[danny e]

just going to have a rant on here as im so gutted and anoyed with my self for not getting my first alfa looked over before i bought it......

bought my 2001 156 2.0ts sportwagon almost 2 months ago now and in this time i have drove it for 3 days

almost as soon as i got it my other half said to me 'the engine sounds a bit noisy'....... with some investigating from myself and using this forum it became clear its either my cambelt idler or the tensioner!

GREAT i thought, straight away i need a cambelt kit replacement. check what little history i have with the car and saw the cambelt was last changed in may 2008 and 36k ago, definately needs a cambelt kit.

next problem...... clonking or rattling coming from front suspension...... previous owner assures me he had changed both front upper and lower arms and drop links....... i inspected suspension and almost definately needs front ARB bushes........GREAT, another awkward job.

next problem, by day 2 of owning the clutch was sticking half way up.
by day 3 its hard to change gear. i have an inspection and notice fluid on bottom of gear box........ bleed the clutch but this makes things 100 times worse and now clutch is stuck at the bottom and car now needs slave cylinder and clutch kit, GREAT!!!

now the alfa has been stuck outside my house un-driveable since 3 days of owning and needing close to £1500 of work car only cost me £1000.

looking at her sitting outside every day has made me feel like regretting buying the damn car.
i live with my partner and our 1 year old son and we are so skint and i cant see myself sotring her out this year to be honest.

thats it, iv had my rant, just wanted to share my bad luck with you guys...

dan

 

[rarebear]

1000 quid ! what did you expect ?? a decent bike will cost you 1500.

 

[GhostyDog]

sounds like you know which end of a spanner to use, have word with the guys at autolusso, they will more than likely have some used bits and bobs you can buy vastly cheaper than the new items for you to get your car up and running again cheaply.



Good luck

 

[mdaavo74]

sorry to hear that danny

as for what do you expect for a grand little harsh if you spend a grand or 10 you could still encounter problems not everybody in a position to throw money into a car i know i certainly dont thought this forum was all about trying to help fellow alfa owners were possible not make them feel inferior

hope you get sorted soon danny good luck

 

[Laptop_Matt]

There is no such thing as a cheap Alfa,

All I can suggest is fix the problems and keep the car as you know that they will not need doing in the future.

It will drive alot better when sorted and you wont want to stop driving it

 

[Guest]

1000 quid ! what did you expect ?? a decent bike will cost you 1500.

Why would you post this when the OP has had such a miserable time of the car? It really isn't helpful now, is it?

to the OP: I'm sorry this has happened to you and regret that I'm not able to help with the problem. It's not because it's an Alfa - could have happened with any car.

If the ARB bushes are rattling, this will lead to an MoT failure - hope you have a long ticket on it still. The clutch might only need a slave cylinder. The cam belt issue isn't going to be cheap though, sad to say.

Hope things turn out OK for you.

 

[tat2]

try and work your way thru things then at least you know theve been done service history isnt worth the paper its written on in my experience i always service and cambelt change when i get a car its piece of mind im slowly working thru my suspension little by little you could of spent 5 times as much on another make and it would turn out to be a dodo then you would be p****ed off alfas need tlc

 

[sparepart]

LITERALLY just got back from Autolusso. Rang a garage that apparently carried out a cambelt change on mine, they had but not the waterpump so had it done - over £200 cheaper than anywhere else:

1) Your cambelt - £250.00 fitted with the belt and tensioners etc.
Autolusso - Alfa Romeo Specialist | 156 Servicing

2) clutch - Autolusso - Alfa Romeo Specialist | Clutch Replacement

3) Slave - buy from here if it is no cheaper anywhere else: clutch and gearbox alfa 156 for Alfa 156

Good luck and I hope you stick with it - when they are up and running, there is nothing quite like it.

 

[mrshomersimpson]

i felt a bit like that when i bought my alfa, it seemed like a long long lost of faults compared to its vision of lovelyness outside my house...

mines a 1998 156 t spark 1.8.

so far ive had to replace the sump cover, previous owner gave it me with a MASSIVE HOLE in it which they tried to fix by ramming a pole up it, honestly had the garage not seen it, you would think i was kidding, at a cost of £200 then i had to get the belt done and the water pump done along with a droplink and a hefty set of welding at a cost of £500 before the mot im going to need more welding, bout another £200 worth and a ne exhaust back box which an amazing friend of mine is kindly giving me his old one! so i only need to pay for fitting,,

still tho i cant really complain, i paid £650 for the car and the above repairs and i love it! such a pleasure to drive!

 

[gangerlv]

There is no such thing as a cheap Alfa,

I wouldnt sell mine even for 1500, and shes done 160k miles. Buying a 10 year old alfa cheap - you will have to restore her. I've spent about 2k in parts in a year shes like a sick child to me - i can't kill her myself and won't let to do that anyone else...

 

[MattSax]

Sorry to hear of your troubles
I also thought the ''what do you expect'' remark was'nt very helpfull.
If it helps I spent £5000 last year on an Alfa from a specialist on hear and I still bled money from her, so much so that I got rid of her, it was a dreadfull experience but just goes to show you never know whats around the corner......unless your the person selling it

Its not just an Alfa problem

 

[danny e]

thank you every one for your supportive replies (apart from you rarebear obviously).

and nice one 'sparepart', that link you gave me for autolusso is brilliant, i cant beleave they will do the cambelt kit change for £250 i definately feel better about that now.

just got to try source a clutch for a good price, (maybe one from ebspares that again sparepart sourced for me) and i can then atleast get her driveable again.

thanks again guys, its nice to have forums like this, it really does support you through troubled times with our cars

dan

 

[1of1]

May the force be with you Dan - welcome aboard

 

[alfafanatic100]

Thats why the owner sold it for £1000 because he probrably knew it needed a bit of cash spending to get the
car in perfect running order, any car 10 years old will require a little extra tlc and if the bodywork is in excellent order its worth spending the money to bring it up to a decent standard.
I always try to pick a car in excellent cond in and out and a full stamped history and even then Alfa's are still very good value for money compared to the less carasmatic offerings from other marques, good luck.

 

[ronan]

Sorry to hear of your first dabble in Alfa waters.

We're on our 2nd 156 and the other day i went to see another 156 (1999) as a "runaround"....£895...MOT and tax till April 2012 from a trader.Looked quite nice in ad:

http://www.utvdrive.co.uk/car/239774/1999-alfa-romeo-156-t-spark-16v-belfast/

Yeh....3 bald tyres...cambelt "no idea,mate"....idle all over the shop.....and a clutch that slipped more than a banana.

Thanks.....have the keys back...walk away time.:tut:

 

[sparepart]

i cant beleave they will do the cambelt kit change for £250

BELIEVE IT AND WATCH IN AWE AT THE SPEED AT WHICH THEY DO IT!!!

I travelled pretty much 200 miles there and back, just for the belt. I would go again tomorrow - but hopefully the car stays right for a wee while now - MOT in October!!!! Fingers crossed!

 

[Guest]

Welcome to the forums Dan and first of all my sympathy for your strife... However I must admit it may have been a bit naive buying an Alfa without checking when the cambelt was last done mate...

Homework is the key to this marque, the more you read, the more you learn and the cheaper it will cost you in ownership in the long run....
They are a car that needs you, NAY requires you to get your hands dirty & you must keep on top of it....
Any one who takes on an Alfa and expects the same expectation of a warning/reminder light to come on the dash like a V.A.G./BMW derived marque is literaly asking for trouble!

What you WILL get in return is a driving and ownership experience like nothing you have known before.. You WILL be impressed of it capabilities & you WILL be hooked.....

I have to disagree with coments like "price versus what do you expect"...
My last Alfa cost me £750 for a full ARSH, Last service 6,000 miles ago.
Every bill and receipt, even wheel balances logged, even wiper blades!.
A full MOT, six months tax.
85,000 miles, cambelt, waterpump, tensioners & idlers all changed at 74,000
New radiator and thermostat.
NEW MAF 3 months ago.
New brake discs and pads all round.
New battery.
Poly bushes all round!
That's for a V6 Q-System on a 2001 V plate... So it is entirely possible to get a "minter" even at that price, let no one tell you different... There are plenty of good, cheap Alfa's out there as well as bad one's with bad owners!
The only difference is I have owned a few Alfa's now and know what I'm looking for..... That is where the "homework" is so important...
Good luck in what you decide.... But..... Look on the bright side, at least you won't have to worry about the fundamental's for a long while once you have it sorted mate :thumbs:

 

[ronan]

Welcome to the forums Dan and first of all my sympathy for your strife... However I must admit it may have been a bit naive buying an Alfa without checking when the cambelt was last done mate...

Homework is the key to this marque, the more you read, the more you learn and the cheaper it will cost you in ownership in the long run....
They are a car that needs you, NAY requires you to get your hands dirty & you must keep on top of it....
Any one who takes on an Alfa and expects the same expectation of a warning/reminder light to come on the dash like a V.A.G./BMW derived marque is literaly asking for trouble!

What you WILL get in return is a driving and ownership experience like nothing you have known before.. You WILL be impressed of it capabilities & you WILL be hooked.....

I have to disagree with coments like "price versus what do you expect"...
My last Alfa cost me £750 for a full ARSH, Last service 6,000 miles ago.
Every bill and receipt, even wheel balances logged, even wiper blades!.
A full MOT, six months tax.
85,000 miles, cambelt, waterpump, tensioners & idlers all changed at 74,000
New radiator and thermostat.
NEW MAF 3 months ago.
New brake discs and pads all round.
New battery.
Poly bushes all round!
That's for a V6 Q-System on a 2001 V plate... So it is entirely possible to get a "minter" even at that price, let no one tell you different... There are plenty of good, cheap Alfa's out there as well as bad one's with bad owners!
The only difference is I have owned a few Alfa's now and know what I'm looking for..... That is where the "homework" is so important...
Good luck in what you decide.... But..... Look on the bright side, at least you won't have to worry about the fundamental's for a long while once you have it sorted mate :thumbs:

Can i buy yours off you for £800,Grahameo....still a nice £50 profit for you !! :lol:

 

[06gt]

You can have a rant, and it is unfortunate. But really it does sound like these are things you should have noticed while inspecting the car and driving it. I drove a few different gt's before deciding on one. I basically drove a few examples to get a feel as to how alfas should drive as I had no previous alfa experience. Having said that I believe I have dome as much as I could to minimize buying one with issues fresh off the bat, but the reality is with any used car there is always a possibility of things going wrong. It is part of buying used car but armrest the car only cost you £2500 all up with repairs, it isn't going to be the end of the world but it does make you feel crap in the short term.

 

[pubsinger]

That's for a V6 Q-System on a 2001 V plate...

2001 was X,Y or 51, unless the previous owner for some reason put an older plate on it.

As for the OP, if you're planning on keeping the car for a couple of years I can pretty much guarantee you would have, at some point, had suspension and clutch problems. The cambelt and viariator is also something one just has to put up with.

I've had my GT for 3 years now and have spent a fortune on it. It was 2 years old with just under 30K miles on it when I bought it. 3 years and 50 K miles later I've done (* work done by my Indie)...

Upper Wishbones
Lower Wishbones
ARB Drop Links
Anti-Roll-Bar
*Cambelt/Tensioners/Water pump (will require this again next year)
Pads/Discs all round
Driver's door handle
7 tyres (need another soon)
Inlet Manifold
Swirl Valve Actuator
Red Dot Remap
*Q2 Diff
*CG Motorsports Fast Road Clutch
*4 Services, 5th due in 2K miles

I shudder to think what that lot adds up to.... and I spent £11,250 on the car. I've still got a suspension knock too, pretty sure it's the O/S strut so will have that investigated at the next service.

It's a beautiful car and I love it and will happily continue to spend money on it.

Don't rush into changing your ARB, simply disconnect the drop links both sides and see how much movement there is by hand, you can also drive it disconnected, cable tie it to prevent it swinging about and go for a gentle drive, see if it's still knocking

The very best of luck to you

Pub