Lancia Beta Forum

My father bought his new Beta 1800 Berlina in 1975 to replace his 4.2 litre Jaguar which was rather thirsty to put it mildly. I swear you could watch the fuel gauge sinking even when sat motionless in traffic.

The Lancia had extra wax protection applied from new by the dealer despite having a factory applied protection. Seemed like overkill to me at the time  ::) ...

After he’d driven the new car home, he and I stood in front of it together and admired it. With its bright yellow paint and futuristic styling, it was quite a dramatic sight. I can remember my father saying that he wondered what his father (who’d died well before WW II when my dad was only 14) would have made of it.

I also recall how, on the first weekend, he washed and lovingly leathered it dry, leaving the doors on the catch to allow any remaining moisture to escape. He then gently drove it into our garage (brick-built with a door on horizontal rollers). As he touched the brakes, a rear door which had not caught on the catch, swung open and bashed against the plaster rendered side of the garage leaving a dent. My poor father was so devastated that he went to bed to recover – this was in the middle of a Saturday afternoon!

My father said that the Lancia had far better handling and road-holding than his Jaguar – not to mention it using only half the fuel. He never let me drive it – perhaps because he saw how I screwed my mum’s Escort  ;D

The next summer, 1976, I set off from the UK with my gf around Europe in my MGC roadster. My family (mum, dad and my 3 siblings) also went onto mainland Europe in the Lancia.

We met up in Switzerland. My MG had never missed a beat. They however reported the nightmare experience they had had at the German-Swiss border when, after the fast run on the German autobahn in the hot July weather, they switched off the engine in the queue at customs…
and the Beta simply refused to restart. The family had to get out and push the bright yellow, gleaming, modern car across the border providing involuntary entertainment for a horde of amused onlookers. Very ignominious! It then took over half an hour before it could be re-started.

They had numerous further similar experiences with recalcitrant starting. Their discomfort was added to by the fact that someone managed to spill some milk down the side of the front seat where it soaked into the carpet under the seat rail. It was not possible to get to it to clean it properly and the car very quickly developed a gruesome stench (which could only finally be fully eliminated once back home in the UK by removing the seat). Not the best mood-enhancer. All in all their European trip was memorable, but mainly for the wrong reasons.

Here it was already emanating a foul malodour and they were happy to be out of the car. Switzerland, 1976:
(http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1405/gqob.jpg)

By the next winter the car was 18 months old and, to our disbelief, rust began to bubble through the front wings. The dealers repaired it foc. My dad kept it, but never seemed to fully adapt to driving with its manual box after having a series of automatics beforehand. He used to cause me physical pain by negotiating roundabouts still in 5th gear. The torque of the engine just about permitted it, but it was not nice!

After about 5 years, despite all the normal dealer maintenance and always being garaged, the car had become so rust-ridden that it was scrap. It was the first (and only car) of ours that was collected by a scrap yard dealer.

My father had had enough of Italian cars and replaced it with a Scirocco II which he drove until his death, in 1986, without ever having any problems.

It was more by chance that I became a Lancia owner myself 19 years ago. This Beta Spider (I’d never ever actually seen one before) suddenly appeared on a local VW-Audi forecourt and it seemed positively criminal that it was standing in the April rain. This one-owner car had been traded in by a local hairdresser when she bought a new Audi cabrio. I discovered it on the Friday evening, phoned the garage on Saturday morning, test-drove and agreed to buy it on the Monday.

I too have now also had the joy of being stuck with a hot car that doesn’t want to start. I now wonder what my father would say if he knew that I had a Beta!

Really interesting item. Having experienced similar problems with all three Beta Sedans whilst touring through Southern Europe in the 70/80's.
Despite renewing petrol pumps,cleaning carbs. before leaving the problem always appeared once I stopped south of Cologne.

Too old to contemplate Continental travel now but current Spyder still manages to remind me,  after a decent run,  what it was like.  At least now I've  learned to be patient ,  knowing it will start again after a  "little rest"

All sounds like fuel vaporisation when stood, the fuel line does go near the exhaust on its way to the carb/pump

Peter

Have always thought that also,  but can confirm that an electric pump doesn't cure it,  even pausing before  moving off ! ! !

;D It was lovely day, so the wife and I decided it would be nice to take our Beta Spider to go shopping a big centre one hot afternoon. After all, the boot is pretty capacious. Parked it out of the sun on the underground level of the complex's car park.

Couldn't believe it when we returned and it simply did not want to know about starting. The car park had the usual "The gates will be locked 15 minutes after the shops close" sign and we had shopped until not long before, so I was worried we would be locked in.

I rushed off to find someone in authority to explain that the car would not start now - and probably not for the next 30 minutes either. Well, the gates lock - that's an immutable, was the attitude, so we'll have to see if we can arrange for it to be towed out. Hmm... not so easy to arrange in a couple of minutes!

Hoping against hopes, I tried it just before time was up - and it started.


We have never used the car again for situations with a "deadline" - it is simply to stressful, which is the complete reverse of what owning a classic is supposed to be about!

The time honoured test is a wet rag applied at the suspected scene of vapour lock. These days I use a cooling spray as used by e.g. electronics repairers. Carb, fuel pump, coil, fuel filter, fuel lines. Catch it once and for all and tell us.

I wonder if there is a difference with Australian cars as i never had a problem with mine even on 40 plus degree days.

Jogging my memory here, neither did I, Beta 1800, 2000 and 2000HPE. Summers up toward 30C on a few occations and car sitting in the sun all day.

Maybe it has something to do with a combination of temperature and altitude (most places in Switzerland are at least 1,000 feet above sea level)...

Last time it happened in the Spyder was this last summer in Wrexham which is 269 a.o.d.  I had  hoped fitting an electric pump and allowing it to "prime" after standing, before starting,  but to no avail.

It used to happen to mine regularly  - the fuel line in now encased in a 'cool-tube' (  http://www.agriemach.com/c81/cool-tube/ (http://www.agriemach.com/c81/cool-tube/)  ) where it runs near the exhaust and never a problem since. Maybe it's just luck of the draw in how close the exhaust sits to the fuel lines?
 

Which bit of fuel line are you referring to? The lines stay away from the exhaust under the bonnet which is the really hot bit.

This happened to me once, on a very hot day near Cheltenham on an LMC National Weekend drive.

Hi Neil

But when they go from the engine to the under foot well, they run really close to the exhaust, suspect that is where Stuart is on about.

Peter

It sounds more like heat soak into the carb to me. Cannot recall what the internals look like but cooling spray will find it in no time wherever the problem has it's source.

Just forward of the transverse silencer at the rear the fuel lines cross over the top of the exhaust. On mine there's not much more than a fingers width between them.

I'm presuming that with the engine turned off the fuel stops flowing and that allows the fuel to vapourise locally causing the pump not to be able to draw through when it's re started.

Great memories,
I'm driving an '85 Jag 4.2 Sovereign as my daily just now and I can testify to the fuel consumption! Wonderful luxobarge that likes to be driven quite hard on a good road BUT until it reaches about 80 degrees the crude EFI system just dumps vast amounts of fuel into the engine - vast amounts, round town when cold think 4-5mpg. It's a huge engine and it takes 20 mins to get to the right temp. On a school run - cheaper in a taxi!