Not an Alfa owner, yet..

[greasemeup]

OK, I can see that there is a BAZ who appears to do pre purchase inspections in Brisbane, is there a BAZ equivalent who can do one in Pascoevale VIC or a recommended workshop close by the seller, don't want to send him to Wadonga [emoji33]


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[greasemeup]

Seller tells me his brother was an Alfa tech and did all the maintenance for him, including timing belts 5000 ks ago, I don't suppose the seller or his brother is a member here?


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[Neil Choi]

A tough time of the year to get Alfa's checked out at the moment, the usual Alfa workshops are off for the break. 
Since in Pascoe vale, you should try Maranello Pur Sang (9386 9650), Bruno, long time life member of the club.  But they are on their break until 9th Jan.
Or Hugh at Monza Motors in Bayswater.
Or Seby at Mauceri Motors in Clayton.

[greasemeup]

Thanks Neil, if memory serves you a president or the like of a local club, I will check it out if things go well with this purchase. Talk about involved..


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[poohbah]

I don't want sound melodramatic, but be a little bit cautious with anyone who says their mate/relative is an Alfa specialist and did all the specified work, unless they have some documentation to support both claims. I speak from experience. Buying a car a while back, I was told the same thing by a seller as a reason there were no receipts for work he claimed had been done. Turned out it hadn't. It was a costly mistake (my fault) to take his word. Your guy is probably being honest, but better to be safe than sorry. Get it checked. I won't make the same mistake again. Hopefully your seller is a member on here and can confirm its all hunky dory.

[dehne]

I don't know why belt changes are so expensive. To by all replacement belts and water pump can. E done for under $500 and to change it all takes about an hour, I nad my belts done at an Alfa dealer and I asked them what it cost to replace a belt, got a price and then when they did it they doubled the price, I held them to original quote, but from then on I learnt to do it my self and not that hard as long as you mark everything

[Thijsvr]

I don't want sound melodramatic, but be a little bit cautious with anyone who says their mate/relative is an Alfa specialist and did all the specified work, unless they have some documentation to support both claims. I speak from experience. Buying a car a while back, I was told the same thing by a seller as a reason there were no receipts for work he claimed had been done. Turned out it hadn't. It was a costly mistake (my fault) to take his word. Your guy is probably being honest, but better to be safe than sorry. Get it checked. I won't make the same mistake again. Hopefully your seller is a member on here and can confirm its all hunky dory.

This. Unless there's a receipt or other proof of the work actually being done I'm going to asume it isn't. That's not always because people want to screw you over, but some just don't know. My dad has a LR Defender and a while back it had with a cracked head. I got it fixed for him and he went on telling people it's now got a rebuilt engine. He doesn't mean any harm, he just doesn't know (he does now, I've set him straight ).

[Neil Choi]

Thanks Neil, if memory serves you a president or the like of a local club, I will check it out if things go well with this purchase. Talk about involved..

Nope, not and never president, just with an Alfa in the club.  You can check it out if you like.

[greasemeup]

Thanks fellas, I was on the verge of skipping the PPI until I read about the 60k requirement for a belt change elsewhere on the forum, which prompted the question to the seller, has it been done?
The car is at 68k. This revealed the answer yes but by my brother, which I assume means no recorded proof. Hence the PPI is back on, can an inspector tell if it's been done? What's with 3 years, does the rubber fail? I assume the engine isn't a 'non interference' type, are any Alfas?


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[poohbah]

The 3 year change is for a reason, I presume they can get brittle, even if they are low mileage. Don't know if the hotter Australian climate might exacerbate the risk. But there are plenty of 156s and 147s with wrecked motors lying around the country to show the risk of failure is real!

[Thijsvr]

Can't be checked unfortunately. You could take the valve cover off to get an idea, but I doubt they'll do that at the PPI and really just looking at it like that is not very accurate either. I believe PPI is more of a visual inspection, a readout and some simple mechanical checks, but really nothing inside the engine, transmission or differential. People had some PPIs done on my cars and they didn't even check compression or anything during those.

Thing with timing belts is that plenty come off looking just fine. They don't actually die at three years and a day. They will probably run for much longer without any issues. However, when they do go it's heaps more expensive than to replace just replace the belt every couple of years. The manufacturer feels safe to put the interval at three years for everyone. From people living in -40c to us with +40c. With people in stop and go traffic and people that do long stretches of highway.

Belts dry out and become brittle which could cause the belt to break. They can also stretch which causes your timing to be off or in really bad situations they can slip over the pulley. The handfull of belts I've seen were basically fine, only one was brittle but that one I had left on for much longer than the manufacturer suggested.


So yeah, it's a pain, but they need to be done and there's no way around it. The 159 has a chain instead of a belt however that stretches too (VAG had a lot of issues with this too). Really only my BMW did okay. It also had chain, but that only needed visual inspections every 200k and replacement at 400k <3
Sometimes mechanics write the mileage at which the belt/chain has been done on the block itself somewhere or there's a receipt for the parts (even if his brother did it, the parts still had to be paid for right?). You can have a look for those.

Honestly though, I always see motorcycles for sale around the 45k km mark because that's when the valves and some other stuff has to be done on most 4 cilinder bikes and people sell them on because they can't be bothered with it and then just stay quiet about it hoping the buyer isn't aware of it.
Just like with your car I would expect the seller to be quite forward about having spent a good amount of money on maintenance just a little while back. Even if you don't pay for labour it'll still be about 300-500 in parts depending on all that's been done. A good amount of money on a 5/6ich k car. So yeah, unless he has some confincing proof or if you just really trust the seller I would either skip on the car or push the price down a fair bit and have it done yourself.

[poohbah]

push the price down a fair bit and have it done yourself

Great advice - I did exactly that when buying my current 156 earlier this year. It was already well priced for the condition and mileage, but was right on 3 year change date even though it was only about two thirds of the way on mileage. I told the seller how much that would cost, and said I would be prepared to pay his asking price less the cost of the belt change. Deal done.

Just don't forget to actually have the belt changed!

[As the day goes]

. The 159 has a chain instead of a belt

Only the V6 has a chain. 

Some members  don't even drive their cars 10,000kms a year and to be safe get their belts changed every 2 years.

[wantok]

. The 159 has a chain instead of a belt

Only the V6 has a chain. 

Some members  don't even drive their cars 10,000kms a year and to be safe get their belts changed every 2 years.

2.2has a chain as well.

[As the day goes]

yeah forgot