hi,
I am thinking of getting a 159 JTD 2.4. to use as a daily, I will be doing quite high kms and my main concern is the reliability above 150k or even 200k kms. has anyone run these cars in aus and experienced high kms, thinking about things breaking, turbo etc.
thanks for help :)
There are 159 drivers that know heaps more about these excellent cars than me, the particle filters in these tend to clogg up round town, as they don't get hot enough to burn off all the particles, but seeing you are doing country runs, the particle filter will get sufficiently hot enough, the Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valves clog up from time to time and need to be pulled apart and cleaned, with a lot of city running the butterfly valves in the manifolds can clogg up, and again have to be pulled apart and cleaned, the cam belt change is about twice as long as a petrol 156-147, on the diesel its about 6 years or 100,000klms???, but if the cam belt breaks, then the rockers buy the farm [die] to save the engine, but the little rollers fall down in the sump and the sump has to be removed and the rollers fished out.
The engine has a oil purity sensor, and if the oil is dirty it will throw up an alarm and you have to change the oil and sometimes the alarm will come back as the oil is still too dirty and will need another change.
It is best to use Premium Diesel fuel as it is purer and less truck like than the normal diesel, and it is quite and rattles less.
Sometimes if you whack a kerb or a pothole, the subframe can move on the body, and a wheel alingment at your local franchised dealer won't fix it, you have to take it to an Alfa Service Provider who loosen off all the bolts and centre the subframe back on the body.
Also like most modern cars it has an aero undertray for the motor / gearbox, that requires you to undo 22 bolts to remove the undertray, before you can get to the engine, time consuming and a pain, so expect a little more on your service bill for this one, apart from these things i don't know much about these great cars except, there is a series 1 and series 2 159, the series 2 was lighter and had a redesigned interior, which gave more room, and the most important thing is that it was an Italian car built in Italy with an Italian motor...how could you go wrong?, Colin.
thanks for your reply colin appreciate it a lot. if anyone has got any experience with issues on a high km car, from carsales the 159s in my budget have over 100k on them, and by my calculations I will be putting about 40-50k per year, hence want to know if someone has experience or even links to other ppl's experience in cars with that high kms.
I suppose I just want to confirm that the 159 will be cheaper to run and service then my current car (Mitsubishi evo) but better to drive and look than a plain old ford/holden.
I don't think too many cars come with much of a guarantee over 150,000km only guarantee is they look good
thanks for the help, ended up getting a '06 159, been driving it for a few days now, and quite happy :)
now researching servicing and how to look after the car :)
Ziad, great to see you have joined the team, a few pictures in the 'introduce yourself' section would be good, it would be good to join the Alfa Romeo Owners Club, to take advantage of being a club member and joining and participating in events, such as Technical visits, Driver training days and Sunday runs, talk to some members of the same type of car and where the best place is for Service and Advice, Colin.