corned
MB Enthusiast
Just spent half the day servicing Mrs Corned's Alfa 147. Job satisfactorily done! I have not had the pleasure of servicing an Alfa before, so it was with some trepidation that I started wielded the spanners this lunchtime.
I had already got hold of the hardware - filters, plugs (8 of course - platinum too, at £10 each
) and some nice fresh Mobil 5W/30.
Just about to put in some flush and thought I'd better first check to ensure that I could get the sump plug loose. If course I couldn't! Bleeding thing wouldn't budge and I was terrified of rounding off the plug. It takes an 8mm Allen key. I gave up eventually as I thought I really was risking rounding the damn thing. So I drove it round to the local garage who have done some work for our cars, remembering that it needed a tracking check-up from a few weeks ago. The result was that the tracking was checked and the sump plug was loosened and at no charge to me. Brilliant!
I found the reason for my failure was that my Allen keys are clearly cheap rubbish, and the one marked 8mm is in fact factionally less than 8mm, allowing some movement of the key in the plug. A proper 8mm was tight.
Finished the job off, and took it for a shakedown run/Italian tune-up, and all is well. I love driving it - such kart-like handling (after the 211!)
So - all done and dusted. Car pressure washered and cleaned, and looking spanking. :bannana::bannana::bannana:
A beer beckons...
I had already got hold of the hardware - filters, plugs (8 of course - platinum too, at £10 each
) and some nice fresh Mobil 5W/30.Just about to put in some flush and thought I'd better first check to ensure that I could get the sump plug loose. If course I couldn't!
Bleeding thing wouldn't budge and I was terrified of rounding off the plug. It takes an 8mm Allen key. I gave up eventually as I thought I really was risking rounding the damn thing. So I drove it round to the local garage who have done some work for our cars, remembering that it needed a tracking check-up from a few weeks ago. The result was that the tracking was checked and the sump plug was loosened and at no charge to me. Brilliant!I found the reason for my failure was that my Allen keys are clearly cheap rubbish, and the one marked 8mm is in fact factionally less than 8mm, allowing some movement of the key in the plug. A proper 8mm was tight.
Finished the job off, and took it for a shakedown run/Italian tune-up, and all is well. I love driving it - such kart-like handling (after the 211!)
So - all done and dusted. Car pressure washered and cleaned, and looking spanking. :bannana::bannana::bannana:
A beer beckons...
