Alfa 156 JTS - Milage

[johnny_dust]

Hi all, I am looking at buying a 2006 Alfa 156 JTS Manual.  It has done 130,000kms but has service history from new with books, receipts etc.  Took it for a drive and seems to drive very well, no warning lights are showing, electricals all seem to work fine.  Would I expect more things to start to go wrong with a high milage Alfa rather than a low milage one?  The car is still only 4 years old so I would expect it to still go well into the 200k mark without major work having to be done?  I had a TS with 170k on it a couple of years ago now and it was fine, so I'm assuming the same here with a JTS?
Whats the most anyone has done so far in their 2.0 JTS and what (if any) problems have you experienced.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

[wankski]

i would take a close look at what it has had done in the past.

onbviously cam belt is important, but there are a few big ticket items on the JTS including the pre-cat and main cat...

most cars have had coil issues at some point, and if it has been running with MAF or misfiring issues for a while, the cats get real chewed by either lean or rich condition... The whole assembly can run $3.5k+

also at that mileage, clutch if it hasn't been done... full front wishbones... also overall suspension...

may i ask how much u're looking at? if its the $10k one on carsales, it's probably pretty reasonable given the money, and if it looks to present well u're probably onto a winner (for the dough)...

[Pendejo]

I rang up and spoke to the owner of that '06 156 on carsales going for 10K.  He said it's slightly noisy in the top end, but I haven't looked at it.  What usually gets noisy on the head of these cars?  Worn cam lobes?  Variator?  Valves?
Looks like cheap 156's can become very expensive very quickly..

[wankski]

at that sorta mileage, if it hasn't been done before i would suspect cam phase variator... but it's a distinctive diesel sound, not tappety

and yes u're right... thats why i would pass over such examples (cheap for a reason)... at that kinda mileage and use u can easily encounter costs bringing it into the price range of a good example with half those miles... (not that mileage in itself is a bad thing)   

but yep, a poor JTS can be very expensive to remedy, and then the rest of the car is high mileage...

and yes, with less than spectacular oil care u can expect to have no lobes on cyl1... perhaps some bottom end damage too..

[Alfa_alchemist]

like wankski has already said, a JTS engine that hasn't been maintained properly is a money black hole. Especially knowing that in this case it has a high mileage and owner admits to being noisy in top end.

This could mean a few things - worn cam lobes - damaged valves due to previous cam-belt snap that was fixed cheaply - possible bottom end damage due to oil starvation or the use of incorrect grade oil, etc.

The biggest giveaway here is the asking price - only $10k for the late '06 JTS with a rarer manual transmission? Even though it has higher mileage a well maintained model (remember -'06 was the last year these models were sold in Australia) in a good condition should be looking at at least $15k asking price

My advice?

Walk away