[alfa] I Expected That

["Rex Cars" <rexcars@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Today was sunny and warm in Albany, and I got some time to work on the cars.
I pulled the Alfa Romeo Control Unit on the 164S, and checked all of the
wiring connectors going into it.  Sure enough, the one on the left side in
the upper left corner had two pins that looked "burnt".  I have seen this
before, as I had a 1979 VW Sirocco.  Lovely car, but the wiring was a
disaster, and the pins arced and failed all the time.

This appears to be what these two pins were doing as well.  I sort of
expected this failure mode, in light of the fact that: (1) all of the brake
lights were out, including the CHMSL, which does not go through the rear
lamp control unit (the other uninspected part); and (2) the relay on the
brake system is located BEFORE the ARCU (go figure).  Actually, on one of
the two pins that looked a bit blackened, the insulation on the wire was
melted and the wire itself looked visibly frayed.  I will ask Jeff to
replace this connector next time he takes the car.

What I did in the mean time was juice up each of the sockets on all of the
plugs on the ARCU with Stabilitant 22, which I bought just for this purpose.
The results were truly impressive.  Not only do I now have working rear
brake lamps, but the brake pad warning lights that have been flashing
intermittently for over four years (since I got the car) stopped flashing
after I drove the car a couple of miles.  Apparently both the brake light
and the brake pad warning light have been arcing for some time.  The
Stabilitant seems to have fixed the problem for now, but I still want to
replace the failed sockets (the pins are probably not so easy to fix, as
they are part of the ARCU).

If the brake pad warning light has been flashing on your 164 (along with the
other warning light that flashes in sympathy with any flashing brake-related
warning lamp), I recommend that you put some contact enhancer on this
socket.  I put it on all of the other sockets at the same time, just because
I was already in there.

Rex in Albany
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