Worst car-156

[colcol]

On the weekend while on a Sunday run, pulled up for morning coffee, and a Alfa Romeo 156 twin spark pulled in as well, as i thought he must be a club member, went over and had a chat to him.
Turns out he wasn't a club member, but had just pulled into the car park to go to the Chemist.
Asked him how his 156 was going and he said he hated it, as it was the worst car he had ever owned, as it was always breaking down.
Without looking, i said Selespeed problems?, no he said its a a manual!
It had broken down about 10 times, it would just stop, and start up again and be hard to start.
Who have you had to fix it, i asked?, the local mechanic, i said has he a scan tool?, yes but he can't find anything, was the reply.
So the problem is here, that the local mechanic hasn't the high level scanner required to do the job, as its only a generic scan tool.
A proper Alfa Romeo Examiner would find any past problem codes and tell you what the problem was, so the offending item could be pulled out and replaced.
I told him of some Service Providers in the Alfa Club who should be engaged to have a look at the 156, and stop this problem he has been having.
It is sometimes difficult to take your car 50 kilometres or so to get the car fixed properly, but what's the alternative, breaking down all the time?
I sometimes think that Alfa Romeo's long gone reputation for always breaking down is caused by these sorts of situations.
The local garage might be ok for oil changes and new tires, but for the nitty gritty you need to take it to a place that works on them all the time and has the right gear to do the job, Colin.

[pasey25]

or even be a member of a forum like this.

how many of us would say from the symptoms you described that the problem is a faulty crank angle sensor? quite a few I expect.

[colcol]

Crank sensors fail when the car is hot and then comes good when the engine cools down, won't know unless you get it scanned, Colin.

[pasey25]

Crank sensors fail when the car is hot and then comes good when the engine cools down, won't know unless you get it scanned, Colin.

granted, you won't know for certain unless its scanned, but it would be a probable guess which could focus attention

[DavidG]

Hi Colin,

Agree 100%. This is my first Alfa after many years of european cars (i am european so for me commodores and all those are exotics!) but have a lot friends with Alfas back in Spain, and main problem from my experience is poor maintenance. Sadly with and Alfa is not like with other modern cars, that you just service and forget, but with and appropriate care and love the new ones (the only I know) are prety reliable.

By the way know that I said this my gt jts just start to show for a few seconds the engine management light from time to time, bought the obd reader and getting fourth cylinder misfires so suspecting dirty injector, top of the engine or even catalityc converter, so cleaning all of them and trying to give some love to the alfa to see how it response. By the way if anyone around Sydney wants to read the codes of his car just let me know.

This was suposed to be a sort answer, sorry....

David

[colcol]

The thrust of the post was that the modern Alfa Romeo's are are pretty reliable piece of equipment, with all the Bosch electrics and GOOD connectors....unlike in the olden days.
If you are getting a misfire on cylinder no 4, mark the coil pack and move it to another cylinder and see if it misfires on that cylinder you put it on......unfortunately, the coils either work or not, so hopefully its a misfiring spark plug.
Pray its not one of those direct injectors that cost a fortune to replace and even more to remove and refit, as the engine has to be tilted to gain access.
Don't just drive it around and take it to backyarders with no experience of Alfa Romeo's, and when it goes wrong and say 'bloody Alfa Romeo's', Colin.

[Garibaldi]

Col, and as you know it is very important to use the right fuel and oil as well as taking it to the right service centre.

[lombardi]

U might have to drive miles to find that specialised mechanic and it is a pain in the ever increasing gridlocks-especially sydney-but in the end u still end up saving time and dollar's as nine out of ten the specialist has seen the problem many times and can act on it without fiddling around and worse still get's on the phone and rings his other inexperienced mechanic's for opinions,stick to da Romeo's that are familiar wif da Alfa.

[poohbah]

So the unhappy chappy hates his manual TS but won't get the proper people to check it out. Col, I hope you offered to buy it off him. Or suggested he post it for sale on here. I'm sure it would be much more appreciated among the fold!

[colcol]

He said its the worst car he has ever owned, in terms of breaking down, but he likes it as its nice to drive and has good power, fuel economy and comfort.
Naturally i gave him a heads up of places to go on his side of the city that would be able to scan his car and fix the problem, all the places were our sponsors, as they support our club, and because you see their adverts, you remember them easily, the ones that don't support us i can't recall, Colin.

[suzuiq]

after owning Japanese cars Australian cars and a (shudders) French car, my alfa is fantastic. the French thing was always having problems and was gutless as well

[oz3litre]

I sometimes think that Alfa Romeo's long gone reputation for always breaking down is caused by these sorts of situations.

I am absolutely certain it is. My experience with the ten older Alfas that I have bought is that you have to undo all the damage and neglect from previous owners and their mechanics, but once you have them up to scratch they are very reliable. Newer Alfas are more reliable than some other makes.

[poohbah]

I also want to add that my Series 1 manual V6 is without question the best car I have ever owned in 25 years and 15-or-so cars. After 3 years, it still makes me smile every time I put my foot down, and - in my view anyway - still looks better than any other 4 door saloon on the road.

[colcol]

How many recalls have there been for Alfa Romeo's lately?, Alfa Romeo are not up there with some of the more brands that are perceived to be more dependable than Alfa Romeo, Colin.

[jimay3677]

I wouldn't say my 156 JTS Selespeed is the worst car I've ever had (that was a Toyota Tarago/wombat) but it has had a few issues, all Selespeed related apart from a random misfire that seems to only occur on anything but Shell v-power.

I would never buy a selespeed again .
They really suck to drive and my gearbox is breaking whilst not being hammered, yes I look after it, yes I use MES, I even run Royal purple in the gearbox.
I've had to remove the gearbox end cap twice in two years to remove chunks of metal that blocked 4th, my only guess is it's the 1st gear breaking up due to the amount if times the stupid selespeed decides to downshift to 2nd just as I do it manually (in manual mode) which then causes my downshift to select 1st which creates a loud thump and I'm sure also damage, the only way I can think to avoid this is to just let it downshift or drive in city mode, which means it's just an automatic that shifts badly and I've never liked automatics. Tomorrow I am going to use epoxy to glue an earth magnet to the gearbox end cap in the hopes any more chunks get stuck near the magnet before they can land near the 4th selector.
Still got the random no 1st at traffic lights, I now just shift to N then 1 every time I stop or be sure to coast in 2nd for a few feet before stopping. Pump is good, accumulator is pretty new and holds pressure for about 6 minutes or every 3rd gear change, this issue occurs maybe once a month or two, I've checked clutch rod and it doesn't go away with a calibration.

Apart from the selepeed issues it's a great car, it doesn't even burn much oil since using 15w-60 Penrite. The selespeed issues almost make it dangerous tbh.