LAMBDA SENSORS O2 SENSORS OXYGEN SENSORS

Alfa Lambda sensor problems. These are also called Oxygen Sensors and O2 sensors

       These are common faults we can supply the original Lambda sensor made in Italy by the OE manufacture. Please click here.

Symptoms of a faulty Lambda sensors

Erratic Idle.
    Can be caused by the faulty sensor giving the wrong out put signal to the ECU, if the heater element fails the car will run to rich as the ECU thinks the car is running at a cold temperature causing the ECU to constantly try to cut the mixture strength back to correct the situation. Beyond which the flame front will not burn cleanly, leading to misfire and increased emissions. Often black smoke from the exhaust is emitted.

Alfa Airflow meters

Air Flow Meters are a common problem on most European cars at the moment and Alfa Romeo are no exception. Air Flow Meters measure the amount of air passing into the engine from which the computer can work out how much fuel to add to get the perfect mixture for that specific throttle opening, the computer does this by referring to a map in its memory.

The Air Flow Meter works by seeing how much current it takes to keep a wire at a specific temperature. The fault will often not be shown on diagnostic system as the meter will still be operating within the limits the computer believes are OK, but putting the correct amount of fuel in for idle when the throttle is fully open will result in a very weak mixture and thus a lack of power.

The air flow meters will occasionally fail completely which will bring up a light on the dash and the symptoms described here are only the usual ones, as we have known the fault to become apparent in other ways.
The easiest way to check if the Air flow meter is faulty is to unplug the wiring loom start the car if the car runs ok then the fault is with the airflow meter.
Luckily Airflow meters are very easy to fit and normally only take 5 minutes to fit you do not need any special tools to fit them and with a very small purchase price they are no major problem when there go wrong.

 Beware however as Lambda (or Oxygen) sensors in the exhaust can also give very similar symptoms to Air Flow Meters.