Alfa Romeo 164L Click – No – Crank

This was written in 1999, and describes what I did myself with my experience, your car and experience may be different so proceed with extreme caution at your own risk, or take it to an experienced mechanic/shop for proper repair.

If you own a 164 automatic, there may be a time when you get in and turn the key, only to have nothing happen (except the usual lights on the dash, that is)…

There are a few potential clues as to where the problem might lie: If you can jiggle the gear selector in the park position while holding the key in the “start” position and the car turns over, then you’ve found the culprit.

Likewise, if you move the selector to Neutral and the car starts, again you’ve found the culprit.

In auto transmission equipped cars, the starter interlock mechanism is in the gear selector rather than in the transmission (as it is on the manual cars). You’ll need to unbolt the central tunnel, pull up on the gear selector handle to remove it, put the selector in N or D and lift the tunnel up on top of the selector. From the passenger side, you’ll have plenty of room to maneuver under the tunnel to proceed.

The gear selector operates as a shifter interlock in the following way: On the gear selector is a metal piece held in a plastic housing that acts as a “bridge” between two contacts. Examine the diagram and note the large piece. It’s a large delrin plastic piece with three sets of metal contacts (with wires attached to them). The three sets are as follows from front to back – Park, starter interlock; Reverse, reverse lights interlock only; and Neutral, starter interlock. In other words, the car will be allowed to start in Park or Neutral.

Based on my personal experience, this piece is a very tough plastic, and the metal tabs are a very tough stainless material. Only light scoring appeared on the tabs, and the plastic was barely worn. These pieces are expensive. I would not suspect this piece as the top potential failure item, however if you do find a lot of scoring, replace this piece. You will need to remove this piece to examine the metal “bridge” on the gear selector. Carefully mark the piece before removing to allow exact replacement of the old one, or using it as a template for positioning a new one.

I found my failure item to be the small metal “bridge” that’s held in the plastic housing clip on the gear selector. The location of this piece is where the round hole on the selector is, indicated by the arrow in the diagram. Note there is no such piece shown anywhere in the manual! This is a spring loaded metal piece made of a soft alloy. Over time, it appears the soft alloy wore in such a way that in the park position one of the contacts on the large plastic piece did not come into contact with the metal “bridge”, which not allow the circuit to close and start the car.

The plastic piece with metal “bridge” is very inexpensive ($5) to replace (mine was ordered from ARDONA through the dealer), however if you cannot find one the following repair can be effected (as I did – I have the ordered one as a spare now): Remove the plastic housing and take out the metal “bridge” (with spring). Use a very fine grit emery cloth or jeweler’s file to remove imperfections caused by wear, making the bridge contact surface flat again. This should allow both contact plates to come into contact with the bridge when reassembled.

Upon re-assembly to the gear selector, make sure the metal “bridge” moves freely in the plastic housing, so that it passes freely over the metal contacts on the large plastic piece.

Next, put the large plastic piece back into position and secure firmly. Then verify that the metal “bridge” contacts the appropriate metal tabs in Park, Reverse, and Neutral. The selector may by moved by holding up the tunnel with one hand and by using a mirror, checking to see where the contact tabs line up with the metal “bridge”.

Slide the tunnel back into position and before bolting up, check your work by looking for loose tunnel lighting wires/bulbs. Also before bolting up, try starting the car in Park and Neutral, and with key in run position (and after turning engine back off) verify that reverse lights work with selector in R position.

You’re done! If you still have a problem in the park position after all of the above, I have been told that some previous owners have “slammed-home” the gear selector into Park position too often, causing an elongation of the selector retainer in that position. In this case, the big plastic piece must be readjusted to a farther forward position, and/or the shift cable linkage at the selector be adjusted to move the lever back a touch (could lead to other issues though I was told, so this is considered a last resort!!!).

Contrary to myth, there does NOT appear to be any type of “kill switch” between the alarm and the starter that is hidden from all. The shift interlock mechanism is the only “in-between” switch. It could fail on the manual tranny’s much as on the auto tranny’s, but again note that the manual transmission interlock switch (along with reverse light switch) is on the transmission itself. There has been speculation that a “no-start” condition as described above is caused by such a “kill-switch”, but they do not exist.

While you have the tunnel up, take a look at the flexible plastic accordion piece that moves with the gear selector. This is a commonly replaced item as they become brittle and break over time. They are very inexpensive and very easy to slide in and out of the retainer to replace. You can easily remove it to inspect for a brittle section with the tunnel held up above the gear selector. When they break a large gap appears in the selector slot, and shifting may become hampered due to the flexible piece jamming a bit instead of sliding down into the retainer clip in the tunnel.

Now that the mystery of your click-no-crank Alfa 164 are solved, hunt down a SPICA equipped Alfa owner to share your similar malady! Gee – some mechanical/electronic afflictions just never change over time!