Potential Alfa newbie - what to look out for?

Hi,
Have been looking to get myself into the endless money pit of car ownership and wouldnt mind a few recommendations and help with such an endeavour.

I spotted a 99 Alfa 146 at a garage at the weekend that i fell in love with it but the garage was closed so i couldnt bring it for a test drive or get any info on the service history at the time.
I rang em up today and asked about whether the cam belt and spark plugs had been replaced and they said it had been serviced 3 weeks ago and all the sparks replaced but he didnt mention anything at all about the cam belt.
There is 61k miles (98K km) on the clock so after reading a bit here about the potential expense that cambelt replacement\damage can caused i'm quite wary.
I'm going to call out tomorrow evening with a mate who knows a bit more about cars in general to have a look at it. If the dealer\service history doesnt tell me when the belt was last changed should i stear clear?
Though it was the best looking car in my budget and it was love at first sight so i dont really want to!

Have a few more general questions as well:
How hard\expensive is it to get parts for 146's repaired\replaced seeing as the car is no longer in production (and i'm in Ireland)
Are *****'s as unreliabel as "they" say ?

Cheers in advance!!

[THROTTLEMAN]

Hi mate, welcome to AO. I'm sure you'll get a lot answers for your questions in no time.

[kurzon]

I'm not the most technically minded individual here, but I wouldn't think the fact it hasn't been changed should put you off. Listen out for any suspicous sounds coming from the engine itself, dark exhaust fumes etc. Get the cambelt change as part of the deal. It does cost a bit, so if they can throw that in for you and guarantee the work, then so much the better. My previous car was a 146 and I loved it before some white van totalled it for me

Reliability wise, it turned out to be more reliable than the Audi we have, even though the Audi is much newer and bought from a main dealer Ahh it did require a variator replacement so listen out for any diesel like sounds coming from the vehicle. Plenty on that subject in the tech lounges.

Just have good proper nosey around the vehicle with your mate. Would have suggested an AA/RAC inspection, but I'm guessing it's might not be worth bothering with as long they give you a warrantee on the vehicle.

Good luck and let us know what happens

[johne]

Make sure that the dark red/burgandy master key is there as well as the regular red ones (with the remote button).

Cheers kurzon. Had been thinking about getting them to do it before i buy. The warranty they were giving was only 3 months and he only mentioned engine and gear box which was the shortest and least comprehensive i'd heard from any garage (about 4 so far ) so i was immediately a bit suspicios. perhaps i'm being overly so?

[kurzon]

Originally Posted by Scruff

perhaps i'm being overly so?

Good point about the keys BTW above

It depends on the size of the garage and what other cars they are selling. I mean do they only sell old cars that look like have just been polished with new hubs caps on It's more of an instinct thing derived from you and your mates previous experience and it's hard to say anything about that in here. Try to get them to extend the warantee for a year, check their reaction - even offer to add a ton to the agreed sale price and see that reaction. Most might agree if they know they will get an extra 100 quids on what they know to be a good un for a year.

Get what I mean?

May want to see when the clutch has been replaced, if at all. I had two clutch changes inside of 80K. Gearbox needs to be dropped for renewal so that can be very expensive.

[spaceace]

wooah...nobody mentioned the suspension arms or the wiprers

....the 146/5 are prone to destroying the suspension bushes, making the suspension knock. Take it out on a bumpy run to check

Complete arms are about £40-50 + 1 hr fitting (easy job for a mechanic)

Also, check the intermittant wipers with no water....the motor is prone to greasing up, causing wiper stall.

Easy fix, just 30-60 mins of your sunday afternoon

Cambelt, tensioners & variator need to be change @ 35K intervals, average cost seems to be about £500-600 depending if you can find an indi-Alfa garage

Also check the clutch, seat hight adjustment mech, obvious oil leaks, all the switches (my sidelights don't come on without a thump on the relay) + all the usual car checks

[ally]

Yet more stuff, but I think things particluar to the 146 are more of intrest than general wear and tear items.

Electrics (wipers-as already mentioned- on intermittent) but also check the wiper arms themselves for sideways slop (£25each).
Wishbones (previous) are cheap but wear can be seen sometimes by heavy wear on inner shoulders of front tyres.
The gearbox should be sweet, and apart from slight notchiness on the first few changes when very cold, it should exibit no faults as they can be a bit weak.

Sometimes these cars can leak- watch out for signs/smells of water ingress (sunroof and tailgate) but this is fairly rare so don't get hung up.
Ditto trim rattles, but they all tend to to some degree.

These cars really are as normal as Alfa gets. Because they share so much in common with Fiats, the parts are cheap, and they are not specialised cars (anyone- well almost, can fix them). They truely are a minimum risk starter Alfa. They are cheap to buy, but, will not be worth very much in a couple of years. Yet, I think still offer trouble free and reliable fun, yet still retain the Alfa spirit. If its good, you won't regret it!

Welcome and good luck!