My Alfa GTV in trouble already (exhaust manifold?)

brid

brid

brid

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Well i bought my GTV 2.0 TS (1998 P2) a few weeks back and until now i was completely over the moon with it .....

Drove it to the leisure centre today and all was totally perfect, i come back 90 minutes later and start it up and its making an awful booming noise coming from lower down on the drivers/nearside engine area .... Almost sounds like the exhaust has been removed like on a chav/boy racer type car.... although worse than that.

Luckily it was only 1.5 miles home so i drove it really carefully back and an now starting to worry! ..... Any ideas what this could be? (Please god, i hope the word 'cambelt' doesnt get mentioned) ........ Exhaust manifold problems? Something worse?

Any help would be fantastic on this, before i get raped at an alfa garage of course for any repairs.

I have an MP3/WAV file of the noise if anyone wants it?
 
Definitely sounds like it's the exhuast.

Open the bonnet and have a good look around to see if you can tell which part of the exhaust the noise is coming from.

Did you run over any speedbumps or anything. A part of the exhaust could have come away/cracked as the exhaust has cooled. Does it get quieter as it warms up?
 
The sound is coming from the DRIVERS side ...... Sounds very loud like a tractor, almost a rasping/wet sound if i rev the engine.

There were some bumps in the carpark at the leisure centre, but only very small ones and i dont think i took any of them at speed.
 
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does sound like the zorst, check the sliencer is still on properly, as andy said did you go over any speed bumps / steep ramps in the car park? I knocked the backbox off my mum's old volvo and that made some serious noise, shouldn't be *too* bad to get fixed
 
brid said:
There were some bumps in the carpark at the leisure centre, but only very small ones and i dont think i took any of them at speed.
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If there was a problem waiting to show itself then that would probably be enough to do it.

It might not be as bad as you think, on my old car I thought the manifold had cracked as the rest of the exhaust was only 6 months old and all that had happened was it had come "loose" well that was how the garage described it. They tightened it all up for me and it was fine for the rest of the life of the car. I literally had to force a fiver in the guys hand for sorting it out for me :eek:
 
I think i can rest a little easier now - Hopefully it might be something as simple as that. Only thing im surprised about is how all was well until i started it back up ..... I would have thought knocking something would have caused the problem to kick off as soon as it happened.
 
Sometimes thats the case but if it was a jolt that losened it slightly then the cooling and contracting of the exhaust is what would cause it to come apart.

Anyway I hope it is a simple fix as mine was.
 
Cheers guys for the quick help - Ill have another listen tonight and see about getting it looked at over the weekend.
 
Yea, just get it to an exhaust place, they'll stick it on the ramps and find the issue in about 20 seconds. Probably a clamp took a hit, or fell off and the pipes have pulled apart.
 
If you can reach under (without touching a hot exhuast) you might be able to feel where its blowing.
 
Try not to drive it until you know where the leak is and what it is blowing onto.... Hot exhaust gasses can do serious damage !
 
Burned_Alive said:
Dont suppose you reverse parked it at the leisure centre?
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seen this a few time ssomeone reverse park knock exhaust on high kerb, come back to car to find it farting like its ate a 4 pack of hp's finest
 
I did reverse park actually .... although i really cant remember at all if there might have been anything in the way.

A few people on some alfa forums have started using scary words like variators, cam belt covers, cam belts (a dirty word for alfa owners) and other extremely worrying diagnoses .......... so i hope to god that its something as simple as mentioned above! Getting the car to a specialist will be hard enough!
 
brid said:
I did reverse park actually .... although i really cant remember at all if there might have been anything in the way.

A few people on some alfa forums have started using scary words like variators, cam belt covers, cam belts (a dirty word for alfa owners) and other extremely worrying diagnoses .......... so i hope to god that its something as simple as mentioned above! Getting the car to a specialist will be hard enough!
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Alfa owners always expect the worst, as it's good to be prepared :) Your issue does sound more like exhaust than anything cam related, so as Lashout_UK said just take it to any exhaust place and they'll quickly find a problem if it's there.
 
Luckily im parked 20 meters from a Garage who just checked it out ....

(drum roll)

CENTRE MOUNTING BROKEN .. :( Apparently its split and corroded and welding apparently isnt worth trying (Who am i to argue)

So i need a new downpipe and various parts to get it back up and running. 250 quid to fix in total.

Im relieved in a way, since at the back of my mind i was worried it was going to be something catastrophic - but its 250 quid i dont get to spend on something else. Its a shame only 2 weeks after buying it, its already making trips to a garage.

Ahh well - still a brilliant car :)
 
I did this to my GTV racing on the beach :rolleyes: exactly the same thing and I got mine fixed for £110 so take it somewhere else. I had to drive round for 2 days with it and it sounded like a NASCAR or somethin! If you take a look at where it is you will see that its easy to do once corroded. a full stainless system is only about £300 for them so check www.gtvv6.com for it.
 
BIGWEB said:
I did this to my GTV racing on the beach :rolleyes: exactly the same thing and I got mine fixed for £110 so take it somewhere else. I had to drive round for 2 days with it and it sounded like a NASCAR or somethin! If you take a look at where it is you will see that its easy to do once corroded. a full stainless system is only about £300 for them so check www.gtvv6.com for it.
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Ive learned my lesson on this one - i was told over the phone it wasnt worth welding, but yeah considering a performance exhaust isnt much more than that for a full system.... its a complete rip off. At the time though (before the answers here about the real cost), i just said 'yeah go ahead and fix it'.

This being my first car ive bought (given them previously), its a steep learning curve - but the garage who have fixed it this time around wont be seeing me again.
 
A performance exahust might not be much more, but a replacement Alfa exhaust may well be.
I seem to remember them being a hell of a lot when I was browsing through a catalogue.
 
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