[zzshake]

Hello all. I am a frequent stalker of this forum, it has helped me out in many situations with my 2018 Giulia sport. My car has about 12k miles on it and I purchased it in April 2019. This morning, on my way to work, the ETC failed and the car was vibrating uncontrollably, forcing me to stop on the side of the road and have the car towed. Is this a common issue? Does anyone know how easy it is to fix/how long it will take? Thank goodness my car is still under warranty.

The worst part is, this car was in the shop about three weeks ago for its first service (not an issue)/spark plug failure. Sort of ridiculous for a car that had about 10000 miles on it at the time.

Alfa Romeos would be the perfect car if they were just reliable. It saddens me to say that, after being a 100% joyful and satisfied owner of an alfa for the past 9 months or so, they have truly disappointed me this time. I have to return to college next week and may not have a car to do so. It's frustrating and disappointing at the same time.

Thanks for your time.

 

[lockem]

It is not common to have a failure as you have described. Electronic Throttle Control covers just about the entire upper half of the engine and the associated electronics. Your dealer should be able to figure out what went wrong.

Various things that are somewhat consistent with your symptoms that have been reported in the forums:

Broken spark plug--very simple fix.
Bad ignition coil--simple fix but getting the part can take some time.
Oil pressure issues--could involve a new engine. Note that the intake valves are operated by oil pressure on this Multi-Air2 engine.

Please post what the dealer tech finds.

 

[JeFizz]

The latest ECM firmware, that I can't seem to find info on anymore, may address the generic nature of some of the error messages. Take it in, and tell them your issues, hopefully they find and resolve the problem while also updating the firmware for better messages in the future.

 

[AlfaRomeoCares]

Hello all. I am a frequent stalker of this forum, it has helped me out in many situations with my 2018 Giulia sport. My car has about 12k miles on it and I purchased it in April 2019. This morning, on my way to work, the ETC failed and the car was vibrating uncontrollably, forcing me to stop on the side of the road and have the car towed. Is this a common issue? Does anyone know how easy it is to fix/how long it will take? Thank goodness my car is still under warranty.

The worst part is, this car was in the shop about three weeks ago for its first service (not an issue)/spark plug failure. Sort of ridiculous for a car that had about 10000 miles on it at the time.

Alfa Romeos would be the perfect car if they were just reliable. It saddens me to say that, after being a 100% joyful and satisfied owner of an alfa for the past 9 months or so, they have truly disappointed me this time. I have to return to college next week and may not have a car to do so. It's frustrating and disappointing at the same time.

Thanks for your time.

Hello zzshake,
I certainly understand why this would be concerning.Given that we are not technically trained, we do rely on our dealers to be our eyes and ears in the field. Keeping this in mind, if you are unable to determine the cause of this with the assistance of fellow forum members, I suggest connecting with your certified dealer as they are in the best position to assist. Please know that we are available via private message if you are in need of any assistance with that process.
Laura
AlfaRomeoCares

 

[DragonKart]

Don't give up on the car - its still the car you had for 9 wonderful months. All cars have issues - do take it to the dealer and get it figured out. Then you will have your baby back.

 

[PhilK]

Apparently this is a relatively common fault code. It pops up and the car goes to a full limp mode. It’s happened to me only once and I suspect bad gas being the culprit. I filled up in a S Georgia station with little traffic after a bad rain. The dealer could not find anything. Always good to have them check but it will reset with 4-5 restarts typically and you may never see it again. Just my $.02. Great car so far. Except the auto off/on. Lol.

 

[wingler]

Except the auto off/on. Lol.

you do realize there is an easy cure available for that from @Alfissimo ?

 

[PhilK]

you do realize there is an easy cure available for that from @Alfissimo ?

Yes. Lol.

 

[ParagonBuilder]

you do realize there is an easy cure available for that from @Alfissimo ?

Or Eurocompulsion, if you are going the tune route.

 

[kneeecoo]

I had the etc light come up aswell but no shake like you're describing. My issue turned out being a coolant leak in the turbo return oring. Check to see if both coolant takes are full.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[Giuliano]

@zzshake, what is your definition of reliability?. Is it zero failures in 0.5, 1, 4, 8 or 10 years?.

 

[MDriver]

and another one and done...LMAO...I'm sorry gents but people discredit themselves when they come on here to perhaps look for some insight/help or more often then not just gripe and poof gone.
If all these things are genuine, keep the rest of us posted as your situation may occur for another forum member and we basically create a data base of sorts...

 

[Sean Yu]

Hello all. I am a frequent stalker of this forum, it has helped me out in many situations with my 2018 Giulia sport. My car has about 12k miles on it and I purchased it in April 2019. This morning, on my way to work, the ETC failed and the car was vibrating uncontrollably, forcing me to stop on the side of the road and have the car towed. Is this a common issue? Does anyone know how easy it is to fix/how long it will take? Thank goodness my car is still under warranty.

The worst part is, this car was in the shop about three weeks ago for its first service (not an issue)/spark plug failure. Sort of ridiculous for a car that had about 10000 miles on it at the time.

Alfa Romeos would be the perfect car if they were just reliable. It saddens me to say that, after being a 100% joyful and satisfied owner of an alfa for the past 9 months or so, they have truly disappointed me this time. I have to return to college next week and may not have a car to do so. It's frustrating and disappointing at the same time.

Thanks for your time.

Hi, my friend. Have u solved the ETC problem? My 2019 giulia Ti has same problem. It can be simplely solved by replugging the battery wire on the rightside of trunk, ETC and engine light will go off immediately but the esp off and others lights will be lighted, dont worry, keep driving few minutes and restart the car, everything will go back to normal.However, ETC light will show up again after driving like 50 miles on highway which made me to pull over agin to repeat the steps above. I really want to know what caused it and whats the best solution for it.

 

[GottWhat]

Running out of fuel will also throw this code but it will go away on it's own.

 

[gtipl85]

So my 19 Giulia Ti Sport Q4 also ran into this issue over the weekend. Dealer just called me and Alfa has authorized to replace the oil pump, as there was some residue found on the oil sensor. Starting to become concerned.

 

[VolFarrell]

Hello all. I am a frequent stalker of this forum, it has helped me out in many situations with my 2018 Giulia sport. My car has about 12k miles on it and I purchased it in April 2019. This morning, on my way to work, the ETC failed and the car was vibrating uncontrollably, forcing me to stop on the side of the road and have the car towed. Is this a common issue? Does anyone know how easy it is to fix/how long it will take? Thank goodness my car is still under warranty.

I have this same problem today, for a 2018 Giulia with 18,000 miles. It was fine yesterday, but this morning when starting I immediately saw the Autostart error light. When I started to drive, the ETC warning appeared and the engine had a strong shudder / vibration that felt like a flat tire. I returned the short distance to home, feeling the engine power fade. I restarted the car after a resting period and the issues are still there. I'm waiting for the dealer to return my call so that I can schedule a tow to the shop.

I'll post news for whatever they find, in case others have this problem.

I love driving the car, and other issues to date have been minor nuisances. There was a gas tank pressure valve failure, and some software issues.

 

[PhilK]

I have this same problem today, for a 2018 Giulia with 18,000 miles. It was fine yesterday, but this morning when starting I immediately saw the Autostart error light. When I started to drive, the ETC warning appeared and the engine had a strong shudder / vibration that felt like a flat tire. I returned the short distance to home, feeling the engine power fade. I restarted the car after a resting period and the issues are still there. I'm waiting for the dealer to return my call so that I can schedule a tow to the shop.

I'll post news for whatever they find, in case others have this problem.

I love driving the car, and other issues to date have been minor nuisances. There was a gas tank pressure valve failure, and some software issues.

If I were you, I'd cycle the start/stop a few more times giving a rest of a couple minutes in between. Towing the car is a pain and can damage things if not done properly. Mine reset itself after 4-5 attempts and I was able to drive it in and it never appeared again.

 

[VolFarrell]

An update. The problem was the air intake assembly, which it turns out is a complicated part, something more akin to F1 race design than what you'd usually see in a sedan. The faulty part made the 3rd cylindar unresponsive. The bad news was the time in the shop - they had to order the part, then a specialized tool, and then an o-ring. It was about a week before I got it back. The good news, it was all covered by warranty, and I got a free oil change in the process. It's running great again.

Thanks to Phil Karp for the suggestion to cycle the start/stop a few times. That worked, and I didn't have a issue driving it into the shop - thanks for helping me avoid the tow.

Sean near Nashville
2018 Giulia TI Sport

 

[BT in Oceanside]

Hello all. I am a frequent stalker of this forum, it has helped me out in many situations with my 2018 Giulia sport. My car has about 12k miles on it and I purchased it in April 2019. This morning, on my way to work, the ETC failed and the car was vibrating uncontrollably, forcing me to stop on the side of the road and have the car towed. Is this a common issue? Does anyone know how easy it is to fix/how long it will take? Thank goodness my car is still under warranty.

The worst part is, this car was in the shop about three weeks ago for its first service (not an issue)/spark plug failure. Sort of ridiculous for a car that had about 10000 miles on it at the time.

Alfa Romeos would be the perfect car if they were just reliable. It saddens me to say that, after being a 100% joyful and satisfied owner of an alfa for the past 9 months or so, they have truly disappointed me this time. I have to return to college next week and may not have a car to do so. It's frustrating and disappointing at the same time.

Thanks for your time.

I had the same problem last weekend with my new 2021 Giulia Ti with around 600 miles on it. I'm awaiting news on it. The dealer had it all week but I think they just started looking at it yesterday.

 

[Tyno]

Hello all. I am a frequent stalker of this forum, it has helped me out in many situations with my 2018 Giulia sport. My car has about 12k miles on it and I purchased it in April 2019. This morning, on my way to work, the ETC failed and the car was vibrating uncontrollably, forcing me to stop on the side of the road and have the car towed. Is this a common issue? Does anyone know how easy it is to fix/how long it will take? Thank goodness my car is still under warranty.

The worst part is, this car was in the shop about three weeks ago for its first service (not an issue)/spark plug failure. Sort of ridiculous for a car that had about 10000 miles on it at the time.

Alfa Romeos would be the perfect car if they were just reliable. It saddens me to say that, after being a 100% joyful and satisfied owner of an alfa for the past 9 months or so, they have truly disappointed me this time. I have to return to college next week and may not have a car to do so. It's frustrating and disappointing at the same time.

Thanks for your time.

So sorry these cars are not reliable. My recommendation is to try to learn about lemon law if your car having so much problem.im going in that direction as well .these forums really let me know I don't stand alone