Making Our Turbo Alfa Romeo Brera FASTER than a V6!

[@Drivetribe]

Is that the worst air filter you've ever seen? 😂Thank you to Carly for sponsoring today's video, get 15% off Carly with code "DRIVETRIBE24" when you click - bit.ly/Drivetribe24

[@yagiotoko2110]

It was worse than the one I had that I literally rang out it got so wet! My intake now has drainage holes in it after that 😝

[@Craigrobbo2k7]

Can you show us carly workign on the brera please

[@rossmaclean2]

What air filter? More of a porous petri dish.

[@iwanhsp]

I see alfa, so, ineed to ask directly, here i've got 156 selespeed gearbox in malfunction, what should i do?????

[@PipeManPeep]

Don't chip a car until you know it's running perfectly first. If it's not doing what you expected, diagnose it. Get some data from the car. Is the boost figure what you expected? Is the MAF reading what you expected? Also, use your own senses. There's thick black smoke coming out of the exhaust. It's over fueling. Is an injector blocked? Is the turbo not spooling properly? Is the intercooler blocked or leaking? A custom tune is always superior to a simple, generic flash tune.

[@JW-qf2fx]

great advice..... similar money and time but MUCH easier to keep it all in the correct order of the process. That air filter and subsequent intake/MAF inspection should have been picked up very early on

[@aaabbb356]

Not sure if it was in the edit and actually it was done after. But yeah your 100% right, not running the car on the Dyno as is and then troubleshooting the evident issues it clearly has was a surprise.

[@lilPOPjim]

This. What are these guys doing lol

[@ExAnimoPortugal]

It's a 1700 pound car who cares?

[@aaabbb356]

@@ExAnimoPortugal Well Drive Tribe do hence the series and the expectations of the build......

[@KriLL325783]

My dad bought one of those OBD2 port power booster things, he swore it gave the car at least 50HP, I took it apart, it's literally just a blinking LED, it's not even using the communciation pins, it's just using the port for power.

[@RotGoblin]

So, you didn't tell him and plugged it back in, right?

[@KriLL325783]

@@RotGoblinYeah, I briefly entertained the idea of telling him, but I wasn't sure he'd accept reality over his fantasy.

[@WaddedBliss]

​@@KriLL325783 My OBD2 reader told me where the faults were in my ABS and TC.

[@princesssolace4337]

it just goes to show how much ££ u can make on scamming ..... there are many gullible people. I don't even trust piggy back from reputable names .... I've been using Haltech Sprint 500 or MoTEC m400 standalone on my 90s hot hatch

[@Kevin-sr8yx]

@@princesssolace4337What it shows you is how powerful the placebo affect is.

[@iambiggus]

I worked at one of those quick oil change places after high school, and a lovely senior lady came in who had been driving her husbands Jeep 4.0 after he had passed maybe 5 years previously, and probably the first service since. The air filter was just the metal screen with the rubber gasket around the edge, there was no filter left. This was on the west coast of Oregon with the sand and the salt, and that silly jeep still ran like a top, too.

[@garagecedric]

That compressor impeller in that turbo probably doesnt look very nice after eating half an air filter, that tune is way of and need more air for sure, anyway a fun project car :)

[@nekite1]

That 2.4 5 cylinder lump is a bit of a beast, but they are known to crack the heads. I had a 2010 159 ti sportwagon 2.0 diesel ( a revised 1.9 with 170bhp and 350nm of torque as stock) and it just loved a motorway. It made long journeys a really relaxed affair, as it would be just shy of 2000rpm at 70mph. Decent fuel economy as well.

[@tiagobelo4965]

Pretty similar experience here, 156 with the 8v, gets ~6L/100km even with quite a bit of city driving and messing about

[@2dcutout]

Running a 2007 325d with a Superchips map, gets 48mpg/5.9l/100km on a run, roughly 260bhp and I did over 700 miles in it, in one go, twice recently. Great motorway cruiser, bag loads of torque and decent grunt from 1200rpm. Pretty hard to fault the M57! A 159 wagon with the 2.0tdi engine was a car I was looking at getting when the 325d came up.

[@renetnk]

Actually if you do DPF, EGR and swirl delete, 2.4 is super reliable engine. 2.0jtdm isnt that great either, its so uncommon engine there are actually problems with servicing it.

[@nekite1]

@@renetnkNever had a problem servicing it in nearly 5 years of ownership, so don't know what you are on about.

[@renetnk]

@@nekite1 Thats nice for sure. There are cars that needs only basic service like oil change. And then there are cars that need drive shafts, which are nightmare to buy, they are not available everywhere, there are also same problems with dpf like on 2.4. Also there are a lot more problems with swirl because of plastic intake etc. But if 2.0 works, its awesome engine.

[@rhyskeeble7488]

I also drive an 07 Brera (see my profile picture) same engine as this one, and I can confidently say my Air Filter was sooooo much worse than that, the entire and I literally mean the entire thing was rotten and flaking away to the touch, I bought it in 2018 so I have no doubts it was the original filter from 2007, the engine bay was also covered in sand, the previous owner has alot to answer for!

[@mertkoz6491]

nothing wrong with the brera. british weather and lack of maintenance are to blame.

[@Duskconqueror]

Just a shame that it isn't RWD. Would've fitted the car better.

[@Hostilenemy]

People that judge other people based on the tools they use, are tools themselves.

[@RotGoblin]

The best tool for the job is the one that works. Simple as.

[@user-neo71665]

I grew up in a mechanic shop doing custom and race stuff. We all have a carpenter hammer somewhere. We also will use anything as a hammer when it in reach and there is always a cheater pipe somewhere. Might not be right but it happens in the real world.

[@HansDelbruck53]

Tools of whom?

[@alferro3149]

People that judge people that judge other people based on the tools they use, are tools judgers

[@Maxwell_Millz]

Nothing worse than tool snobbery. If it works, it works.

[@16valveBravoSpoonz]

black smoke is just unburnt fuel, turbo could be knackered or a split in a boost pipe would be my guess, dpf is probably overdue a clean. a good tune shouldn't really have any black smoke, or atleast be very minimal.

[@Ben-in6qh]

You think it has a DPF with that cloud out the back 😂

[@pyroslev]

If Ryobi works, use it. Plus, the battery legacy compatibility is pretty epic.

[@robo1000]

Replacing those stock rubber brake lines is always a great upgrade. The confidence inspiring feeling is always worth the money.

[@nicolassackl4280]

Where do I get them!

[@Gjldo]

stock rubber lines have a steel braid inside the rubber

[@francoisbeaune3289]

I had a MY2007 Alfa 159 SW with that magnificent 5-cyl diesel engine, I even got the same "twizzling" gear knob problem a couple times 😅The knob thing is easy to fix, it's just a screw beneath the gear knob's top cover. During my last year of ownership -the 16th!- I also had the engine smoking like mad (like the Brera here): it was somehow not getting enough air. I sold it before I ever got to the bottom of it. Absolutely loved that car and that engine.

[@cdent420]

I bought a Brera the other week - thankfully in a much better condition than this one! It’s a superb car and I absolutely adore it. Thanks for this video though. It’s very informative for how I should run it and what problems to look out for in the future ❤

[@bernymonty22]

When you change a EGR valve I suggest to remove a throttle body and clean canals in intake manifold where opening for EGR is. It will spin the mixture of exhaust gases and air and engine will spool faster and at lower RPMs. I suggest after seeing the air filter that you check turbo blades. I bet they are damaged. Here is a lot work to do to bring car back because it was neglected quite bad.

[@Golfwang2o5]

where is episode 4? cant wait to see what will happen

[@ryanohare6538]

gotta be honest, watching Mike talk about and work on (or overlooking) a car in the shop is prime DriveTribe. Love to see it!

[@doobie2242]

7:30 watch him snap the bolt and just carry on like nothing happened 😂

[@CookieRoxette]

15:45 I hope you don't live to regret that. 1k's of us enjoy the channel but getting laughs shouldn't come at silly prices.

[@hassaanahmed5784]

It's nice to see the enthusiasm they bring to every build. 👍

[@l88ch3r]

Love calling out the pedantry from tool snobs. There is a right tool for every job. But sometimes its the person holding the hammer instead of the hammer.

[@MarcosCodas]

The "K&N Filters give you more power" thing has been disproven so many times, I'm surprised it's even legal to still say it.

[@terot8341]

But also be proven to give more HP and torque.

[@MarcosCodas]

@@terot8341 all the videos I’ve seen from channels I trust, like MightyCarMods, did dyno tests and found no gain. I personally trust them more than the filter manufacturers.

[@MarcosCodas]

@@terot8341seen it proven false on many channels I trust, using a dyno. It’s not real.

[@MarcosCodas]

Also, oddly, my previous comment got deleted. Odd.

[@MarcosCodas]

Someone keeps deleting my comments. It is not true that these filters give extra power.

[@TheKazzerscout]

These car revamps are the best series on the channel.

[@ghastous]

When we going to get a update on how this car is getting on.

[@ianmilne655]

When I had my GT 1.9JTD on Alfa cruises I was keeping up with the 3.2V6 GTs in fact the only thing that kept me back was the V6 had longer legs between gear changes. Alfa offered to tune it up when I bought it from them, but after the cruise I went against it as it wasn't needed. Food for thought👍

[@jrvintage]

One more thing I would suggest is a Terraclean , it would give my old RR P38 diesel a new boost every time. Flush the whole system not just the bits you can unbolt 👍👍😎

[@Scampi95]

I used to own a modded 156. Beautiful car and truly was a joy to drive.

[@firstnamesecondname5341]

Adam Savage said it best, buy the cheapest tool which gets the job done and only when you’ve broken it then replace it with a more premium variant. You’d be surprised how many of those budget tools you started out with remain usable decades later

[@2stepsaway820]

What's scary is my 2019 Mazda6 (with an EGR delete) makes 202hp and 494nm on its stock map (rated at 184hp and 445nm). That Brera is doing well for an old lump!

[@PaulMcElligott]

“Is this the right hammer to use?” Time to call Clarkson.

[@ptrlin999]

Intake manifold is definetly clogged the same way that the egr was. So if you take it off and clean it there’s a few free horsepowers :) its a big job to do tho

[@pijusprakapas9103]

7:58 you can pop the top of the shifter off (metal part) and tighten a bolt. Should fix the wobble. I have a 159 with the same engine👌

The enthusiasm of the camera Crew is truly inspiring :)

[@aysbg]

My happiness was/is my family and to make me even happier, my boys are now watching with his old man all of the original Top Gear episodes. They are now on the path of becoming petrolheads. Couldn’t be happier.

[@finnishturtle3059]

Air filter changes are often forgotten on these 939 platform cars due to the airfilter location, when i bought my 159 1.9jtdm the airfilter was completely black and gunked up and after replacing it i felt the difference as soon as i left the shop. Its also really important to change the airfilter on these turbo diesels aswell, i have some strange noises coming from the turbo sometimes and its probably due to the intake being partially blocked off by that old filter.

[@bryanohlsson4689]

Just love this car. Sweet work on the numbers. Replacing those sensors will help a lot.

[@v1ne5fernande57]

maybe change the catalytic converter to a new a new one bc the diesel gases may have clogged it up and makes the exhaust are flow disturbed massively

[@stevenrommen4689]

Get an euro3 intake manifold without the swirl flaps and clean that before fitting, if the egr is that clogged what you think is in de manifold.. and than just block it off. Did the same on my old 159 sw and even without an dpf it passed emissions 240hp and 500nm

[@BenFentem]

This sounds like a perfect opportunity to collaborate with Taylor from the AutoAlex channel and his V6 Brera!

[@kabongpope]

Mike getting totally gassed @15:40 was worth the watch lol

[@Drivetribe]

😂

[@vegardrye313]

Love this series!!! Is there coming more videos of the Brera?

[@srsgrandmaster]

I just bought a 07 plate spider that has been sat for a year.The problem with lack of power will be the swirl flaps.Ive seen these engines make 270bhp.Hopefully my spider can be saved needs alot of work.

[@jonnyabba25]

I found my happiness. It’s a proper Busso GTV6 quad cam that’s never been near Autosportivo, and never will. It has had help from Alfa City along the way though 😁

[@tommcmahon14]

What’s wrong with autosportivo

[@aaabbb356]

Its really clear that something is a drift with the amount of smoke its throwing out. Might be worth checking for boost leaks. You may also find that faulty swirl flaps won't help the engine to much. You could have deleted them while you was replacing the cam belt and water pump.

[@Steve_A93]

I still love the Brera but I am also slightly grateful for being too coward to buy one 😅it'd have absolutely broken me haha

[@SpyderzFPS]

I had a 159 2.4 jtdm, also had it tuned. Looked amazing, it was a black on black on black spec. But boy did it put out some black smoke when you put your foot down, couldn't see behind you lol

[@tonyflorio3269]

Did the dyno do a conversion to flywheel horsepower? If not, making 202 hp at the wheels is actually a significant improvement over stock, likely by 10 - 15 %, from driveline losses.

[@loonytoon8836]

1. My son would like to have a Brera. Well, not anymore after watching the videos so far. 2. Happiness: Mike, we met at the best place of car people happiness. Traffic jam att Döttinger Höhe. 3. With my broken air mass meter my Audi A4 1.8t wouldn`t go beyond 200km/h. With it fixed it was back at faster than 240 😉

[@Otniel-m4c]

I own a 2.4 Brera as my first car.. no major problems so far after 10000km done

[@atssaukas]

Could we get a video of the 3 legends just talking about whatever they want to talk about in a pub? I feel like that could be a lot of fun.

[@betodo9984]

13:02 Hoooold on, isn't this the Throttle House intro song?

[@Scampi95]

The state of that air filter! Looks like a filter from a 200 year-old vacuum cleaner!

[@kingGar27]

Never seen an air filter that bad. K&N make great filters, but the oil on them can damage MAF sensors. The consensus would be not to run these in the diesel tuning world. They also don’t offer as much protection versus an OE equivalent one from the likes of Mahle or Hengst.

[@benfromdtd]

We’ve not had a Brera race in the Alfa championship yet - c’mon @drivetribe! Next challenge!!

[@talhaclkr]

Fun the watch diesel tuning keep up

[@Twofrogsonecup]

THE BRERA IS MY FAVORITE ALFA OF ALL TIME!!

[@Maxwell_Millz]

I wish they'd made the 159 GTA sportwagon with the brera quad exhaust.

[@Twofrogsonecup]

@@Maxwell_Millz that would have been really cool. maybe someone on yt has done it, I'm gonna look it up😂

[@Eric-tg9ss]

mike next time you fells have to loosen rotted line fittings like those, use a small mini torch. the heat will expand the outer part of the fitting without boiling the brake fluid. i do it all the time =)

[@MrRobbish]

Thank you Carly for making life impossible for the OCD among us.

[@seanmichaelp724]

"There's a diesel model for if you're the kind of person who looks at the Mona Lisa and thinks she should have a moustache" -Clarkson on the Brera Diesel. I'm kidding, the 5 cylinder diesel is a peach in these if looked after well.

[@mcarterinc]

How has no one caught that you used the intro music for literally every other car KZbin like collecting cars and throttle house 😂

[@FNaF-guy-4-lyf]

Thank you!!!!! I was hoping someone else noticed!

[@WaddedBliss]

Max's tattoo says special fried rice, chicken chow mein and chips.

[@Scampi95]

a man of culture!

[@Maxwell_Millz]

Clever guy. Saves him loads of time ordering his takeaways. 😊

[@andrewmoylan6295]

Great stuff, crew. The Alfa will be great again. Just sort out the cobwebs first. Love it

[@thexhaunt]

It's nice to see a fellow Scot on KZbin

[@Jayy149]

This series is making me consider one

[@mr.getoarmaloku8046]

It needs the dpf removal and you got 250hp

[@Majima487]

i found my happiness when my VW polo 1.0 started for the first time when i was 17 after nearly 3 weeks trying to get it to start with very limited knolage a dial up internet oh and a haynes manual. PS i used the side of a claw hammer to get the alternator bolt out as it was rusted in its hole XD (yes i did remove the nut first)

[@karmadyllic]

Happiness is not a thing that you find. It's a thing that you bring.

[@tim1289r]

Old-school. No face mask. I like it!

[@donschiffer7400]

Happiness is watching other people work on Alfas I don’t have to pay for…

[@Automan9]

Come on Mike, you of all people shound know a topline figure is meaningless, show us the curves one overlayed over the other ! Looking very forward to the rest of the series

[@thomasLivesInANewCountryNow]

Άμα υπάρχει χρήμα, όλα γίνονται . Γιά σου Drivetribe 👍

[@gregmarking6716]

Σίγουρα.

[@KevinAurelio-n2i]

I like Ryobi too. I even have a Ryobi riding electric mower.

[@CrusinVK]

should also run a can, or maybe two cans , of Liqui-Moly Intake De-carb Cleaner through the intake. that should clear a large amount of caked-on crap from the back of the valves and the intake runners...

[@Reaktora]

i had the same alfa only a 2.2 jts. the knob of the shifter did exactly the same noise . no problems with my egr, only my waterpump gave out at 80000km. it's a car that you have to take care of. its and alfa so yeah all you should know. i think i also had a problem with the passenger door handle those are fragile. and i think I had some electrical quarks will the window open or not today type of stuff.

[@ironmaiden5658]

You've gotta ask, where did all the rest of the air filter go.. Some, made it out the exhaust pipe. Some. Did not.

[@ricardo1e93]

But Jeremy taught us that the hammer was a the most precise tool created by human kind.

[@54mgtf22]

That beautiful Giorgetto Giugiaro design. 👏

[@andrewhudson7481]

Yes, I found happiness with JDM vehicles after years of Euro heartbreak…

[@th3master]

With a hybrid new turbo should be fun!

[@marksteps1712]

think you need an engine out overhaul service before doing any further mods, try to return it to factory then push for performance

[@James-Rounds]

If you were to study 002 for running any engine you'd notice the full engine, egr valve and catalytic converters would all be cleaned.

[@HenryBrooke1998]

Brings back Top Gear vibes with the episode featuring the Brera, the Audi TT, and the Mazda RX-8.

[@gregorizi]

where did they get the idea

[@Sakkie_S55_M3]

Brera 2.4 JTDm makes stock +-160 -170hp to the wheels and 200hp to the crank. The 3.2 V6 makes 208-220hp to the wheels and 260hp to the crank...... so you already made a huge improvement.

[@rs48635]

Note sure the 3.2 V6 busso ever made 260bhp from the factory. Only the 3.2 GTA got the full 250PS and others ( 166 + GT) more likely 240PS . The more common 3.0 24v had 226 bhp.

[@arturmorais7802]

what's the story behind the Fiat Uno poster at 0:44? cute little car, we love them here in BR

[@andyclark3491]

That spec is just his senna on replay. The dark blue always looks weird contrasted to light blue. Make the contrast a dark grey or black and it would be so much better.

[@Jwoselder]

So the Brera is heavily overfueling, and your next step is plugging in some cheap powerbox that will overfuel it even more? That really makes no sense guys. This engine needs more air...

[@Sossingro]

You got the all clear from my Chinese wife, the tattoo is correct! Always fun finding the ones that are really incorrect though.

[@Avetarx]

Alfa Romeo Brera was my first car pick in Need For Speed Carbon back in 2006. Ah...the good memories.

[@johanesswille9374]

Imagine if you guys got the V6 from the beginning plus a remap....you would be near the 300bhp. V6 for the win!

[@Maxwell_Millz]

The V6 doesn't actually map very well compared to the turbodiesel.

[@philgeorge9634]

Would it not of been better to do the custom exhaust and upgraded brakes before the remap?

[@Dorsetsubaru]

I love my Ryobi tools , absolutely brilliant items

[@doughunt5175]

Took a break watching a Pittsburgh Penguins game to watch your vid. Look at that hat!! Is hockey big in the UK?

[@frostyflowers4207]

Clean the intercooler will hold all the old air filter remains as they wont pass threw the small holes

[@diesel-technology5507]

The compressor wheel on that turbo will be absolutely annihilated, probably looks like the back side of a spoon after eating all that air filter material, stones, and whatever else the induction pipe could get it's hands on. I have absolutely no doubt that this car made no more than 0.1 bar of boost 😂

[@samurai-capybara]

Was that music near the end a version of that from 'Local Hero'?

[@DMan-ud6bt]

3:00 What kind of hedges are those? I'd like to buy/plant my own.

[@tonydean1262]

Great to see the old diesel coughing up it's guts WHERE IS THE V10 STILL WAITING

[@abigailturner2775]

I remember one of Clarkson's Brera quotes: "you can have a diesel Brera if you're the sort of person who thinks the Mona Lisa should have a moustache". I genuinely can't wait to see it go up against a V6.

[@josephkelly4893]

Greta Thonburg loves that car Mike!!! I can hear her screaming in joy at your coal rolling beast!!

[@Hiluxtaco]

347 pound feet of torque is not too shabby... 🙂

[@Ashton97]

Love your content bro!