Corrosion - is this common?

Hi,

I was browsing the 156's available on eBay, and came across this one:

1998 ALFA ROMEO 156 2.0 T SPARK IRIDESCENT BLUE on eBay, also, Alfa Romeo, Cars, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 20-May-08 12:53:39 BST)

It's an MOT failure due to extensive. Is this common? It looks in great condition top-side.

Cheers,

Iain

Its not that common but not unheard of.

The two main reasons why this could have happened are some 156 suffer water ingress through poorly seald floor seams. the water sits under the carpets and rusts the floor.

Another thing that may have caused it is incorrect jacking of the car damaging the underseal and floor.

Not sure about the inner wings though, maybe the car is parked on a seafront somewhere on a regular basis..

Thanks, I'll check that if/when my 156 restoration project arrives.

Also very common for the underseal to be poorly applied. So badly that is hasn't stuck to the metal. So any damp gets trapped and those pictures is the result.

Go and check your 156 in those areas in the morning, you may get a shock...

I've never seen one that's gone that far before, that really is bad, but the panles you need are all still ordearable.

No longer for sale.....but that's a lot worse than any other 156 I've seen I find it hard to beleive that that amount of corrosion could occur in the 12 month gap between MOTs.....

Had this trouble with inner wings on my old 156. It seems alfa have stuck a crappy bit of metal over the box section behind its not truly part of the inner wing more a stuk on 2inch square of tin that rotts. It seems to just be there to stop the section behind filling with mud and didnt appear to have been welded on. In my opinion you could filler and paint it.
Underneath looked fine though even after 200 thousand miles

This guy is just up the road from me - never seen the car around. What does concern me is that level of corrosion so I want to check mine. I presume just a case of lifting the carpets in the front footwells and having a gander??

Of course it may have been in a shunt. I never saw a repaired panel that lasted better than a factory fit job.

Ralf S.

Originally Posted by Scott1s

What does concern me is that level of corrosion so I want to check mine. I presume just a case of lifting the carpets in the front footwells and having a gander??

Just look under the car in those areas.
If the underseal isn't stuck to the metal you have (or will have) a problem.
I've seen whole areas of underseal peal away where is didn't stick.

Good link on water problems:

Alfa Romeo 156/147, check for water under noise-reducing carpet