Hi from Darwin

Started by josh18, May 23, 2016, 08:52:10 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

josh18

Hi my name is Josh and my wife and I just took the plunge and bought our second Alfa. Our first was a 33 montecarlo 4wd wagon that was a great car but was worn out and ended up blowing up. Anyway, about 15 years later we have bought ourselves an 04 model 156 JTS wagon. We bought it from Victoria and had it shipped up here after my dad and a mechanic had gone through it. It has a full Alfa specialist service history and 115,000 ks on the clock. It needs a few cosmetic things done to it but overall it seems in great nick!
I gave it a service yesterday, new plugs and the correct 10w60 synthetic oil- much smoother and quieter running already! I have already found a few dodgy aspects of it's expensive specialist servicing- the protection for the coils' wiring loom was almost completely disintegrated away, my guess is from exhaust heat.  It all pretty much fell apart in my hands and the plastic cover was held together with some zip ties and no longer attached to the rocker cover- you could see where it had been vibrating and rubbing the alloy. And also the plugs were in so tight that I was seriously worried about the threads stripping while trying to get them out! The plugs (and exhaust tip) were also quite black, for some reason it looks like it's been running pretty rich.
So I have put a new plugs in and fixed up that wiring loom as the "specialists" should have done and it already runs much better.

Another thing I have noticed is how soft the suspension is, especially in roll- I think some better springs and dampers will have to go in soon. I would also like to do sway bars but it looks like the front one is an engine out job!

So far we really like this little beast- you could just look at it all day, outside and in!
Cheers
Josh
PS I can't seem to work out how to add pics

colcol

Hello Josh, welcome to the forum,
You must be a good bloke as you had a 33, like i still have and you have a 156 JTS, just like me.
The coil pack wiring is dodgy, to say the most, mine fell apart as well, i got a price off an Alfa Romeo dealer for some new insulators, and they only come with the wiring loom and that is $1600!!, so i purchased a second hand wiring loom with dodgy insulators, but managed to save it, and it seems to work all right, but when it cracks up, i will go to Bunnings and get some plumbing pipe and use that as an insulator, the 'specialist' would know that customers would baulk at a $1600 repair for the wiring insulators.
If the plugs are black, then it looks like it is running too rich, this could be caused by a early opening thermostat, that makes the engine run too cold and always being on 'choke'.
I have found the thermostats only last about 2 years before giving trouble, i am on about the 5th one.
The sway bar at the front can be done by dropping the subframe down and taking the sway bar out through the back, it is such a big job, just don't replace the sway bar rubbers, but the sway bar itself with new rubbers, as the sway bar can wear out too and then rattle and you do the job twice.
I don't know how you are going to survive the Darwin heat next summer, i can barely survive the Melbourne summer.
Keep a check on the oil level and enjoy the 156, almost as good as a 33, Colin.
1974 VW Passat [ist car] 1984 Alfa 33TI [daily driver] 2002 Alfa 156 JTS [daily driver]

josh18

Thanks Colin, geez that seems pretty steep for a plastic insulator hey!
Thanks a lot for the thermostat tip, I had noticed it does take a long time to warm up and does seem to run cold. Forums are so good for these kind of cars! Do you have a recommendation for a good thermostat? Also Im keen to get a workshop manual for it- any recommendations?
Cheers
Josh

colcol

I was hoping just to buy the insulator on its own, but thats the spare parts system, you have to buy 95% of what you don't want.
I don't know what is the best thermostat, they all seem as crappy as each other, i have tried Genuine Alfa Romeo [Behr], non genuine Alfa Romeo, built by the same company [Behr], Facet made in Italy, Tridon made in Italy, for all you know they may come out of the same factory.
If you find a 156 JTS thermostat, that is cheaper than another, it is most likely because it hasn't got a temperature sensor installed, so with a cheapie, you have to reuse your old sensor.
You can buy a hard copy of a workshop manual from the UK for several hundred dollars or buy a workshop manual on CD and print it out when you are doing a repair, try buying off ebay, Colin.
1974 VW Passat [ist car] 1984 Alfa 33TI [daily driver] 2002 Alfa 156 JTS [daily driver]