re dead milano

[mark m thornton <markmt@xxxxxxx>]

Late Saturday, John asks about his dead milano:	
 
> This morning when I started the car, the battery light came on and
> stayed on(it's never done this before), it continued to flash steadily
> for two 40 mile trips.  The Alfa Romeo Control light, the big red one,
> would also occasionally come on & stay on when I hit the brakes.  The
> car drove fine at this point.

With ABS this could also point to an electrical gremlin.  Perhaps low 
system pressure is the reason the brake and ARC lights came on.  If the 
pressure drops far enough, your car can be very hard to stop.  You would 
have no power brakes.
 
> After the car sat for about 40 minutes, I restarted it & the battery
> light went out, all seemed back to "normal."

So it's intermittent.
 
> When I went to restart the car, the accessories worked fine, but the car
> would not start.  The starter "clicked" like it wasn't getting enough
> electricity.  However, it would not jump start.

This would point to wiring, not the battery, not the alternator.  Do you 
recall if the jump-start attempt had the negative lead clipped to the 
battery terminal or was it to the engine?  Might point you to the negative 
side wiring.
 
> I push-started the car and it fired up, the battery light was again on,
> but now the oil light also came on...however, the oil gauge showed
> normal oil pressure.

This could be the ARC anomaly where the wrong item lights up ... was there 
any tendency for the ARC warning lights to flash at random ... or in a 
cycle?
 
> I drove the car about 1 mile & when I hit the brake pedal the
> speedometer would drop back to 0, even though we were obviously still
> moving. 
> At this point, the car stalled & it's sitting in a Wendy's parking lot.
> OK, any ideas?  I'm thinking it's gotta be electrical.  I recently had
> the rear brakes re-done, calipers and pads and he didn't replace an ABS
> sensor so occasionally the Antilock light on the dash does light up.

Hmmm ... working on ABS, the mechanic would quite properly disconnect 
battery power ... makes one wonder.

> Other than that, the car has run fine with no problems.  Thanks in
> advance, and please reply to me directly.

I'd say go over all the battery connections.  There's a chance something is 
loose, possibly from the recent service.  If you can catch it in the act, 
you can probably trace with a DMM and find the open.  If it starts and 
runs, you can use the DMM to look for subtle voltage drops or grounds which 
aren't.

The brake warning could relate to plus side connections which run the brake 
brain box and the ABS electropump, rather than the wheel sensor.

The other indications could be intermittent grounds.  The ARC can give 
false indications if there are a few so-so grounds.

I'd find and check all the grounds under the hood.  I just went out and 
looked at the milanocrosser in the garage.  Here's what I'd try:

	negative battery terminal
	ground lead to engine
	ground lead to chassis - my car has six wires on this one bolt
	ground lead block at left front side - I think one is brake system
	ground lead block at right front corner
	ground leads at right rear of engine

After that I'd work the positive side.  My car has five wires coming off 
the plus terminal.  Follow a fat red one to a positive junction.  This unit 
needed detailing on my car.  There is an exposed-to-air ribbon fuse for the 
brake electropump.  This also needed work.

Good luck,

mark m thornton
seattle washington usa

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