MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I'm going looking at a fellow STWers Vectra on Tuesday, and my Alfa 156 has this week decided to flag up ECU problems, I've put it on Auto Trader, Gumtree and eBay but no interest. Need rid of it ASAP, any ideas?
We buy any car dot com - ASAP = do not expect a good price 🙁
That seems to be the last option, I could just let ebay auction run.
I would get a view on the ECU problem as any buyer is going to kill you price wise for that imo
what's the details of the car? I may be interested...
Alfa 156 2.0 JTS saloon
86k on clock
6 months MOT, no advisories.
Facelift interior with BOSE sound system and bluetooth stereo.
Alloys are in great nick too.
Bad points are the ECU light and there has been a paint repair on boot lid that could have been a better job, I was going to get a small spoiler for about £40 off breakeryard which would cover it up.
I'll drop you an email, cheers
I buy a few Peugeot/citroens with engine/electrical issues off e bay and the price some "broken" cars go for is crazy, I'm really surprised unless your asking crazy doe for it, that it's not sold on e bay
Go 99p start and sell as spare or repair! You can always pull it if no interest/bidders 24h before it finishes, most likely someone will message you asking you to an "off e bay deal"
I've taken your advice Chrisdiesel. No offers on a 1p start bid on ebay! 10 watchers with 4 days left. Not a clue what to do here!
Shill bidding normally 😉 Gets the interest up, and normally ends in an off ebay deal as mentioned
Ha ha! Not into that!
Those webuyanycar type places will rip you off. They will examine every inch of your car and deduct money for the slightest thing. They are very well trained on examining cars for that purpose.
Does the car still run ok with the ECU light on? It could simply be a faulty sensor and could just need resetting. Had a similar problem with one of my cars and bought a car fault code reader off Amazon. Checked the code to see which sensor was faulty, reset it and never had a problem since. Far cheaper than taking it to a garage.
Try advertising on piston heads. Or alfaowner.
Yeah it starts and runs fine apart from a misfire caused by the ECU but there's a problem with the ECU, my mates a former mechanic and done some testing on it. It's about £150 for the job.
If it's only £150 why haven't you done it then? It'll instantly raise its saleability. Even if you were tired of throwing more money at a car it instantly creates a quick fix for selling. When I see cars that need X spending but haven't got round to it I always walk away.
What hora said..
Given the fees for selling on ebay/auto trader etc I'd pay the £150 and get it fixed.
Hmmm. I'll speak to my mate and make sure it would definately be sorted and report back.
Make it watertight and sell it as a fish tank. 😉
A £150 fix on an Alfa - bargain! 😀
Get it done.
Bad points are the ECU light
If you were the unscrupulous type you could open up the dash and stick a bit of black electrical tape over the offending light. I have a honda accord with an abs warning light that's caused by a faulty reading on the abs unit, I could get it sent away to be fixed but my friendly mot tester just opened the dash and stuck some tape on it.
If there's no fault with the ecu and it's just misreading then you're not really hiding an issue.
Air mass meter?
A facelifted 156 with a Bose stereo is quite a find. The 2 litre engine is a gem - but needs a careful eye on the oil level - and as any Alfisti will know, the later cars were redesigned for Bosch electrics in place of the awful Magnetti Marelli electronics that the original 156 shipped with.
If it is an air mass meter, have you a sports air filter installed? I made that mistake with a 156 V6, I went through an air mass meter every year until I reverted to the original air filtration system.
Ok. Spoke to my mate who said its an ECU decoder that resets, tests and repairs your ECU I need. £160 on ebay. Anyone ever used them and how successful are they? Lot of money for me this.
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Your MOT tester did that?
That's a very grey area you are in as you might forget about it and sell the car on thinking it's done and dusted..
"[i]Spoke to my mate who said its an ECU decoder that resets, tests and repairs your ECU I need. £160 on ebay.[/i]"
A decoder that repairs the ECU ? No offence, but I don't think your mate is an expert in these matters.
A code reader will certainly read & reset any error codes, but that's not the same as fixing whatever caused the error in the first place.