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Long time comin .

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comin long
2K views 20 replies 8 participants last post by  lussoman 
#1 ·
Having been a fan of alfas for a good few years I thought it was finally time to get one.
Obviously my user name would suggest I've been into Japanese cars for a while.
But in my youth my first few cars were fiat's, and the last few years I've been the proud owner of a few coupe 20 valve turbos, marea 2.4 HLX etc.

I'm now on the hunt for a 159 2.4 ti, which seems like a tall order for my modest budget.
 
#2 ·
Welcome o AO, good luck with the ti search, hopefully you'll soon be an Alfa owner :thumbs:
 
#4 · (Edited)
I got myself a 2.4 Lusso, i couldn't find a Ti in my budget.
So the good bits,
It has full history and lots of receipts

Subframe, powder coated

Unfortunately there were some bad points too. On the way home the clutch started to slip. Called the dealer who arranged to get it to replace it.

While i was waiting to take it back in i found some other faults.
Oil leak (dealer told me they'd had the sump off due to a leak)
Water leak from the plastic bleed screw in the water rail.
Heated mirrors don't work and they don't fold properly.
Parking assist doesn't work.
Alarm doesn't work.
Knock from the rear exhaust.
Knock from passenger side front suspension.
Cruise control works fine for five mins then wont turn on again.

The dealer agreed to change the clutch, DMF and sort the oil leak out and wasn't interested in the other issues saying it was a ten year old car.

So despite the problems i love the way the car drives.
I've now got new lower arms, top arms, roll bar bushes and a pair of roll bar drop links to get fitted.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Been very busy recently sorting out this poor 159, i found surface rust creeping in under the front wheel arches.
Had it all stripped off, cleaned up back to bare metal and applied plenty of Rust Bullet an american product which seems to work well.
All new top and bottom arms etc etc.

They Also found the same in the rear inner arches so did the same there.
Sorted spare wheel well pond, stripped the interior and binned all the dodgy wiring for the cheap Chinese stereo and replaced it with a decent kenwood set up with reverse camera that actually works.
Also sorted the parking assist as it was unplugged at the bumper.
It drives much better now. Still lots of work to be done yet.
 
#9 ·
I've not updated this post for a while. I got so busy with various projects.
I'll put some pics up.
I had it machine polished to get rid od swirls and light scratches.
It came up lovely.
I wanted to refurb the wheels silver but decided to stay with black.
I finally (after a year) got round to sorting out all the paperwork receipts into a nice leather bound case, the service book is all stamped and up to date, although i did go over it with a fine toothcomb after i got it back from the warranty work and sorted it all out properly.
 

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#10 ·
Got rid of the cheap daytime running lights, then had an incident with a pigeon that must have been flying at least 100mph and decided it was going to embed itself into the washer bottle via the passenger fog light.
Quick click of eBay and a few days later a replacement fog lamp and new surround was fitted.
 

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#14 ·
A little update on this, just as I was getting on top of the issues on this car it has been crashed into by one of the technicians at work.
He was moving a HGV tractor unit and didn't see me driving passed him in the yard before he pulled off and hit the off side rear quarter.
Obviously it's being a nightmare with investigatitions galore and HSE BS and my car has been sat in the work compound now for a month.
It will be a write off for sure even thigh it was a 10mph collision.

But fear not Alfisti I have picked up (or should say had delivered to me) the car I wanted in the first place.

A Red 2.4 Ti saloon!
I say delivered as it has a broken engine. And by broken I mean spun crank bearing.
I was simply going to get work to pay me out for my Lusso and swap the engine but as that's taking forever I thought I may as well use a spare engine I'd picked up earlier in the year.

Now my Lusso was an 06 200bhp model and the Ti is an 07 210bhp model, and I can report no rust under the wheel arches!
It also has split folding rear seats which is a massive bonus for me.

Anyhow I bought a 200bhp bare engine that the poor lad had thrown a tonne of money at.
Initially he'd had a low oil pressure warning and home out and fitted a new oil pump.
Then on fitting that and a new cambelt kit and starting it up it slipped a tooth or two and broke a rocker or two.
After spending hours finding all 30 needle rollers for the broken rocker and replacing two other rockers. It was built up again and then while idling just cut out and refused to start again.

Turns out one cam jumped some more teeth (No idea how) and this time bent a valve.
So he broke the car and called it quits.
There is a lot more to the story and it had been to an independent Alfa specialist who diagnosed it and quoted over £2k to put right.

I got the engine simply for the new oil pump, as it happens the Alfa specialist could not undo the crank pulley bolt.
I put my big impact gun on and that wouldn't shift it either. (Yes left hand thread)
So with that I pulled the head off to reveal two pistons damaged with valve imprints on them.

With the sump off I was expecting to find a mess, but inside the block was super clean, indicative of a well looked after engine.
Even pulling all the big ends off revealed perfectly normal minimal wear and no sign of oil starvation.
With the engine on the stand I inserted a shrink wrapped lump of wood between the crank webs and the block and got out big bertha the 3/4 drive breaker bar.
Cracked two sockets before i gave up with trying to remove the oil pump and decided this engine will do for a refresh.

More to come.....
 
#21 ·
Dark alloys always look smaller - a lack of contrast with the tyres.

The Fiat coupe looks great. Love those cars.
 
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