So are Alfa's unreliable or not? (esp. 159s)

So are Alfa's unreliable or not? (esp. 159s)

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Discussion

TheBALDpuma

5,842 posts

167 months

Monday 21st July 2014
quotequote all
TA14 said:
I hope that's mthe end of it. The suspension is not a weak point - only the bushes (especially the front) and that's on the 147/156/GTV platforms; The OP asked about the 159 and ALFA had addressed this problem for this model.
Alright alright, suspension bushes, not suspension. Geez!!!!!

P.s. James (bro) will come on here in a minute and tell everyone how wonderfully reliable his car is hehe

RicksAlfas

13,355 posts

243 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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Bennet said:
Frequent expensive repairs would spoil the car for me though.
This is part of the problem. Alfas can be a bit more "delicate" than some alternatives and need a bit more TLC than say a Honda where you can just put fuel in and drive it. For this reason alone I would try and buy from an enthusiast rather than the cheapest you can find. You need a car where someone has opened the bonnet regularly and looked after it. Servicing can be expensive, especially at main dealers so things get missed/forgotten/left to chance over the years, and it's the subsequent owner who gets the problem.

The 2.4 is a great engine (I had a 10 valve in a 156 and a 20 valve in a Brera), but it is not economical or simple to work on.
The 1.9 or later 2.0 is probably a more rational choice. Just not as much fun.

uuf361

3,154 posts

221 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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I guess you get good and bad models of each.

I bought on behalf of my mate a 159 estate which had about 50k miles and was 3 years old - he had it for 18 months and unfortunately a lot of things needed replacing or bits went wrong, some of which you wouldn't have expected on such a new car with full history......

He got fed up on the bills and moved it on......

Bennet

Original Poster:

2,119 posts

130 months

Monday 21st July 2014
quotequote all
uuf361 said:
18 months and unfortunately a lot of things needed replacing or bits went wrong, some of which you wouldn't have expected on such a new car with full history......
These components that you wouldn't expect to break - could you give a few examples of what they were?

RXED

360 posts

189 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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I had one for 3 years - It was a great car and very reliable.

See here at the bottom of the thread for my opinion.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

hacksaw

748 posts

116 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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Owned a 2004 facelift 156 estate, 2l JTS and it never, ever missed a beat. Servicing was expensive and it used a bit of oil, but nothing ever broke nor did it let me down. Wouldn't hesitate in buying another, but would need to be low miles and well looked after to tempt me.

village idiot

3,158 posts

266 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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i had a 145 when it was pretty new... it was super reliable with no mechanical or electrical failures in the time that I owned it.

I then had a gtv 2.0 ts which again was super reliable with no problems

I then bought a 166 super which was crap... bizarrely, the problems were mainly electrical and involved german-made bosch components.

alfas are so much better than many people think. it was the terrible main dealers that really cocked things up for the brand.

Horse Pop

685 posts

143 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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Isn't the 159 substantially a GM car anyway?

RicksAlfas

13,355 posts

243 months

Monday 21st July 2014
quotequote all
Horse Pop said:
Isn't the 159 substantially a GM car anyway?
Not really. The chassis was a project developed jointly between GM and Fiat.
GM never used it, but Fiat did for the 159 and Brera/Spider.

The 2.2 and 3.2 petrol engines were GM derived but heavily modified over their GM cousins.

Squishey

567 posts

127 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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I found that Alfas (156 & 147) are quite temperamental and respond very well to mechanical sympathy - don't let the wife drive it! wink

I had my 156 for 6 years and it did have its problems but I loved it. I'd definitely have another.

Re the wishbones: it was the upper wishbone bushes that would fail regularly (every 9 months or so) but you couldn't buy the bushes on their own so the whole upper wishbone had to be changed.

Edit for a rogue apostrophe

uuf361

3,154 posts

221 months

Monday 21st July 2014
quotequote all
Bennet said:
uuf361 said:
18 months and unfortunately a lot of things needed replacing or bits went wrong, some of which you wouldn't have expected on such a new car with full history......
These components that you wouldn't expect to break - could you give a few examples of what they were?
Clutch, various bits of suspension and most expensively, gearbox - but he could have just been very unlucky.....

jimmy156

3,681 posts

186 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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TheBALDpuma said:
Alright alright, suspension bushes, not suspension. Geez!!!!!

P.s. James (bro) will come on here in a minute and tell everyone how wonderfully reliable his car is hehe
It has been utterly dependable... Since january. It has had it's faults over my 5 years of ownership. With regards to the wishbones, the front upper and lowers have all been replaced once, with two exceptions: an upper that has been replaced twice and a lower that hasn't been replaced but currently needs to be.

Water pumps are hardly known to fail on the TS engines, although a common fault on the v6, so it would not be common practice to change it with the cambelt, which is every 36,000. Te variator just goes rattley when worn, I don't think it has any ill effects.

With regards to servicing/oil usage, it gets halfords 10w40 as it uses so much, no matter what I put in and it gets serviced once a year when the MOT is done. To be fair it's a 14 year old, 145,000 mile car that's worth about £700 on a very good day, I'm not going to spend top money keeping it in A1 condition.

trashbat

6,005 posts

152 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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Fairy nuff smile

FWIW I just did my waterpump and variator with the cambelt, but then I also just had the engine rebuilt on a near worthless 108,000 mile car, because it is lovely and I am daft biggrin

Stu78

162 posts

134 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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The biggest problem I had as with the dealers. I can list many examples but draining the coolant and not refilling is one of the better ones, got about one minute down the road before the warning message came up on the screen. I think with better service the car wouldn't be fine but the leasing company specified the dealers I could.

kev b

2,708 posts

165 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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Aren't Alfas supposed to need 10W/60 oil?

That's what I put in the GT I look after for my mate.

trashbat

6,005 posts

152 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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kev b said:
Aren't Alfas supposed to need 10W/60 oil?

That's what I put in the GT I look after for my mate.
Only the 156-era JTS and 3.2 V6, I think.

Troubleatmill

10,210 posts

158 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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My 156 was without doubt the most unreliable car I've had in 30 years. Still loved it though.

can't remember

1,077 posts

127 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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Well my 159 JTDM left me stranded at the side of the motorway a dozen times due to a problem with the DPF or at least that was the dealers excuse. Best incident was picking it up from the dealer after it had been 'fixed' getting literally 500m down the road before it defaulted to 'limp home' again. Finally got sorted and no more problems for the rest of the warranty period, Then the ERV kicked in, sorted for not much. Then the windows went south, fixed by me for next to nothing (a couple of pence worth of plastic tube prevents this Alfa if you're reading this!). The auto wipers and auto aircon worked totally at random, and it's massively overweight which is why it munches it's way through suspension bits. Would I have another Alfa? Oh yes. If only they planned on building one I want.

entropy

5,403 posts

202 months

Monday 21st July 2014
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159 - electric windows fail, front suspensions fail, eats front tyres; good petrol engines from GM, 2.2 can be expensive to service.

TA14

12,722 posts

257 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
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trashbat said:
kev b said:
Aren't Alfas supposed to need 10W/60 oil?

That's what I put in the GT I look after for my mate.
Only the 156-era JTS and 3.2 V6, I think.
and the twin sparks