckin' our vehicles to you for repair.
( Maybe you ought to go into the auto repair business on the side ). Methinks you got all this mechanical expertise from Grandpa Galardi. Proud of you kiddo- think of all the $$$ you save being able to do this yourself. By the way- I love your Guzzi sign- but I am afraid to venture what the Guzzi girls on their bikes look like.Enjoy!
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