Sins of the previous owner

[Anthony Miller]

Unless you've purchased your beloved new from the dealer you most definately have suffered from what I call "sins of the previous owner. Saddly, not all who own alfas are alfisti and it is these POs(previous owners) who are the biggest sinners. Reading 68gtjunior's thread about the fibreglass rust repair reminds me of my first jooolie where the PO had repaired a fist sized hole in the firewall with some scrunched up newspaper wrapped in a t-shirt then stuffed into said hole and covered with masking tape and given a quick coat of spray putty and paint. This is nothing compared to the PO of my present ride who thought he could manage the cam belt change by himself and sourced a non genuine belt and then fitted it backwards without checking the idler pulley bearing(which was rooted) or the belt tensioner(also rooted), resulting in the belt jumping several teeth and bending all valves on the left bank and a four figure trip to the alfa specialist. Now I know I'm not alone here, read wetprickles thread "will it ever end", and I invite you all to post the sins you've suffered as we all need a good rant every now and then.
Anthony

[davel58]

ahh sins of the previous owners... 1999 156 T.S Manual - 39k on clock

firstly - previous owner had car serviced at Ultratune 
secondly - (and possibly as a result of this) had same cambelt since new for 11 years!!

i have since rectified both the above points! 4 figures later though of course...

had a look at the cambelt when it was taken off and the thing was ready to go! the rubber was so hard and a couple of vulnerable spots were starting to crack... pretty lucky i had it done in the end i think.