Alfa 156 - what to look out for?

[acme]

Apologies if this has been done to death, I've had a look incl SOTW.

We're potentially looking at an Alfa 156, would prefer a 2.5 but few around so suspect it'll be a 2.0, other than the usual old car things to check what should I be looking out for. I've got the impression the two things are cambelt changes (& ancillaries) & suspension resembles chocolate, though at £1-£1.5k changing it isn't worth it.

Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated, cheers.

[acme]

yellow cento tom said:

You've got the two main points covered really. The suspension arms are not too expensive to replace if you find a good specialist or can also be done at home if you are good on the tools. I can tell you living with one with knackered arms soon becomes tiresome so listen out for creaking and knocking. The 2.0 twinspark is the one to go for (if you can't find a v6 that is ??) and they do drink a bit of oil so check levels regularly. Floorpans can get a bit rusty so have a poke around for anything nasty . Hope this is of help to you

Tom

Many thanks Tom, appreciated. I did wonder re suspension but seemingly the noise will give it away.

You know what they say about not being a proper petrolhead 'til you've owned an Alfa!

[acme]

Many many thanks for the last couple of in depth posts, really appreciated. I've added these to my items to check and will let you know how we get on this weekend, hopefully viewing a couple tomorrow

Cheers

[acme]

Sorry to show my absolute ignorance, but what's the difference between a TS and a JTS?

Suspect I should hold my head in shame at that question!

Cheers

[acme]

yellow cento tom said:

I may be wrong but I think the JTS has a different head than the TS unit and has a lot more sensors and electric crud to meet nee regulstions around 2002.The TS engine is more robust and considerd more favourable of the two.

Thanks again, so the general advice is to forget the JTS?

Tried to look at two this weekend, one had sold, the other was such a joke we didn't bother, cambelt change, err no, AC working, err, the pumps working.......

[acme]

One thing we've noticed is that there seem to be far more 1.8's about, are they TS's only, i.e. not the more troublesome (as is being suggested here) JTS?

Cheers