my alfa 156. could have bought a pile of poo

hi guys, on thursaday i bought an Alfa 156 2.4 jtd 01 plate,96,000 miles on the clock, and i paid £2995.
it has black smoke coming out of the exhaust upon acceleration, (any ideas?) a dodgy fuel gauge and my water temp stays about 55. the under tray is loose and i have constant worry about the sump grounding out!! But i love my alfa. are these normal problems for the 156 or have i bought a pile of poo?

1) They can smoke, mine does on hard acceleration. It might be because its been remapped? Is it really quick? Other thing you can easily check is pipe coming out of the engine, over the battery and down into the wing. It splits often on the underside, so when your turbo boosts instead of the engine getting all the air a lot of it escapes, meaning the diesel can't burn properly.. But there's lots of other things that can cause excessive smoking..

2) Dodgy as in how? I get twice as many miles on the first half than I do on the second half, but I think they all do this. Same happens on both the V6 and JTD that I own.. Just a typical Alfa gremlin

3) If water temp stays at 55 degrees you have a stuck open thermostat, which requires replacing. Easy fix

4) I'm suprised you still have an undertray. Most original undertrays are long gone by now, but it doesn't offer the sump any protection anyway, it will ground out and smash regardless.

I've got my JTD up for sale at £2995 also, the link is in my signature

A good set of uprated front dampers will help 100% with the front grounding out - the standard Alfa dampers are very poor and compress far too easily and quickly

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hi dont think its been remapped but i wouldnt know, dampers would be a good idea (eventually) but at least i know now the smoke wont cost me a bomb. when i turn off the car i have say half a tank, and ill use the car half hour later and it tells me i have 1/4, eventually it will read half but dont know if ill run out someday!! what should the water temp stay at?

Originally Posted by snowangel

what should the water temp stay at?

Don't worry about the fuel gauge..

Should be running just a needle's width under 90, but as long as it is over 70 thats not too bad. What does yours run at?

its about 55-60

Originally Posted by snowangel

its about 55-60

Thats exactly what mine did when I had a stuck open thermostat.. Sounds like you need a new one, they aren't too expensive, and its only an hour or two labour.

Does it ever get really hot? Above 90? Like if you give it a good spanking on a back road or get stuck in rush hour traffic?

not seen get above 60 (could be 65 but too busy watching road lol) ive given her a thrashing on our back roads and got caught at traffic lights road works sunday and it only went down to 55, not up

Originally Posted by snowangel

not seen get above 60 (could be 65 but too busy watching road lol) ive given her a thrashing on our back roads and got caught at traffic lights road works sunday and it only went down to 55, not up

In that case it sounds like your radiator is in good condition (might be new-ish) and is cooling the car effectively. Your thermostat is stuck open though, meaning the radiator is always cooling the car even when it is not needed. Sometimes its worth replacing the radiator at the same time but probably not in your case as it seems to be doing its job as it should.

Do you have an Alfa specialist near by? You really ought to take your car there and get it looked over, you've just recently bought it and found two big-ish problems it might not've been as well looked after as it should have. There's a whole list of recommended specialists here:

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/gener...endations.html (Independent garage Recommendations)

should have one in ipswich, thanks for that ill give it a go and see what he says first.