wanna buy 159 JTD TI 2009..advice?

[Nikola78]

Hi guys..im looking at 2009 159 jtd with 53000 km on the clock and automatic transmition..not a selespeed.Im inteested in quality of those models and service and maintenance costs,as well as the economy cause im doing about 25000 km a year.Love the look of 159, just a bit scared not to end up in a hole without end with repairs.Thanks in advance.

[colcol]

There are 2 Diesels, 1.9 4 cylinder, [early]  and 2.4 5 cylinder, [late],  the motors are made by Fiat which is a good thing, the Auto is a 6 speed Japanese Aisan gearbox, which is a good thing as well as it is fitted to Citreon's, Peugeots, Mondeo's etc, and they are  pretty much trouble free if you service them, the Diesel motors have a long cam belt life, about double of a 147-156 series, they have a bucket load of torque, the 5 pot has 400 newton metres, but the turbo has a bit of lag, the particle filters clog up with city driving, so a run along a freeway cleans all the rubbish out of the filter, when it is clogged, you will get a light on the dash board, to tell you it is self cleaning, and the engine will vibrate when it is cleaning, take it to an Alfa Specialist to have it checked out, i personally think they are a ripper of a car, great style and wonderfully styled interior, Colin.

[colcol]

Diesels are always going to cost a bit more to service than a petrol engine, and they don't like too much city driving, as you can clog up the intake manifolds that will have to be dissasembled and cleaned, always use the premium diesel, which is better quality and the engine will rattle less, with the 159, if you clobber a pot hole, then the subframe can move and the wheel alignment will be out, if you take it to a normal wheel alignment place then they will most likely adjust the tie rods to compensate for the toe being out, the correct thing to do is take it to an Alfa Romeo dealer, and have the subframe realigned to the body, they have a jig which achieves this, also the lubrication system can check for dirty contaminated oil, which will show up a warning light, to correct this, have the oil changed, also, like a lot of newer cars, they have an undertray that gives better aerodynamics, but this has to be removed for any underbody work underneath, such as an oil change, there are about 20 fasteners to remove, [ just like a VE2 Commodore], this will add to the cost of servicing, Colin.

[Evan Bottcher]

Hi Nikola78,

We've got a 2006 159 2.4 JTDm, now approaching 120,000km.  We've had it for about 45,000km.  It's been pretty damn reliable, very well put together and very few issues compared to the 156 Selespeed we had before (so far, touch wood).

A couple of issues we've had - if you do too much short-trip city driving, the diesel particulate filter doesn't have a chance to regenerate.  A good long run at a constant speed on the highway will give it a chance.  We had one instance where it wasn't able to regenerate and we needed to plug in the computer at Maranello Pur Sang and force regeneration.

The earlier cars have more trouble with sooting up the intake manifold, throttle body, and EGR valve.  We've had to have this disassembled and cleaned a couple of times.  We've had a revised gasket plate fitted that is supposed to reduce the flow through the EGR valve.  These problems seem to be plaguing modern diesel engines - i hear VW has lots of trouble as well.  I hear that these problems are not near as bad on the automatic cars, as they keep the engine in a better rev range to run cleaner.

Now - at 120,000km it seems that we need to replace three of the injectors and advised to replace all five as the two good ones are pretty average too.  The injectors are bloody expensive (close to $800 from Alfa).  I'm looking at properly reconditioned changeover injectors from Europe as we speak...

So not without faults, but not awful (I won't list the faults we had with our 156, it was insane, but I still loved that car too!).

On the plus side, the car is incredibly comfortable has all the mod cons, air con that works in Australian summers, looks brilliant, goes and stops well and is economical to boot!  We drove last year to the Clare Valley in SA and averaged 6.5 litres/100km all the way - fully laden with family and luggage.  Pretty good for a biggish car.

Hope this helps...

[Nikola78]

http://www.carsales.com.au/dealer/details/alfa-romeo-159-2009-13739636?base=1216&vertical=Car&cr=4&eapi=2&__N=1621%20937+1246+1252+1247+1282+4294967249+4294951398+903+1216&num=15&silo=Stock&Range=Year:2009,Max&sort=default

Thats the car im looking at..it was auctioned on pickles last week,noone place a bid..and im still thinking what to do.Love the car, had a chance to drive it,drives excelent..just a skight concern for possible big maintenance expences..Help !!! )

[Nikola78]

Hello again Im back again just to announce that two weeks ago i became a proud owner of black 159 2.4 jdtm manual with 94000 km.Full service history with Zagames,recently changed clutch,cambelt, 4 new tyres,all the eotors and brakepads,all the liquids etc.Just came on a holyday to Torquay with my family(wife and 2 kids) and we are all delighted with the performance of this beast.Yesterday we took it for a ride to the great ocean road and we were all laughing at fords and commodores breathing of our burned oil behind:))) Realy this car is an qnimal.Triedbefore couple of automatics and they are strong enough,but the manual is a ripper.Thanks for the advices i got from you guys and ill come back with fresh expiriences with my new love

[colcol]

Great to hear of your 159, the automatics are great, if you like that sort of thing, but a true driver has a manual, now you are an Alfa driver, it is good time to join the Alfa Club, so you can come along and do a driver training day at Winton in 6 weeks time and go on a Sunday cruise somewhere interesting along some good roads, and have lunch with the rest of the club, and don't forget when you join, to tell your insurance company you are an Alfa Club member as it sometimes helps with the cost of the premium, we had a deal with an insurance company at one stage, not sure if its still going, we are having a barbeque Wednesday the 9th on the Yarra river, hope to see you there, Colin.