166, Titivate or walk away?

[Fattyfat]

So, I've owned my 2002 166 3.0 Super for just over a year and it's been sidelined for a couple of months due to a broken NSF spring (and a lack of time to fix on my part)

New springs and rear top mounts now in the garage and I was just about to order some Bilstein B8 dampers, however...

Email from my local Alfa indy to do the timing belts, lower oil pipes and cooler, head gaskets (some oil in the coolant tank) and the leaky heater matrix - Somewhere a little north of 2K and effectively an engine out job. Bugger. I can do the suspension myself but the engine work would be too big an ask for me and the indy is very well regarded.

Combine that with around a grand in parts to do the suspension and 4 fresh tyres and its a bloody big bill and that's not allowing for all those 'little' odds and ends that invariably pop up. Would you consider it absolutely bonkers to even contemplate that kind of spend on a 12 year old and relatively unpopular Alfa?? Not many of these left now on the roads.

Man maths does say though that a nice 1 previous owner car with just shy of 100K on the clock is worth saving and enjoying for a couple more years.

Thoughts?

[Fattyfat]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

Is it worth saving?

Is it bonkers to spend that kind of money on an old Alfa?

Are Alfa owners bonkers in general?

Damn you and your logic!!

[Fattyfat]

AndrewCrown said:

F

Have you got a picture for us to see?
Cheers

A

Sure, a few pics from a thread I did some time ago. Incidentally the MR2 is sold and the missus now has a Passat Highline.

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

A hard years use and the Alfa suffered badly. So as it sits today with 97K, The suspension, being all mostly original and not fantastic when I got it obviously hasn't improved. The usual squeaks etc from the front upper arms and a rattle which turned out to be a broken spring. A broken wheel bolt in the OSF hub was successfully removed only for some twunt to cross thread another bolt in the same hub, which subsequently sheared. again. The remnants now firmly stuck and that actually sidelined the car in Jan this year.

The rear top mounts are thoroughly rotten and the rear suspension is weak with the car bottoming out quite easily. Handling is blancmange like... I doubt the remainder of the rear bushes will be in fantastic shape either.

Bodywork is OK, all original paint however parking in a hospital car park (for work) has not been kind to the drivers side flank which is thoroughly peppered with various little dings. Noticeable mostly due to the colour of the car. Wheels are all good, one of the rears is a bit bubbly but for 13 years old, not bad. The spare is untouched and realistically 4 new tyres would be needed pretty soon.

Interior is excellent, a little grubby but that's an easy fix and a new seat of mats would make an improvement. Sat nav is more of less kaput and the CD changer skips badly. Again, a cheap Tom-Tom and an aftermarket emulator is available for the non upgradeable ICS system which would give me MP3 and bluetooth sorts all that.

Other issues? The heater matrix (they all leak sir) is a swine of a job allegedly and of course my HG issue. The car runs fine, doesn't overheat, doesn't use any major amount of oil but I do have some leaks at the rocker gaskets and of course oil in the coolant which according to my block tester is positive for hydrocarbons. Loosing coolant too but no noticeable coolant in the oil. That'll really take a proper oil test to confirm or not.

There is another leak at the front which originally I thought was from the oil cooler pipes but may be coming from a banjo bolt on the power steering. I start and run the car a couple of times a week and I get a puff of blue smoke on startup, maybe valve stems? I actually took the car on a quick run around home last week to keep the brakes in check. still drives quite nicely (still insured and MOT'd if you are wondering)

Oh and the boot wiring loom needs attention as well as the rear lights sometimes flake out.

So, a pretty poor read but the car only had one previous owner who had kept it pretty well until a quattroporte tempted him away after 12 years service. He bought it as an ex demo in 2002 and had it serviced religiously and used it each year for a fairly long drive to Italy. It really is too rare a car to break/scrap and although I've done that in the past with a decent financial return, these days I don't have the time or space or indeed the patience.

Over the past few months I've ended up trawling forums and managed to pick up 4 new lowering springs from FK automotive and a new OSF steering knuckle and hub, initially with the intention of throwing them in and driving the car until it expires. Then a Polish vendor had a heater matrix and a few other small service parts. Squadra Sportive relieved me of more money for some Bilstein B8s and rear top mounts. Another forum user had good 2nd hand oil cooler pipes and a new cooler which he kindly got from Poland and a recent Italian excursion. Contemplating fitting the suspension and Amazon yielded an impact gun, some impact sockets oh and a chance find of some powerflex bushes for the top engine mount. A cheap hydraulic press arrived yesterday from eBay.

So I still have a broken Alfa, some spare parts and many more left to buy, some new tools and no time to use them as I'm working every hour possible to fund a house move later this year (hopefully with a bigger garage/drive so I can torment myself with more 'projects') nevermind the potential 2K bill to sort the HG and a few other bits and I'm still driving that 'Bloody Yaris'

I'm not even a hardcore Alfa fan FFS.

Cheers, Ff.

[Fattyfat]

wrinx said:

Perhaps not...but you clearly have the Alfa virus

After gathering all the parts it's obvious which way this is heading...fair play to you.

Btw...selling 166 parts, if you decide to break it, is hard work. They're so rare nobody wants the bits!

wrinx

The plan hopefully is to drop a few quid in it and have it sorted for a couple of years cheapish driving. Lots of people seem to like the idea of the 166 but realistically no-one wants them.

Still haven't had a spanner anywhere near it but I'll try and update as I progress. No time frame as it's a bit of fun for now.