Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6
Discussion
JBT said:
Car looking good Dave. Never seen a sunroofed version either, I assume it has the std. aircon too?
Cheers again by the way for the rev counter via the PM on alfaowner, it works a treat.
No worries, yeah it has climate/air con, all the electrics etc although havnt re-gassed it since the rebuild. Another nice feature is the cd changer and 8X Alpine speakers.Cheers again by the way for the rev counter via the PM on alfaowner, it works a treat.
Ive also got these wheels spare, same fitment, but not sure they are right for a 156, sometimes putting newer wheels on older cars work, but older style wheels on a newer style car?
Oh and love the blue interiors, reminds me of my old clio 172.
I'd allocated all Saturday to do the brake discs/pads on my Golf but the parts never turned up. I instead decided to finish the underseal and tidy up the rear end on the Alfa which was one of the last jobs on the todo list.
The spare wheel well still needed doing, someone had just painted waxoil over, but it was still starting to rust on the underneath, after checking with a scraper luckily it was just surface rust and there were no holes (wonky pic).
So i spent some time sanding/linishing off all the waxoil and original flaky underseal, a very messy job as the waxoil gums up the linishing pads
Then once it was bare metal it had the same treatment as the floorpans: criss cross coat of bilthamber chemical rust converter, then left to dry overnight, and then Dinitrol grey underseal. I didnt make as much mess this time with the spray gun, although I was wearning t-shirt and shorts and as I write this, am still picking it out of my hair and arms and legs!
Its important to make sure you rust protect the rear lip near the bumper, some of the bracketry and near the tow hook bracket, to make this easier I removed the bumper and arch linings. While it was all off, almost 20 years of mud was cleaned off. There was a lot of loose chippings and stones stuck behind the bumper now all removed.
Once cleaned up the wheel arches turned out to be in good condition, the factory managed to get the underseal all into the arches and at the top where the strut mounts are. The underseal was not loose and there was just some mud left behind the struts (which Id originally cleaned during the rebuild but decided wasnt worth removing them to do again). I rust proofed and painted the rear disc shields. I also checked that water could not leak into the rear and inside of the sills, replaced one of the bungs with a spare and unblocked the rear sunroof drains.
The rear discs dont look too great, other than that, 2 things left to make perfect: New exhaust needed and Im sure its still on its original 6 sparkplugs..
The spare wheel well still needed doing, someone had just painted waxoil over, but it was still starting to rust on the underneath, after checking with a scraper luckily it was just surface rust and there were no holes (wonky pic).
So i spent some time sanding/linishing off all the waxoil and original flaky underseal, a very messy job as the waxoil gums up the linishing pads
Then once it was bare metal it had the same treatment as the floorpans: criss cross coat of bilthamber chemical rust converter, then left to dry overnight, and then Dinitrol grey underseal. I didnt make as much mess this time with the spray gun, although I was wearning t-shirt and shorts and as I write this, am still picking it out of my hair and arms and legs!
Its important to make sure you rust protect the rear lip near the bumper, some of the bracketry and near the tow hook bracket, to make this easier I removed the bumper and arch linings. While it was all off, almost 20 years of mud was cleaned off. There was a lot of loose chippings and stones stuck behind the bumper now all removed.
Once cleaned up the wheel arches turned out to be in good condition, the factory managed to get the underseal all into the arches and at the top where the strut mounts are. The underseal was not loose and there was just some mud left behind the struts (which Id originally cleaned during the rebuild but decided wasnt worth removing them to do again). I rust proofed and painted the rear disc shields. I also checked that water could not leak into the rear and inside of the sills, replaced one of the bungs with a spare and unblocked the rear sunroof drains.
The rear discs dont look too great, other than that, 2 things left to make perfect: New exhaust needed and Im sure its still on its original 6 sparkplugs..
Edited by davebem on Monday 2nd July 11:38
Havnt updated this thread for a while with progress! Back in the spring before MOT I noticed that one of the inner driveshaft gaitors had split, and was starting to splatter grease over the subframe, lesson learned I should have done the inners at the same time as the outers a couple of years ago... Online car parts and local motor factors kept giving me a TS spec gaitor which is listed for the 2.5, but is too small. For future reference the 2.5 has a hybrid shaft with the same beefed up inner CV as the 3.2 GTA and outer CV as the diesel models. I also ordered some spark plugs and some clear side repeaters (genuine alfa pair on ebay for £11).
I managed to remove the driveshaft quite easily without damaging the ball joints. Replacing the gaitor just involved removing the circlip holding the cv to the shaft, remove and replace and repack with grease.
After flying through the MOT with no issues i took the top plenum off and changed the spark plugs. I also took the opportunity to clean and tidyup the engine even further and fitted some stainless hex bolts.
I also replaced the small fuel line that connects the 2 injector rails for peace of mind removing all of the brittle plastic dorman clips.
I managed to remove the driveshaft quite easily without damaging the ball joints. Replacing the gaitor just involved removing the circlip holding the cv to the shaft, remove and replace and repack with grease.
After flying through the MOT with no issues i took the top plenum off and changed the spark plugs. I also took the opportunity to clean and tidyup the engine even further and fitted some stainless hex bolts.
I also replaced the small fuel line that connects the 2 injector rails for peace of mind removing all of the brittle plastic dorman clips.
I have a mystery issue with the remote boot lock, I cant get it to work. The solonoid works ok on its own but when unlocking the boot with the key it doesnt release.. It might be due to a mystery missing relay in the boot. Does anyone with a CF3 156 have a relay in this brown connector? The manual mentions a fuse for the boot release, but in the fusebox the location doesnt exist!
The twin 10" cooling fans were getting ropey and the shroud was rusting on the inside. The twin fans must have been borrowed from the Alfa parts bin as they dont perfectly align flush with the radiator and the fan motors are huge and heavy, that combined with the metal shroud the whole thing seems a bit over engineered and weighs too much for being in the nose of the car.
I had kept the single 15" fan from the twinspark car but this doesnt fit due to clearence issues with the larger engine, but the GTA radiator did have the mounting holes for it, the motor in this is also huge and weighs 3.8kg. So I ordered the biggest slimmest fan that would fit which was a mishimoto 16" slimline fan, then modified and carved out the larger plastic twinspark shroud to bolt and seal the new larger fan to it. I re-used the higher ohm resister from the twin spark for the slow speed air con. Hopefully it might be a little more efficient as the shroud and fan area covered of the rad is much larger than before..The new setup now weighs 2.5kg compared to 6kg of the original.
I also did a roadtrip covering the Evo triange, and snowdonia.
The twin 10" cooling fans were getting ropey and the shroud was rusting on the inside. The twin fans must have been borrowed from the Alfa parts bin as they dont perfectly align flush with the radiator and the fan motors are huge and heavy, that combined with the metal shroud the whole thing seems a bit over engineered and weighs too much for being in the nose of the car.
I had kept the single 15" fan from the twinspark car but this doesnt fit due to clearence issues with the larger engine, but the GTA radiator did have the mounting holes for it, the motor in this is also huge and weighs 3.8kg. So I ordered the biggest slimmest fan that would fit which was a mishimoto 16" slimline fan, then modified and carved out the larger plastic twinspark shroud to bolt and seal the new larger fan to it. I re-used the higher ohm resister from the twin spark for the slow speed air con. Hopefully it might be a little more efficient as the shroud and fan area covered of the rad is much larger than before..The new setup now weighs 2.5kg compared to 6kg of the original.
I also did a roadtrip covering the Evo triange, and snowdonia.
Its been 3.5 years! Still going strong, the 156 is a keeper so thought it was time for progress update. During the 1st covid lockdown we handed back my wifes lease car as surplus to requirements, so shes been using the Golf and Ive used the 156 as a daily , this includes being used and kept outside during the last 2 winters as my garage was occupied with a Mini I was doing light restoration on. Theres been a few misshaps, but it is a near 25 year old car.
My alternator failed out of the blue around110,000 miles, the AA got me going again with a new battery to get home. I replaced it with a genuine bosch refurbished one. It was a fairly straightforward job, the method I used was to remove the subframe and passenger side drive shaft and pushed the engine forward and lowered it from the drivers side wheel arch.
During the 1st lockdown I removed the rear subframe and replaced the rear suspension arms and gave it all a good clean.
I also replaced the cambelt during lockdown, I used the full cambelt kit from SKF, SKF waterpump, new cam cover gaskets, aux belt, aux belt tensioner and aux belt idler. I also did a full oil/filter service. I thought about writing a guide on cambelt change, would it be useful to anyone? I found the job to be so much easier with the right tools, e.g. extra long hex keys to remove the belt cover/idlers due to the tight space. Also the correct cam locking blocks, and tensioning adjustment tool.
Last winter I hit a pothole in lincolnshire and the rear anti roll bar mount sheared off on the shock body, i just swapped the shock round the other side and used the opposite side mount. The drop links are equal length and the bar sits perfectly in middle so not sure how this happened.
The continued use and driving on UK winter roads has had its toll though. I had sprayed the front subframe, petrol tank mounts, wheel arches and rear arms/roll bar with lanoguard.
Per earlier posts I did the floor pans and spare wheel well with layer of bilthamber + grey dinotrol underseal a few years ago, filled the vent holes and relayed the internal sound insulation correctly. This has protected the floor just fine.
|https://thumbsnap.com/KSjNEeJ3[/url]
But the bottom of the drivers side front wing is perforating badly, this must have started happening quite suddenly as didnt notice this until the beginning of the year. I dont think its too late to save it? If anyone knows a bodyshop in Leicestershire that could sort this please let me know, the paint is bubbling.
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The other side is holding up really well though!
My alternator failed out of the blue around110,000 miles, the AA got me going again with a new battery to get home. I replaced it with a genuine bosch refurbished one. It was a fairly straightforward job, the method I used was to remove the subframe and passenger side drive shaft and pushed the engine forward and lowered it from the drivers side wheel arch.
During the 1st lockdown I removed the rear subframe and replaced the rear suspension arms and gave it all a good clean.
I also replaced the cambelt during lockdown, I used the full cambelt kit from SKF, SKF waterpump, new cam cover gaskets, aux belt, aux belt tensioner and aux belt idler. I also did a full oil/filter service. I thought about writing a guide on cambelt change, would it be useful to anyone? I found the job to be so much easier with the right tools, e.g. extra long hex keys to remove the belt cover/idlers due to the tight space. Also the correct cam locking blocks, and tensioning adjustment tool.
Last winter I hit a pothole in lincolnshire and the rear anti roll bar mount sheared off on the shock body, i just swapped the shock round the other side and used the opposite side mount. The drop links are equal length and the bar sits perfectly in middle so not sure how this happened.
The continued use and driving on UK winter roads has had its toll though. I had sprayed the front subframe, petrol tank mounts, wheel arches and rear arms/roll bar with lanoguard.
Per earlier posts I did the floor pans and spare wheel well with layer of bilthamber + grey dinotrol underseal a few years ago, filled the vent holes and relayed the internal sound insulation correctly. This has protected the floor just fine.
|https://thumbsnap.com/KSjNEeJ3[/url]But the bottom of the drivers side front wing is perforating badly, this must have started happening quite suddenly as didnt notice this until the beginning of the year. I dont think its too late to save it? If anyone knows a bodyshop in Leicestershire that could sort this please let me know, the paint is bubbling.
[url]The other side is holding up really well though!
Edited by davebem on Friday 26th May 12:02
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