Lamborghini Jalpa
common Problems

Another problem are the engine mount brackets, Lamborghini used a too weak steal and the washers are too small, this leads to metal fatigue.
Following you can see the mounts on an Urraco display Engine in the factory museum and the broken mounts of a Jalpa.
Also the Urraco suffers of the same problems, but since the Jalpa produces more torque and is heavier, it occurs more often on the Jalpa.

Also very common is blue smoke, the valve seals are wearing out, on acceleration the engine sucks the oil through the guide and will burn it.

Very remarkable when the engine is at idle and suddenly throttle is pressed.

There is no fix except reneweing valve guide and seals, sometimes sealing products are helping to suppress the blue smoke.

All in all the Jalpa engine needs to run rich to run propperly in high rpms, this leads to a high CO-Level at idle. A lean running engine pops the whole time.

Another Problem is brake overheating, Lamborghini did not install cooling ducts.

Simple solution install your own:

Brake Pads fitting:

ATE calipers the fronts are (BMW type) D163 pads and the rears are D96 pads.
Rear pads for Jalpa are same as Urraco, you can use BMW part number 34111160173.

Brake booster

The brake booster is a "Bendatalia", and looks very much like the same units used on the late-60's Alfa Romeo's.

The brake booster are the same on early Jalpa, Urraco P300 and Silhouette. They are also fitted on Alfa Roméo Giulia 105 and early Lancia Scorpion (US) or Monte Carlo (Europe). I have rebuilt mine on the P300 with rebuilt kit from Alfastop: www.alfastop.co.uk

Repair kit, Bonaldi 105.14.45.022.02/46

Air valve unit 105.14.45.022.22/47

You need one kit per side. For acces remove the complete headlamp and after it's easy.

Not a problem but a guide to change the clutch slave cylinder, so you don't find the same trap as we did...
Lamborghini uses a slaved Alfa cylinder, you cannot exchange it directly, best opportunity is to overhoul the old one with new joints.

During the engine was removed, we thought it could be a good thing to replace the clutch cylinder, knowing Lamborghini often uses Alfa Parts I bought an Alfa clutch slave cylinder.

Problem occured after the car was running again, the clutch did not separate completely.
The problem is, the old cylinder, you can see above, has a diameter of 20,6 mm whereas the Alfa cylinder has 23,6mm, this leads to a too short cylinder move.

After we found that trap, I had the old cylinder overhouled and reinstalled the old cylinder with the engine in place:

To change the clutch cylinder you have to do the following things:

1. Remove the airfilter box
2. Remove bolt of the engine mount
3. Remove the air pump unit
4. Remove gearbox venting (just behind the cylinder)
5. Uninstall cylinder (see also next picture)
6. Reinstall and bleed

On the right side you can see the gearbox vent, the airpump holder is mounted on these 4 bolts and with a screw just below the air pump belt (see previous picture)

These oil return tubes are from a Volkswagon Beetle and can be serviced without removing the head....

If yours are leaking, Pry them out and replace them with these.

Use Aircraft gasket maker on the threads.

Also replace the coolant drains with standard chevrolet radiator drain petcock

After winter my fuel pump decided to work only when she wanted to, I almost got mad about that behaviour. I first thought the fuel pump itself is the problem, but finally I found out it has to be an electrical issue.

I wanted to check whether all relais were working correct and opened also the fusebox and there was my problem: simply the fuse holders were corroded, after cleaning them all works fine again...

I think I have managed to attach the updated relay picture. I have tried to highlight what I have managed to work out. I have numbered the relays from 1-8 going right to left and top to bottom. From the original diagram The emergency flasher unit in number 1. From my basic understading of the relays there are two types of relays used(Excluding the flasher unit) The first type is the one mentioned in the previous post as having the 2 87 spades relay. This type of relay makes a connection from spade 30 through to both the 87 spades when the coil is energised ie when you have 12v across spades 85 & 86 (You should hear the relay click when you do this) If you have 12V on the 30 spade you should now have 12V on the two 87 spades(commonly called make contact relay usually has 12v30A on it somewhere). This is the most common one on the jalpa and you should have this type for relays 2,4,5,6,7 and 8 from the diagram I have attached.
The second type of relay is the one with the 87a and the 87 spades on it. This type of relay MOVES the connection from 87a spade to 87 spade so if you have 12V on spade 30 then you will have 12V on spade 87a when the coil is not energised (no voltage across 85 & 86). When the coil is energised (12V across 85& 86) then the 12V coming in on spade 30 will be removed from spade 87a and moved to spade 87 (commonly called make /break contact relay usually has 12v 20/30A on it somewhere). This type of relay is used for the headlight motors & the low beams from the diagram I attached it is relay number 3. There is a second of this type of relay but it is NOT mounted on this panel. It is used for the flashing the front fog lights( I think) hope this helps.

Bleeding the cooling system of the Jalpa is something not easy if you don't know how.
The expansion bottle and water pump is higher than the radiator but the problem is that the system is routed under the car's midtunnel. In the front radiator might still be an air bubble which cannot escape through the system causing overheating, since the thermostatic switch for the fans is also located at the top it might even be the case that the fans will not turn on.

In the owners manual is no indication how to bleed the system efficiently, we found on the radiator itself 2 screws, one is to drain the coolant, the second one on the bottom is a bleed screw, inside is a pipe which goes up to the top of the radiator. By opening this screw you can bleed efficiently in case your radiator has this second screw...

Suspension parts:

front wheel bearings are SKF 615645A also used on Fiat Dino Limousine rear axle.

FRONT TIE RODS ARE FRAP 511

Reverse light and Fog light for the rear Jalpa bumper came from the Citroên Visa and made by SEIMA.

K&N replacement for the UFI-Air filter Torino A-204:

photos by "THECARREAPER"

photos by "THECARREAPER"

photos by "THECARREAPER"