Alfa Romeo 156 Bonnet Catch
On the 27th of December 2006 my father-in-law and I almost lost our lives thanks to a faulty Alfa 156 bonnet catch. After changing the battery in the morning, I drove up the A23 to collect family for a late Christmas lunch and ended up almost being killed by my Alfa 156.
At about 70mph in the outside lane, over taking a car on a busy morning, the bonnet flipped up smashed the windscreen and then bent around the roof of the car. The rear view mirror broke off in the force and my father-in-law & I were covered in a spray of glass.
I had no way of seeing where I was going, but amazingly I managed to steer through the traffic and pull over into the verge without crashing.
The car has been written off without a doubt. I'm definately lucky to be alive, and my father-in-law certainly feels that he had a luck escape too. I am so shocked that this is a known fault with Alfa 156's and that I NEVER recieved a notice from Alfa Romeo or my dealer I use for servicing.
Alfa Romeo need to be given a big kick up the arse.
The people at alfa156.net have kindly put together a cleaning and lubrication guide for Alfa Romeo 156. (PDF File - 3mbs)
Make sure you read it as your life depends on it!!!!!/alfa_romeo_156/_images
posted by Neven at
9:31 AM
3 Comments:
Hi I had the same accident in 2004 ... had a hard time getting through to alfa and in the end I gave up .. ^ months later I received the recall letter. As you will understand as wasnt very freindly with him.
May 6, 2007 12:04 PM
Alfa dealers in this country are crap, there are good ones out there, if you find one stick with them.
There is a FIAT Dealer in Windermere that does a good job.
But as least alfe re-called them, unlike Peugeot who think it's better to just blame the service personell.
June 13, 2007 4:04 PM
Thanks for highlighting this potentially disastrous problem :-). I found this website, looked at the Alfa156.net PDF, and cleaned my bonnet catch this evening.
I recently purchased my 2003 Alfa 156, and the dealer claimed that the car was fully prepared before sale - ha! The bonnet mechanism was slightly stiff, and absolutely filthy ! I cleaned the mechanism with WD40 and some cotton buds.
The mechanism is no longer a time bomb - thanks!
June 28, 2008 8:40 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home