Twin Spark Service History

[avim]

One of the 156 TS manuals I'm looking at has a bit of a service history gap from about 30,000 - 55,000 k's.
This was before the current owner had the car and the car has now travelled close to 130,000 (he's travelled approximately 65,000 k's since he acquired it) with no gaps in its service history (and completely reliable according to him as well).

Is the gap cause for concern?

[Davidm1600]

Hi Avim, while definitely not ideal, given that at that stage of the 156's life it was still fairly new and therefore likely to have been serviced by an Alfa dealer rather than say an independant, it probably isn't critical, albeit a little strange that the service records were not kept up to date.  What is that the belts were changed prior to 60,000km as is required.  Hopefully this at least is documented.  I note that it has reached 130,000km so again hopefully the belts were changed prior to or around 120,000km.

Given that the current owner has had it regularly serviced and documented you should be reasonably safe to assume that all relevant details have been entered to give you a good idea of the condition of the car.  Obviously if not certain I would get the car checked out by an Alfa specialist for peace of mind.  There are plenty of 156s out there for sale so it is not as if it should be difficult to find one.  Dave

[downunder]

Hi,
Having just replaced both cams on my year 2000 TS, I recommend that you lift the tapet cover and check that all the cam lobes are intact.  Having run my car carefully on Mobil1 I thought I was "babying" it, only to find that both cams were ruined at 120K kms.  (I do all my own work) I mean, 5mm was missing off several lobes.
You can get the belts changed, and it is nice to know that history, but the cam wear is a known problem, and I would be most concerned about it.

Cheers,
Downunder
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Alfa GT 3.2L Q2
Alfa 156 - 2L
Alfa 75 - 2L - track car