My new baby

[jimay3677]

Hi everyone, I just thought I would introduce myself and show some pictures of my new baby

2002 156 JTS Selespeed.
127,000 on the clock.

I had some issues the first day, missing 1st, not selecting any gears.  I worked out the not selecting gears was due to me trying to shift without the brake pressed (oops, someone said I should RTFM but meh)

I still can't get over the condition of this car, the photo's don't do it justice as it had rained the night before taking the photo's so it was a little dirty.
It has full service history to 100,000k at Corban Automotive in Woollongong (Alfa dealer) and then an Alfa dealer in Thornbury up until 120,000k

Here are the photo's

[colcol]

Hello jimay3677, car looks great, certainly Walter De Silva knew all about styling, as he described the 156 as "perfectly balanced", you can see why SEAT then AUDI snapped him up.
Don't be too hasty in dumping the Magnatec, leave it in and wait until it goes black and them dump it.
At that amount of kays, you will start getting engine error messages and that will most likely be Lambda Sensors, and the JTS has FOUR, don't hesitate replacing worn out Lamda's as they can cause the engine to run rich and rui the TWO Catalatic Convertors.
Make sure your thermostat is working OK, it should get to 90c within about 5 kilometres and stay there, if it is working OK, then its just been replaced, if not, its about to fail, i have had THREE in mine! in 5 years.
Those little rubber covers can be had at wreckers, as they tend to get lost, try Monza wreckers in Bayswater, Victoria, speak to Hugh Harrison.
Put some leather cleaner / preservative, to stop them drying out in the hot Australian sun, i use Selleys, as its easy to apply and it drys quick and smells good, have you seen 'MOMO branding on your seats yet?, it will make the leather seats experience even better.
The climate control knobs have been known to fail, the 'clicking' mechanism after a period can freewheel and alter when you go around a corner, the climate control is made by DELPHI which is or was a General Motors Company.
The climate control airconditioner has 1 pollen filter under the dashboard, if it is  original filter the replacments are a 2 piece for easier fitting.
Thats enough from me, nice car you have there, Colin.

[jimay3677]

Thanks Col,

I honestly can't remember what the temp gauge reads, it was somewhere between 70-90, I'll take her for a good drive tomorrow and suss it out.
When I ran the clutch self calibration (incorrectly mind you because the instructions aren't clear at step 4.) the engine temp was 85 according to MES which was a good 5 minutes after turning the engine off.

I do have o2 sensors on the list to be done eventually, I suspect they are within normal limits as I was getting 5.8L at 100k and 6L at 110 (That was without cruise too as I hadn't worked out how to use it, I thought the set button on the indicator stalk was to set the cruise) I'll hook MES up again and see what it has to say about them

I started armoralling the interior a few days ago, I did the driver seat and decided to come back to it on the weekend once I realised how much extra work is involved now lol.  I find the aircon to be a bit average in the car, it's cold enough but I can't seem to get the vents to pump air at me

I had a discussion with my wife tonight that I may need to quit drinking alcohol, that way when I have the sudden urge to go for a drive at 8:00pm I can lol.

[Cool Jesus]

Sounds like your very chuffed with it mate. It's very rare to find, well I've found, a second hand Alfa with any service history. Let alone full history like yours.
I've got steering wheel paddles off a 2005 147 wreck which should fit. They're in good nick, the 147 only having 25K kms. Don't know what they're worth, if you look at prices then pm me an offer, happy to part with them.
You'll also find this forum invaluable for advice, help and jockularity. Welcome aboard and to Alfa ownership.

[extraball]

nice, considered some euro styled thin number plates?

[jimay3677]

Bugger. Temp doesn't go above 70ish while the engine is running. Is the nulon red oat coolant ok for these?

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[jimay3677]

Can anyone suggest a thermostat brand/supplier

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[colcol]

The red coolant is the correct one for the 156, that is the Nulon OAT, [i hope it is correct as its what i run!], try Italian Automotive Spares, for a thermostat, they had a good display of parts and knowledge at the Spectacolo last Sunday, phone 03 9036 1606, and one of them drives a 156, so he must be a good bloke!, Colin.

[jimay3677]

Hmm just went for a 15 minute drive at 100 and it barely managed 50. Heater wasn't very warm either

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[extraball]

turn on the a/c, it soon heats-up fast enough

[colcol]

I have had 3 thermostats in my JTS, Genuine from Alfa, Genuine Replacement and Italian Facet all failed rather quickly, must be a design fault with them, the JTS is different to a Twin Spark, but just as short lived, even the V-6's fail as well, at least they are easy to get at, but are expensive, as they come in a housing with pipes and sensors installed, if you get a price and its a lot cheaper than another one......then it most likely doesn't have the sensor, Colin.

[jimay3677]

I've ordered one from Preson Paige, it's a Behr with a sensor.
There goes the money I saved for custom fit floor mats! lol
How much coolant will I loose? since it was all just replaced I'm tempted just to top up with distilled water.

[colcol]

Disconect the lower radiator hose and drain into a bucket, and any coolant that you replace, fill it with the recomended coolant to water ratio, Colin.

[jimay3677]

what an annoyance.. paid Ford $100 for coolant (yeah I know!) now I have to dump it all and spend another $60 on coolant two weeks later lol.
PS. does anyone know where to buy some clic r pliers?

[colcol]

If it has red coolant in it, put it back in again, you shouldn't mix different brands of coolant, but if they are all of the same spec, it won't make much differnce, what color coolant do you have now?, if a Ford dealer put the coolant in, go to a Ford dealer and get some red Ford coolant.
What are clic r pliers?< Colin.