A short road trip to Scotland - advice needed!

It's amazing the difference a week makes - it was dead when we did it, although there was noticibly more traffic heading north on the A9 when we were travelling back.

Right this is not going well so far. I drove 2 hours to Birminghan today with no issues, picked someone up there, and after 5 mins parked the car started, ran rough, then died totally 25 metres up his road, blocking the street. It would not restart, it turned over manically on the button press without catching, or occasionally caught and ran rough for a few seconds then nothing worked. I couldn't get it into gear to move it.

We called his breakdown cover, but after 10 mins I tried again and it started fine, twice, so we went for lunch around the corner while I decided whether to risk the M6 towards Cumbernauld. We did, and it was running with a "check engine" startup light and a yellow warning light, stuck in "N" mode, otherwise feeling fine. We stopped for a sit-in coffee once and it was fine, but when we stopped again for a short stop it did the same again, and again I blocked a road... So its basically not (very) hot starting, or starting then dying, and has some issue all the time. I suspect fuel pump or ignition. It's not clearing itself - I just took it for fuel when it was fully cold, the light and being locked in N is still there.

I'm in a quandry now. I can try calling the one local Alfa specialist first thing to check/clear the codes, but will be very lucky if he can, and I doubt it would fix it anyway. I'm loathe to head up into the highlands in a car I don't trust and risk getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. 3 of my 4 hotels can't be cancelled (the first 3). I'm tempted to limp it back tomrrow but will then basically have driven up here for nothing , and wasted the hotel funds - however I can't really enjoy the trip as intended nursing an issue. Colleagues are suggesting I hire a car and do the trip, but driving this car was the trip, and anyway abandoning the Alfa with issues here for 4 days then having to deal with it after, is not ideal..........

Arses! I didn't really spend all this on the car and big service to not be able to enjoy it, on the first proper trip, and it's hardly filling me with joy about maybe taking Lu to Europe in it soon.

Weirdly, Tina's 330e also threw the "power system failure" warning again today with some temporary red lights. Not a good car day!

That’s super annoying. Worth trying the local specialist and/or main dealer to try and get it sorted. It might be more expensive but worth it not to miss out on the trip and you’ve still got to get back home anyway. Whether or not to hire a car depends on how long it will take to fix.

Thanks guys, calling the specialist now - the trouble is that car places these days tend to have waiting lists of weeks, and its just not feeling like something that will clear fast.

The one weird thing was that when it first died, I had just connected my work phone to the front power socket for the first time, and Android Auto (which I didn't think it had) cane up. Could be nothing to do with it, but also could be that the first ever connection caused an ECU wobbly.....

Edited to add: the specialist doesn't look at QF's, has no software for them, and the AR dealer in Glasgow is no more (they still service them but seem disliked by the QF guys - its also right in Glasgow which is not helpful if I break down again)... Will try disconnecting and reconnecting the battery but if not cured then, its a nervy trip back down south for me I think!

A real ball ache indeed.

Hope everything is OK.

Do you need us to send support from the Scottish / Midlands / Southern forum rescue team?!

What an absolute ball ache. Probably not much help but was speaking to a Quadrifoglio owner a few months ago after he spotted me parking up at work.

I'd just been hit with a big service after opting for a DCT service so we were comparing running costs. He'd had a recent issue with the fuel pump which caused a few no starts, apparently it's not uncommon but not too expensive. The in tank pump is the same as the 2.0 model and a batch of them can fail. Which sounded strange as the M4 has an additional pump for high RPMS (apparently that fails as well).

Hope you get it sorted.

Thanks guys - update is, yesterday was a total nightmare but I got home. I disconnected the battery in Cumberrnauld and cleared the codes after with the steering wheel trick, the warning light was still on and it was still struck in "normal" mode but driving normally. Through gritted teeth I cancelled the hotels for no refund (the decent thing to do, hopefully they can resell the rooms) and headed off with a full tank of fuel, enough to get me home from Cumbernauld at an inidcated 80 with 50 miles to spare, even with what feels like a sub 60l tank.


It went fine to the Lakes where I got a quick lunch in and carried on, started normally after 15 mins parked, so the same as the day before when it only seemed to need a short break.


Then at Cannock I had a longer break, cleared my email down, came back to the car.... Nothing. Repeateldy I wandered about the car park, came back to the car, it would turn fine but either catch, run rough, and die (in which case I've learned not to try again soon), or not catch. I had the bonnet up to promote cooling (on a not cool day). Eventually (my telematics says I was parked 1h 59m 24seconds so probable >2hr parking fine coming in to add insult to injury) it caught and idled normally. I set off, and it lost power from a 70mph cruise 5 mins later. I cruised to the side of the M6 toll, stuck it well up on the verge next to a tree (if being a hot day), retired to the shade and called for recovery. This was at 1730 and when the initial van was due to get to me at 7pm (after which I'd be recovered after another long wait if I was lucky), I tried the car again (it had been half an hour) and it caught immediately so I set off again and cancelled the recovery.


This is where it gets interesting for knowledge because if you ask for recovery then cancel, first you lose a deposit of £40 in my case (on an Eversure personal cover policy) and secondly you lose the right to claim on another recovery. So I can call them again but will pay full rates for the van, the eventual recovery, etc - which I'm guessing/hearing from colleagues would likely be the same £400 wasted in hotel fees, again. And probably the car abandoned in the Midlands at some random place unable to fix it.


The car made it to the A34 past Oxford, died again, I pulled both paddles for neutral and selected my second emergency landing area of the day, this time luckily making it off the slip to South Hinksey (a tiny hanlet with its own exit but can only rejoin the A34). As per pics below I was in a safe place inside a junction, but its a dead place. This time it totally failed to start for 90 mins and Tina offered to come with more fuel (the more the better for a fuelling issue, I was down to 1/4 tank). I was there from 1850 to 2115 all in, it just would not start, I disconnected the battery, nothing worked. I now lost my sense of humour as I could see recovery being a long-winded and expensive process. Then finally with Tina 5 mins away, it caught. I had to do the steering wheel reset thing and switch of anyway as I'd done the battery, so I did it, dwitched it off, slowly poured in 20l of fuel, the it started and made it home running fine as before in "N" mode with a constant warning light (which flashes as it starts to die).

I'm about to take it to AHM but that's 30 miles of country lanes and often not good places to stop (I'll avoid the M4 which is faster) so am pooing myself about it a bit as the whole thing got a lot more real when it started to actually fail once started. The one good thing is the Hendy Group Platinum warranty that came with it seems decent (it was a Jag SVR dealer) - the lady said "ooh its a proper car - we can't fix that, take it somewhere that can and we'll pay". So now hoping to be able to fill up, make it to AHM in Hartley Witney, and cycle back and probably not see it again for a few weeks. Having a second car also insured for business miles is handy! 

After the huge cost of the first service/brakes, thats two strikes for me with this car now, I had some misfires (cured on a restart) and engine sound worries on the XFR's (all the second one) but they never let me down.Yesterday I got home under my own power but 2 hours to restart, after losing power, is a pretty tenuous non-breakdown. Fuel pumps were an issue with 2016-18 QF's, if its not that then I'm more worried. One or two people on the FB QF group have had the same failure to hot start issue, it was fuel pumps or fuel pump sensors/fuel control module - one of the three (all of which AHM flagged as possibles).

Just as I pondered throwing about £10k down the drain for something German, Tina's 2021 330e started throwing red "power system failure - stop immediately" wanrings, then clearing itself, and sometimes not charging. It did it all day yesterday including on the way to me with the fuel. Surely cars developed in hotter places can handle a UK summer???  Between us we're £70k down for these two cars in the second part of last year and now both having issues. 

Anyway it looks good broken down........ As a study in human nature it was interesting, the handful of people driving past all wound down their windows and openly laughed at me (all younger men) or beeped at me for parking there (when the bonnet was up and the hazards on). Two posh looking women about my age walked past from the houses nearby and refused to make eye contact when I said hello. Finally 2 hours in one nice guy on a bike asked if I was OK.........

 

That sounds like a horrific journey. Such a shame it happened when you were so far from home. It went from a small inconvenience if it happened at home to a WTF do I do. I guess you'd have been better to get recovered all the way home from Scotland but I would have done like you and hope I got lucky. But thats the parts of life, it has a habit of kicking you in the nuts at just the absolute worst time.

Sorry to hear you had such an ordeal with it yesterday and I hope you don't end up with a parking ticket to add insult to injury. I really hope that it's an easy fix that doesn't cause you to lose faith in the car because it seems from your posts about it that it's one you were really rather smitten with and looking to enjoy on just this sort of a trip.

Its a Hendy Group warranty to be fair, they have dealerships from Ford to Maserati... I guess her personal loyalties are more the Maserati than the Ford end.

Yes the car made it with no issues to AHM, I spent a while chatting to them and the fuel pump and its control module are both changed since my year, and they have both in stock and strongly suspect its this. They're great guys. Amazing what they have in stock as a guy on the FB group has been waiting for months for a fuel pump from Alfa, but won't pay AHM to do it :-)

Then I cycled back 42k, which was lovely and made up for the lack of exercise the last two days. I even came along the canal for a bit for the first time, in fact right past the Porsche specialist I use (a mere 16km run along the canal). These specialist locations are keeping me fit!

Not awful weather the be in the Porsche full time.........

Sorry to hear your trials and tribulations, that is a serious blot on its copy book. Hopefully it will be fixed soon and you can plan road trip part Deux. Do you have travel insurance which could take the sting of the hotels?

Glad it has made it to the specialist safety and they have the parts in stock to sort it.

Ref the wiring loom, have the specialists said that's what it needs in those circumstances?

I only ask because a mate with a 2 litre Giulia had an issue that turned out to be a slightly short wire from the front right ABS sensor. There's apparently a huge junction box of wires somewhere ahead of the driver and in this instance the wire was clearly sitting loosely in contact but would sometimes come away resulting in a full Christmas tree of dashboard lights.

Right, well the car is back - they called me yesterday to say someone had not turned up so they had done mine instead. Cue a 42km cycle to collect, but happily it was a) dry and b) a cycle day anyway. There was slightly bad news in that the knocking sound at the rear (which has been there since pickup but only at low speed/crap roads) is a rear shock. £900 each, ideally replaced in pairs, that's just the part cost. I did suspect this already, just annoyed I didn't query it in the first month as I doubt I'll get that warrantied now, I suspect shocks are seen as wear and tear but will look into it.

I was loving driving the car again, but sadly went through a pothole within 10 mins which has caused a bulge in the FNS tyre.

Happily I got wheel and tyre warranty with the car (which they put on "for free", they would not discount it but would add stuff on for nothing) and it looks like they will pay me for a new tyre. The warranty people should also pay for the fuel pump and controller module (which was £1300 fitted by AHM). So it's a lot of messing about but I'm not out of pocket for the car stuff, just the three hotels I could not get refunds for from last week....