Warbling belts

[Jonathan Wolff <jon@domain.elided>]

Hi,

I'm slightly alarmed to read people on this list citing carjacking as a
likely occurrence.  You do find some people over here in the UK worrying
about it, but I've never felt it was a real danger.  Road rage is a
different issue, but is also blown out of proportion by the press in my
opinion.  Fortunately we don't have people driving around with guns so much
over here.

Not wishing to get too political, I have assumed that this issue was largely
sensationalised by the media and governments to reinforce the stereotypical
divide between fine upstanding citizens and nasty deviant criminals, so that
we allow them to further erode our freedom in the belief that it will result
in a 'nice, safe' society.

I've also generally believe that the more people avoid these 'unseen
dangers' by not going out at night, not allowing children to enjoy the
outdoors without being under the watchful eye of adults, etc., the worse we
allow the problem to get, and we end up with increasingly isolated lives and
a society in name only.

On the other hand I don't feel too secure leaving a car unlocked nowadays.
I'm not worried about the contents being taken (I take the faceplate off the
stereo and I don't leave anything in sight), it's the car!  A nice Alfa
Romeo or Lancia is bound to attract the attention of a car thief at some
point during its lifetime.  In fact back in 1979, in the days when you could
leave your car unlocked, my mother ONCE (well so she says) accidentally left
the keys in the ignition of our Peugeot 504, parked in our garage (door
open, the garage was old and rickety and the door didn't close) up our gated
driveway.  The next morning it was gone.  I can see the point if you've got
the soft top up though, if a thief is more likely to slash it rather than
move on when presented with a locked door.

Anyway, apart from one brief holiday in California I have no real knowledge
of what things are like in America so please correct me if I'm wrong or if I
sound like a naive idealist!

Anyway, enough of that, onto the real subject of my message.  Yesterday my
engine (164 Cloverleaf, so a 3.0 V6 24-valve) started making a strange
noise.  I can best describe it is a 'warbling' sound, changing pitch with
engine revs, and it appeared to be coming from the region of the timing
belt.  I drove the car very gingerly to my local Alfa dealer this morning,
and they reckon the noise is coming from the ancillaries belt.  They say
that the tension of both the timing and ancillary belts is fine, and that
neither of the belts is damaged, although they are suggesting that I have
the timing belt replaced fairly soon (it's due for the 84,000 miles service
in about 1000 miles so I guess I'll have both the belts replaced then).
Effectively they're saying that nothing is wrong, so what's causing the
alarming noise?

Incidentally they said that it was due for changing at 96,000 miles (every
48,000).  However the service schedule in the manual says every 36,000
miles, and as the car had just had it's 72,000 miles service when I got it,
and I was assured by both the previous owners (a company) and the garage
they used that the belt had been changed at the correct mileages.  I can't
remember if I was explicitly told that it had been changed at 72,000 miles
or just at the appropriate mileages though.  Did Alfa change their minds
about the longevity of the belts?  Apparently the belt looks more than a
year old.  Hmmm, worrying.

Jonathan

P.S. I saw a red Cloverleaf parked at Silverstone a few weeks ago when I
went to watch a friend race.  I think it's the same one that was advertised
in this month's Auto Italia, if anyone saw it.  It reminded me of something
that I have often wondered about.  Like mine, this Cloverleaf didn't have
the boot spoiler that I thought was standard.  It had a different
arrangement of badges on the boot to mine - I have 164 on the left and the
cloverleaf on the right.  This had the 164 and the cloverleaf symbol on the
left, and I think the right was empty.  Both cars are facelift cars of about
the same age, so why the difference?  Also my spare wheel is a Speedline
fake split-rim like the rest, I thought it was meant to have a space saver.
Did they like to make every 164 slightly different just for fun?

- -- 
Jonathan Wolff <jon@domain.elided>
Programmer
Argonaut Software Ltd.

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