When a connecting rod bends in the engine, even if you have no mechanical knowledge, you already sense that the outcome is not good. In fact, it is usually a catastrophic, even fatal, failure for the engine. Several hundred units of the Alfa Romeo Tonale could suffer this setback, which in the most serious cases could even lead to a fire.
The Italian brand, owned by the Stellantis group, has already launched a recall campaign to address this serious defect and has been published by the European Union on its rapid alert portal for dangerous non-food products.
There is a risk of engine failure and fire in some Alfa Romeo Tonale
For a long time, the reliability of Italian cars was the butt of jokes, some justified. However, the situation has now reversed. It is the French brands of the Stellantis group, especially Peugeot, Citroën and DS, that are suffering an image crisis, particularly due to recurring problems in the 1.2 PureTech engine, such as excessive oil consumption or the feared timing belt failures.
But this does not mean Italian models are free from issues. Case in point. Alfa Romeo’s recall for its Tonale SUV, which affects exclusively the 160 hp version. It is not the version that has won the most public favor and now faces a more serious risk: a fault in the 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Specifically, it affects the Alfa Romeo Tonale 1.5 Turbo 160 HP manufactured between February 5, 2022 and February 12, 2026.
According to Alfa Romeo, “the GSE T4 DOHC 1.5 l (160 hp) engine could suffer damage due to bending or breaking of the connecting rod, caused by abnormal combustion. This could cause the vehicle to catch fire while in operation.” This situation reinforces the notion that reliability remains a constant challenge in the automotive world, regardless of where a vehicle comes from.
A fully electronic solution for the Alfa Romeo Tonale
As with most recalls in Europe, this operation is not strictly tied to a reliability issue. Its main objective is to improve safety, although it can also prevent a breakdown that would immobilize the car, which is rather costly, incidentally.
The planned fix should not be too expensive for Stellantis, being completely free for the customer, as it is limited to a reprogramming of the engine control unit. The update will take about 30 minutes and should enable improved combustion of the air–fuel mixture to better preserve the connecting rods.
The rollout of this operation does not necessarily mean that the risk of encountering this serious problem is very high. It remains a very rare fault.
Although the production period for affected models is fairly broad, Europe sold a little over 85,000 Tonale units, and in Spain about 6,000 to 7,000 units in that same period. Moreover, it is a minority version that has been discontinued, replaced by a new 175 hp version. The bulk of Tonale sales in Europe correspond to the 280 hp PHEV and, to a lesser extent, the 130 hp diesel.
We are thus far from the recall of nearly one million vehicles launched in 2025 due to the failures of the diesel 1.5 BlueHDi timing chain, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of vehicles with the 1.2 PureTech engine that have been the subject of several workshop campaigns.
For now, the recall is limited to the French market. However, it is common for a recall published by one country in the early warning system to be extended to the rest of the EU. We have contacted Alfa Romeo, with no response yet, to determine whether the units sold in our country could be affected by this recall.
Images | Alfa Romeo
