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Alfa 156 - FACT ME.


pogweasel

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That's beautiful.

 

I would like to draw the Nick's attention to VARIATORS, however.

I saw a V6 one of these go for £600 in the local wob and meths auction down the East Lancs Road and my mate had to physically restrain me from putting my hand up.

You can get 156s seriously cheap, but other than sporty_shite I don't know of anyone who's had a trouble free ride with one.

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Seem a bit hit and miss to me. I know a couple of peeps who have had them with varying results.

 

Case 1. A Y reg 2.0 t spark, bog spec and driven like a twat. Main issues were (from memory) Front wheel bearings, variators, water pump, power steering rack and engine mounts. Although to be fair, this guy was doing lots of miles and is a serial car killer (you know the sort).

 

Case 2. An Xreg Sillyspeed 2.0. Driven sedately. Looked awesome in black with a rear spoiler and top spec beige momo cow seats. Constant niggles with the sillyspeed gearbox. Sticking relays, disappearing oil in the hydraulics, a few random changes up and down but no engine worries.

 

Although universally panned, I didnt mind the sillyspeed gearbox on the ocassions I drove it but it was possible to confuse it or myself by changing down late, car thinks you forgot so changes down itself and you end up in 1st gear at 40mph!

 

On the cambelt issue, a few years ago I used to sell Gates belts, and was going round garages with their rep and the first I heard of 156 problems was when we walked into a workshop, 156 pushed up a corner and the rep points at it and says to the guy "cambelt?" Seems they were just starting to give trouble and the gates rep said Never let an Alfa go 30k without a full kit no matter what the book says.

 

Incidently the day before, Gates bloke had been taken round a different area by a local seller with the intention of selling tension gadgets. 1st visit was to a Merc specialist who listened to all the shpiel before pointing out that he hadnt fitted a cambelt in 10 years cos merc use chains.

Exit 2 embaressed looking salesmen!

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Well I've OWNED 156s as daylies for last three years

If they were that bad I wouldn't be trusting them to get me to work, 40 miles a day

 

Bargain cars these are. It's getting quite hard now to find an expensive one..

 

Expect a few squeeks here and there. Don't worry about variator, they go on for years with their diesel sound. Be more wary of missed belt changes and low oil levels. Top and bottom bushings knock out and spoil the handling - it's par for the course to change the arms every 40k. Knock from behind dash is engine mount.

 

It's got big ticket, tax, both keys, it's blue, it's got Sportpack wheels = wahaaay 8)

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I'll just leave this here.

£695 buy it now for this v6 with manual box(not sludgaspeed), teledial alloys and a rather nice tan interior.

I bet with a good clean it'll come up looking cracking.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170596963262&ih=007&category=9834&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1

!CEMptb!!2k~$(KGrHqR,!ioE0GqDSD8rBNRIV0ryrg~~_12.JPG

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Regarding cambelts......if it's done 98'000 miles, it'll be in need of it's fourth. The original change period was 30k, Alfa GB idiots doubled it to 60k with '30 inspection' (WTF??). So if it lasted 60k and had it's first belt then, it will be in serious need of another one now. A full belt and tensioner change is around 300 quid.

At £500, you might be the only bidder on that one. Check for rust in the front floor to sill joints and if you can, check for rotten front chassis legs - they rust like a bastard at the very front.

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I'll just leave this here.

£695 buy it now for this v6 with manual box(not sludgaspeed), teledial alloys and a rather nice tan interior.

I bet with a good clean it'll come up looking cracking.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170596963262&ih=007&category=9834&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1

!CEMptb!!2k~$(KGrHqR,!ioE0GqDSD8rBNRIV0ryrg~~_12.JPG

 

That's tasty. Sadly, I could kiss goodbye to any bedroom action if I bought it unless I found a way to get rid of the 'handle' on the boot. My wife (righty) considers them utterly ridiculous. Actually, I think the debt I'd incur in buying it would lead to me not even having access to the bedroom anymore thinking about it...

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other than sporty_shite I don't know of anyone who's had a trouble free ride with one.

 

I hope you're not tempting fate there, Wat. :shock:

 

Bit hard to compare ours with this, seeing as ours is a diesel, but when I was looking round for one, cambelt change and service history were considered essential. Belts are due a change every 36k, and water pumps, I think, every 72k. Variators, as said, can be lived with if noisy, but I think Wuvvum said in his 166 thread that the kit and tools to do it are available pretty reasonably on the bay, if you fancy getting your hands dirty. The twin sparks are designed to use a bit of oil, so careless owners running them short can be an issue, however, it does seem thathis guy knows better, and judging by the fact that there's another 156 arked across the road, he may be pretty experienced in the art of pasta-shite ownership.

 

They do like front wishbones, but these can be got at not unreasonable money. Also, by all accounts they were galvanised but not undersealed, so tinworm can be an issue. Electrically, they're not as bad as some may suggest, although ours has a habit of throwing random warning lights up every so often.

 

Ours is a jtd sportwagon, and is brilliant to drive. It's a veloce, and has 17" wheels, so the ride is a bit harsh, but it handles brilliantly, and eats the miles with ease.

 

All in all, I'd say, in a Richard Keys stylee, "smash it!"

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Can only add similar to what people have already said. I had a W reg V6 for 3 years and 55000 miles. Usual servicing, set of brake pads and nothing untowards happened! Cambelt (critical) and variator (can become noisy but not quite so critical) need changing every 36000 miles on the 4 cylinders. Personally I found mine really easy to work on. You'll hear horror stories about wearing drop links and bushes but despite mine being driven like the boot was on fire and having the heavy V6 on board it didn't need any!

 

Please buy it and enjoy - you wont' regret it :D

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I was dreaming about having a 156 JTD wagon the other day, what a great car that must be. I scanned the bay to see how much one would cost, but there were only about 3 or so on the entire bay.

 

Ended up getting ours out of the Autotrader. There were a few around, but getting the right spec (Veloce) and a facelift model did prove to be a bit of a ballache. Well worth it, though.

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I've just shed mine, newest car I ever owned and I proper loved it. Facelift Lusso 1.9 JTD Veloce, dark grey with tan leather, 05 plate, a shade under 100k on the clock. Sadly realised I needed money more than I needed the car. Went on the 'bay for a touch over three grand, tidy little profit but soooo much car for the cash.

 

DSC_9703.jpg

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I was going to do a cambelt / head repair on this one but it has a fair bit of rust in the front floor panals and a bit starting on the front chassis rails above the drive shaft.

 

I am now breaking it (Simmo 210 on ebay) or PM me, parts are nice and cheap,

 

IMG_7224.jpg

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One of my ex colleagues bought one in a moment of madness, a T-reg 2.0 Twin Spark IIRC, to replace his X-reg 1.1 Saxo. To I think everyone's astonishment, it went through two MOTs requiring no work and in the entire time he owned it before writing it off the only thing that broke was the horn.

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My dad's ex wife ran one for about 4 years. My dad bought it at 29k, a 1.8 tspark. A few electrical gremlins which were there when we bought it and never got fixed properly (rear leccy window didn't work, and the drivers side brake light didn't have any power to it. Traced the fault to something like a dodgy revcounter (!) so I just ran a bit of wire across from the other side and put LED bulbs in so it didn't overload anything) but otherwise it was spot on.

 

It used a fair bit of oil and didn't get a single service in 4 years/60k. It only got what the MOT man demanded, which IIRC wasn't a lot more than a pair of front disks and pads. Oh and a few spare (15" alloy) wheels when the stupid fat cow bent them slamming the thing up kerbs at 40mph every now and again.

 

The only "servicing" it got was me lobbing some of whatever oil I had lying around in it when I heard her come up the drive and it was clattering its knackers off. Brimming it would shut it up for about 3 months until it would come clattering up the drive again with a completely dry dipstick.

 

It got scrapped at 88k miles, when she ran it so low on oil (she left my dad so I never got to hear it rattling and top it up) that, according to the garage the oil pressure fed cambelt tensioner gave up and the (original, 88k, 9 year old) cambelt fell off in one piece. :shock:

 

Before it got slowly destroyed by complete lack of driving care and attention, mechanical sympathy and common sense it was a bloody nice car. Nice to be inside, lovely seats and a "firm, but comfortable" ride. For a 1.8 in a big car it went quite well, too.

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Strangely I thought about getting one of these last night to replace my much loved Mk2 Golf GTI 16 valve. I didn't in the end as one Italian car (A Panda 4x4) at a time is enough for me.

 

In other news we're looking for something for our 17 year old apprentice at work to fix as an educational project at work and she's poo pooed 156s as being "too long."

 

I had a ton of 156s and 159s as company cars in a past life - they used to come straight from the docks with no PDI and at least 75% of them had trim in the footwells (exterior and interior) and 50% of them went straight to the local stealer for remedial work before use, mainly due to standing in the import pound for weeks. I loved driving them but didn't find the Weasels that impressive. Plus sometimes the choice was between a V50 and a 159 and I'm ashamed to say I took V50s as I preferred the engines and MASSIVE specola they came with.

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Has anyone driven one of these q-system 156's.

It sounds like madness.

 

"The Q-system, is a full auto transmision, (not to be confused with the supposedly unreliable selespeed) but also has a four speed manual transmission system alongside, hence the Q, an H block 1-4 speed manual with final D drive to the side"

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250764492723&ih=015&category=9834&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1

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Sillyspeed ones scare the hell out of people and seem almost worthless. There was a lad selling a JTD 156 on Retro-Rides with something like 186,000 miles on the clock. From memory it was one of those cars that gets offered as a swap to anyone who advertises a car on there.

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These two were lovely, even if they were though broken. :D

 

scrapyard19.jpg

 

Is that the breakers on the roundabout about 5 miles from Howden?

 

Selespeeds are to be avoided. They are a manual gearbox but with computer controlled hydraulics.......by Magnetti Marelli. The standard five speed box is nice to use - well, apart from when the clutch slave cylinder goes and you have to remove the bastarding gearbox to change it. :roll:

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