Advice for a friend's Alfa 159 JTS 1.9

[steve_earwig]

Yeah, never go on a one-make forum before considering a new purchase, it'll only be full of bad experiences.  People don't tend to post much when the car is performing well.

Well, that's true, they don't all go wrong, but asking questions like "what should I look out for?" shouldn't really furnish you with reams and reams of potential issues.

 

You could say that for any make . The 5 series forum is full if similar tales of woe.

I don't think that'll ever be an issue for me...

[Lacquer Peel]

Why are modern timing chains so rubbish? They've conspired to make them last less time than rubber belts, when the reverse used to be true and chains lasted the life of the car.

[r.welfare]

I suspect part of it is massively long oil change intervals. My wife has a Qashqai, 1600 petrol, 5 years old now. This engine has a timing chain. It's done 122,000 miles, we bought it at 106k, and had been serviced by Nissan every 12.5k up to that point (which is quite frequent by modern standards). I'm now changing the oil and filter every 6k and we will see how long it lasts; ideally over 200k is the aim.

[HH-R]

Because General Motors, they engineer everything down to lasting the warranty period(or even less sometimes).

[Lacquer Peel]

It's not just GM, BMW and VAG have problem timing chains too.

[MarvinsMom]

they all must use the same chinese factory using recycled baked bean tins-bicycles-biscuit wrappers to make said timing chains.

 

that, and ~ALL MODERNS ESPECIALLY GERMAN IS HIT!

[flat4alfa]

My local Alfa specialist just buys them in and breaks them, even with a ticket

 

There are also having to send back already-rusting subframes from just-arrived stock     I've had a close-up look at one of these and the quality was shocking, swarf everywhere, not even dipped.  

 

They have no love for this 'GM era' of Alfa

 

Part of the reason Fiat have walked away from GM