156 GTA brake upgrade - should I accept Alfa's offer?
Discussion
I had the brake discs on my 04 156 GTA replaced in October after I got brake judder. This cost me £311 as the car was outside the 2 year warranty (import). They've started to judder again and Alfa have confirmed that my car needs the 330mmm brake upgrade. I thought as it is a late GTA it already had this, but clearly not.
Now, as it's out of warranty and covered 37,000 miles, they are asking for a contribution towards the £2500 cost. They claim it is officially a modification rather than a warranty item. The work will give new discs, pads, calipers and 4 new 17" spoked wheels. They are looking for £500 towards this work and really being *very* friendly and helpful
I am looking to make a counter offer of £500 but to include some suspension work that needs doing which will cost £170 on it's own. I'm waiting to hear.
Question is, is this a good offer???
I'm thinking that not only will not doing it be a pain, but this will help the resale value. Also, I get 4 brand new wheels (mine are OK, not kerbed, but starting to fade) and replacememnt calipers - one of mine has lost some of the lacquer and looks nasty, so this will fix it.
Now, as it's out of warranty and covered 37,000 miles, they are asking for a contribution towards the £2500 cost. They claim it is officially a modification rather than a warranty item. The work will give new discs, pads, calipers and 4 new 17" spoked wheels. They are looking for £500 towards this work and really being *very* friendly and helpful
I am looking to make a counter offer of £500 but to include some suspension work that needs doing which will cost £170 on it's own. I'm waiting to hear.
Question is, is this a good offer???
I'm thinking that not only will not doing it be a pain, but this will help the resale value. Also, I get 4 brand new wheels (mine are OK, not kerbed, but starting to fade) and replacememnt calipers - one of mine has lost some of the lacquer and looks nasty, so this will fix it.
I would be inclined to accept that offer given the mileage of the car. I'm not sure I would worry about the 170 quid, but clearly if you have suspension work needing doing then this is the time to get it done. I had the upgrade on my car very soon after I got it and the difference was very noticable. I have a lot more faith in it under braking now. When you see GTA's for sale and they have had the brake upgrade then it always seems to be mentioned in the add. Don't know if this helps with resale, but to an informed purchaser it has to help surely.
My car has the GTA teledials which I prefer, so I didn't need to change the wheels. I'd be interested to find out if the spoked wheels you are having replaced are the original spoked GTA option wheels, or are they like those that were offered on the GT. The reason I ask is that I had the option of picking up a set of the original GTA spoked wheels, but was not able to figure out if they were likely to be the ones that fit on a car that has the 330mil discs.
My car has the GTA teledials which I prefer, so I didn't need to change the wheels. I'd be interested to find out if the spoked wheels you are having replaced are the original spoked GTA option wheels, or are they like those that were offered on the GT. The reason I ask is that I had the option of picking up a set of the original GTA spoked wheels, but was not able to figure out if they were likely to be the ones that fit on a car that has the 330mil discs.
Not sure if I get to keep the original wheels - I could ask!
Here's a picture of my car with the wheels I currently have:
Apparently I will have 17" spoked replacements, they are just a bit thinner to accomodate the bigger calipers. I'll have to check if they are exactly the same - could well be the GT ones.
Here's a picture of my car with the wheels I currently have:
Apparently I will have 17" spoked replacements, they are just a bit thinner to accomodate the bigger calipers. I'll have to check if they are exactly the same - could well be the GT ones.
euroboy said:
500 quid for new better brakes all round, new alloys and I presume tyres and you get to keep the old ones - bugger me snap their hand off!
Steady, not new tyres. But I've just replaced 2 and the other 2 are 7mm so fine too. Still yet to establish if I keep the wheels. It's only the front brakes. viper_larry said:
Apparently I will have 17" spoked replacements, they are just a bit thinner to accomodate the bigger calipers. I'll have to check if they are exactly the same - could well be the GT ones.
Yes, those are the original GTA option wheels. It will be interesting to see if the replacements are the same style. Anyone know? and more to the point, how you tell which is which when you only have one to look at.
UPDATE: It turns out the anti-roll bar work is £352, not £171 as I thought. Anyway, Alfa have now offered the brake upgrade & the anti-roll bar work for £630 AND I get to keep the old, perfect condition alloys, so I might be able to claw back half the cost by selling them on.
Think I might accept this...
Think I might accept this...
xyyman said:
I'd go with that deal. Those wheels will be worth a few bob. And you end up with decent brakes, suspension and wheels for very little money. Incidentally, how much would you want for the wheels?
Phil
Would like £300 for the set (no tyres) as they are in perfect condition - no kerbing at all. However, guess I need to check eBay for reasonable price! Phil
Just for the record and to get it into perspective, I have just had agreement to upgrade my discs and calipers for free, fortunatly I am on 17" teledials so I don't need the wheels.
My cars an 04 January, with 33K on the clock. I'm told the cost to ARUK is £800.00.
I think you are paying for the wheels, which I suppose is fair enough, maybe you should get some teledials, much nicer wheels IMO.
My cars an 04 January, with 33K on the clock. I'm told the cost to ARUK is £800.00.
I think you are paying for the wheels, which I suppose is fair enough, maybe you should get some teledials, much nicer wheels IMO.
It sounds like a good offer to me.
Bearing in mind the original brakes were 305mm 4-pot brembos I remain convinced that some kind of incompatibility between pad and disc material is far more likely to be rhge culprit for all this judder people had with the early cars, than the discs actually warping. See:
www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_brakedisk.shtml
If you decide against the upgrade you might want to try new standard discs and a different but decent pad, such as the Ferodo DS2500 or Pagid Blue or Black, and see if the problem occurs again.
I have the 330mm brakes and the standard pads are not great - I'm about to stick some Pagid Blues in...
Bearing in mind the original brakes were 305mm 4-pot brembos I remain convinced that some kind of incompatibility between pad and disc material is far more likely to be rhge culprit for all this judder people had with the early cars, than the discs actually warping. See:
www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_brakedisk.shtml
If you decide against the upgrade you might want to try new standard discs and a different but decent pad, such as the Ferodo DS2500 or Pagid Blue or Black, and see if the problem occurs again.
I have the 330mm brakes and the standard pads are not great - I'm about to stick some Pagid Blues in...
I had mine done under warranty, I had 17" multi spokes to start with and they were replaced with something very similar but not exactly the same (they kept the original wheels), the warranty work consisted of the brake upgrade, new cam belt and tensioner, front suspension overhaul and a repair to the drivers lumbar support adjustment, all in it was a lot of money ( around £4k I think ) but luckily all done FOC.
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