G'day

[fognozzle]

Hi. I am soon to be a member of the club, as I have just had my car written off due to hail damage and now I have some money to buy an Alfa with.

I'm thinking of a 166, but I don't see many around, and I don't know what to look for and what to watch out for. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I lived in Italy for a while and everybody there has an Alfa, and I was impressed when I was a passenger, so now is the time to get one of my own.

Alan

[Barry Edmunds]

Alan
Welcome to the Alfa world and hope you find the car of your choice very soon.

The 166 was a great looking car BUT did suffer from a few niggling problems, particularly in areas such as door locks. The 166 door locks were unique to this model and I believe they are unobtainable locally or OS and no known alternatives to the original units.

Not many 166's in Australia and few on the local market but if you do find one make sure that you get it thoroughly checked by an Alfa expert and or an Alfa dealer before handing over any of your hard earned.

Fortunately Alfa does have quite a few very suitable alternative models so the Alfa world is your oyster.

[John Hanslow]

Greetings,

Drop in to a Club Night and have a chat to a few members.  

Another 166 issue is the heater core, it leaks over the internal parts of the multifunctional dispaly unit.  Most have been replaced and one of our Alfa Specialist workshops has an aftermarker fix (preventative measure) - a tray to capture and divert heater coolant and drain away.  

I recon all this is factored into price of the car.  Check out car sales and get a look at some there - plenty about 10 years old and a few about 5 years old - plenty of choice based on price.  

Get a prepurchase inspection for about $100 so there are no surprises.

Cheers.

[Rocco166]

Hi Fognoozzle 

as a 166 owner I'd recommend that any car that you contemplate purchasing gets checked out by an Alfa specialist - there are some checks that you can do yourself but these are complex cars and some seemingly minor faults can be alarmingly expensive to remedy.  A full AR service history (either dealer or specialist) is mandatory as well as evidence of timing belt changes - my own 2002 car has only travelled 70,000 klms but has had 3 belt changes in it's life - it's better to be safe than sorry. 
The heater cores do fail - mine has been replaced a few times and as mentioned in a previous post the location of the core means that it will leak all over the multifunction display and into the auto gearbox ECU on the transmission tunnel if left leaking long enough - if you can smell coolant in the car when the heater is operating or when the dash vents are operating then budget a minimum of $1000 (Perth price) to get it replaced at a AR specialist.  Also check that the air conditioning controls work - the distribution motors can fail resulting in climate control that thinks for itself - a warning should come up on the dash display to indicate these failures.

Aside from the heater core tho I have not had any major issues with my car - it's been super reliable (I even drove it across Australia to Perth from Sydney without a problem) and it has a good combo of power and comfort for daily driving.

Good luck with your search 

[fognozzle]

Well,

Thanks very much for those pointers. I would never have known otherwise.

I've found a private sale close to home and I will be looking at it next week. I wonder if anyone has an opinion on using the current owner's  AR specialist for an appraisal?


Also, the news about irreplaceable door locks makes me wonder how people go on once one fails - do you just wire the door shut?

Re the heater core leaking all over the display &c. This ought to be revealed in the service records and by the AR mechanic.

You never know, I could be the owner before very long.

Fognozzle

[massiveluvbuddy67]

Hi,
If you are still looking have a chat to Hugh (a club life member) at Monza Motors. He had a 166 for sale a month ago and you can be sure it will be sorted.
Best Regards
Phil