Alfa Romeo 145 "Junior"

[Station]

What's the beef with cam belts on these? Why etc?

[flat4alfa]

How much do these normally go for?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alfa-Romeo-Spider-2-0-Convertible/201606509834?_trksid=p2047675.c100012.m1985&_trkparms=aid%3D555012%26algo%3DPW.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160608105753%26meid%3Dcb24d0deb9894

 

He says 

lots of service history

 

Well, in there it should say when the Variator, idler, water pump were done last.  If not: top down summer roulette excitement in the offing.

 

Either way, it's hardly going to be expensive to buy and run for a while.  These lasted better than the later CF2 and (especially!) CF3 donks

[flat4alfa]

What's the beef with cam belts on these? Why etc?

 

Back in the mid-nineties, AR stated the interval was 60k.  They changed their minds shortly after and reduced it to 36k after a few warranty upsets.

 

I've had two Twinks, a Busso, 5 Boxers, 2 JTD - and never had a belt go.

 

Later in life, outside of the dealer network, the beef typically is because 'local' garages didn't want* to buy the lock set and/or the customers insisted on running them on Cortina budgets.  Once Alfas like this get on a bit it's hard to find an expensive one anyhow

 

*even if they pretended they had them, you can spot the Tipp-Ex marks

[crapcarcollector]

Yup, if you learn and look after them, they don't go wrong. They just do not suffer neglect very well at all.

 

 

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[The Reverend Bluejeans]

The flat four version was a complete waste of time, a horrible slow heavy thing that was worse than the old 33 it replaced. The 1.6 was so dismal, the 1351 cc version must have  been absolutely desperate. The later Twin Spark version was better but they apart from the 2.0 were never anything more than a flash Astra. The Focus was vastly superior really.

[flat4alfa]

I never found my 1.6L 146 horrible, slow or heavy...

 

Just in case my memory serves incorrectly (I have drunk half the bar since then), I fished-out what I wrote at the time.  Hey presto it says:

 

[ This was 2014]

 

Just picked up this Alfa 146 (after a wine-induced bid (fact!)) from the first year of production.  Which meant it was just old enough to be slapped on the classic multi-car policy, thankfully

 

 

Shocker!  Just 11 of this model are left on UK roads!   Perhaps a timely purchase?  Aww go on, it is almost 20 years old..  DVLA figures say that just 1.9% of all boxer-engined 146s are left on the road - so not too many chances left?  It's super-clean inside and out.  Furtive glances seem to indicate exceptional solidity underneath too.  

 

 

'Road-testers' wrote that the old Alfasud engine was a bit of a nail in this car, but to me, it hoofs along plenty and has plenty of spirit!  So far, am not in agreement...  Having the 8-valve, it's more than grunty enough.  Having farted about with these motors since my teens, I've always preferred this over the 16v versions, anyhow

 

 

Bianco Argento isn't exactly the Wife's favourite colour though.  And the perky boxer engine isn't quite as relaxing as she hoped.  She thought the seats were a bit 'Nana', too.

 

The fella I bought it off spent the same sort of money on a set of discs (before fitting) for his Maserati 3200GT...

 

Sold it after a few months as it became surplus.  I remember the gearing was too short for my daily 40 mile commute so didn't use it that much.  She never wanted it and went back to Multipla

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I sold these new for SGT in Taplow. Before the 145 was the 33 which as a 1.5 i.e was half decent. At the time I was running a 1.3 Corolla hatchback, an L reg part ex. So the 145 came out. Our first demo was a metallic purply coloured 1.6 and I set off in it one night from work to go to the AROC meeting on the A4 near Maidenhead. It was fucking awful and the Toyota would have eaten it alive. At the time my own car was an X plate Alfasud TiX 1.5, the 95 bhp version with the double twin downdraught Dellortos. That too would have kicked the 145's arse down the road.

 

The 145 flat four was shit, a massive disappointment even before the steering rack mountings broke away from the bulkhead (as they did) . But that was just me driving one or two and comparing it to other cars. I love old Alfas, but some of them really were quite dreadful.

[flat4alfa]

The Focus was vastly superior really.

 

Maybe the fairer comparison would be the Ford model from the same age: Escort Mark V

[flat4alfa]

Thread bumpage. as this was the first relevantish thread I fished-out, because today I met a serial 145-licker who came to buy a spare set of QV alloys.

 

This is the current daily

 

 

One of 9 in UK left of this model 

 

Just 7 Juniors too.

[Schaefft]

Interesting to see this thread coming up now. I've only decided in the last couple days that I need a red 146ti in my life eventually, I just love the way they look from the front. I've checked how many of the Cloverleaf/Ti 145/146 are left in the country yesterday. The first surprise was that the top spec engines easily outsold all the others. The second one was that the top spec 146 sold a lot better than the 145 originally, but numbers are reverted now with about 200 146ti and 300 145 Cloverleaf left.

[Aston Martin]

My first car was going to be a 146ti, the night before I was going to look at it. I googled the car dealer.

 

I've never seen such dodgy reviews.

[Guest]

Interesting to see this thread coming up now. I've only decided in the last couple days that I need a red 146ti in my life eventually, I just love the way they look from the front. I've checked how many of the Cloverleaf/Ti 145/146 are left in the country yesterday. The first surprise was that the top spec engines easily outsold all the others. The second one was that the top spec 146 sold a lot better than the 145 originally, but numbers are reverted now with about 200 146ti and 300 145 Cloverleaf left.

You just missed a real cracker of  a Rosso 146ti on Ebay. I remember lingering on the page for a while then remembering I could get a very nice GTV again for less cash. I've been trying to ignore Alfa's for a good while now, but they keep calling me.. even found my cam locking tools a few weeks back. Cambelts are easy on these, for real pain try an alternator change...