MOT Time!

On Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:06:44 +0000, Catman
> wrote:

>Zathras wrote:

>> Alfa may well fit a "reconditioned" (i.e. cleaned and sense wire
>> replaced - good as new IME) one for less than £150.
>
>Well, it's going independent so fingers crossed. Jamie was always of the
>opinion that recons never lasted. YMMV.

Maybe the 'Alfa' reconditioned one I got was better than the ones
available to indies. My recon lasted longer than the original fit!
Regardless, they seem to be disposable items these days. Just depends
on how gunked up the wire gets and how quickly..I suppose.

>>> £eeeeeek for whatever has totally screwed the suspension and handling
>>
>> Might be just £eek when they can't locate all the noisy bushes IME!
>
>The noise I can live with. What I can't is the sudden, random changes of
>direction and weighting of the steering

Fun! At least that might be detectable by your grease monkey.

>>> IRO £400 for (probably) new tyres all round.
>>
>> Continental Sport Contact 2 (perfectly good, if not excellent on a
>> 156) from eTyres at £83.60 each all up. Assuming 205-55-16-W.
>>
>>> This will be the last big bill on this one I suspect.
>>
>> LOL! With the last year I had, that was only true *after* I sold the
>> bugger..
>
>I fully intend to either keep it for Mrs. Catman 'light duties' cos we
>don't think we can cope with two, two door cars, or out it before the
>summer.

I was easily getting over 25000 miles out of the contis in mixed (but
mostly urban) driving - fit and forget for light duties then.

Even before number one bairn arrived, I thought 2 door cars were only
for people who never took them near (supermarket) car parks.
Simultaneously getting grease/oil on my @rse and knees and a dirty
calf area while trying to squeeze my belly through a 3 inch slot
because some tw@t couldn't park in a slot put me right off..

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather (sold)
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

Zathras wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:06:44 +0000, Catman
> > wrote:
>
>> Zathras wrote:
>
>>> Alfa may well fit a "reconditioned" (i.e. cleaned and sense wire
>>> replaced - good as new IME) one for less than £150.
>> Well, it's going independent so fingers crossed. Jamie was always of the
>> opinion that recons never lasted. YMMV.
>
> Maybe the 'Alfa' reconditioned one I got was better than the ones
> available to indies. My recon lasted longer than the original fit!
> Regardless, they seem to be disposable items these days. Just depends
> on how gunked up the wire gets and how quickly..I suppose.
>
>>>> £eeeeeek for whatever has totally screwed the suspension and handling
>>> Might be just £eek when they can't locate all the noisy bushes IME!
>> The noise I can live with. What I can't is the sudden, random changes of
>> direction and weighting of the steering
>
> Fun! At least that might be detectable by your grease monkey.

Bloody well hope so. See further down.

>
>>>> IRO £400 for (probably) new tyres all round.
>>> Continental Sport Contact 2 (perfectly good, if not excellent on a
>>> 156) from eTyres at £83.60 each all up. Assuming 205-55-16-W.
>>>
>>>> This will be the last big bill on this one I suspect.
>>> LOL! With the last year I had, that was only true *after* I sold the
>>> bugger..
>> I fully intend to either keep it for Mrs. Catman 'light duties' cos we
>> don't think we can cope with two, two door cars, or out it before the
>> summer.
>
> I was easily getting over 25000 miles out of the contis in mixed (but
> mostly urban) driving - fit and forget for light duties then.

I favour P6000s. they've been on for several thousands of miles, but
the wear on the suspension makes the inner edges of the rears feather,
so they sound like bust wheel bearings.
>
> Even before number one bairn arrived, I thought 2 door cars were only
> for people who never took them near (supermarket) car parks.
> Simultaneously getting grease/oil on my @rse and knees and a dirty
> calf area while trying to squeeze my belly through a 3 inch slot
> because some tw@t couldn't park in a slot put me right off..

Yers. I'm more worried about aging parents and Christmas trees


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

"Zathras" > wrote in message
news
> On Wed, 2 Dec 2009 09:48:32 -0000, " cupra" >
> wrote:
>
>>My experience of Powerflex bushes....
>>
>>S Q U E A K..... S Q U E A K.....!!!!
>>
>>Ok if you drive everywhere with radio turned up!
>
> LOL. Squeak squeak or knock knock..the agonies of choice..

Tough choice, the squeak can be quite musical over the speed bumps though!

> Mine is due 3rd Jan. But it's also up for it's 108k service, so in it
> goes on Friday.
>
> £200(?) for a new MAF

While this won't put much of a hole in the bill for your rather
comprehensive shopping list, you could have a look at...

http://www.italiaricambi.it/en/

....for the MAF. Saw this site mentioned on alfaowner.com, worth a punt for
a genuine Bosch.

Alan

Alan Rogers wrote:
>> Mine is due 3rd Jan. But it's also up for it's 108k service, so in it
>> goes on Friday.
>>
>> £200(?) for a new MAF
>
> While this won't put much of a hole in the bill for your rather
> comprehensive shopping list, you could have a look at...
>
> http://www.italiaricambi.it/en/
>
> ...for the MAF. Saw this site mentioned on alfaowner.com, worth a punt for
> a genuine Bosch.

Cheers. WOuld be more trouble that it's worth to source it, get it to
Sunnyside etc etc.

And then it'll not be the MAF at all


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

On Wed, 2 Dec 2009 15:21:05 -0000, " cupra" >
wrote:

>"Zathras" > wrote in message
>news
>> On Wed, 2 Dec 2009 09:48:32 -0000, " cupra" >
>> wrote:
>>
>>>My experience of Powerflex bushes....
>>>
>>>S Q U E A K..... S Q U E A K.....!!!!
>>>
>>>Ok if you drive everywhere with radio turned up!
>>
>> LOL. Squeak squeak or knock knock..the agonies of choice..
>
>Tough choice, the squeak can be quite musical over the speed bumps though!

I found that on hot days with the A/C running flat out, the warmed-up
suspension could generate painfully noisy creaks as it tried to
emulate a wartime army truck in the desert! Must be a symphony in
there somewhere!

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

On Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:29:18 +0000, Catman
> wrote:

>I'm more worried about aging parents

Gets most of us, that one.

> and Christmas trees

Sunroof! If James May can get away with a mast... ;-)

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

Zathras wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:29:18 +0000, Catman
> > wrote:
>
>> I'm more worried about aging parents
>
> Gets most of us, that one.
>
>> and Christmas trees
>
> Sunroof! If James May can get away with a mast... ;-)
>

Actually Mrs Catman has suggested that very thing with her GTV.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

On Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:06:31 +0000, Catman
> wrote:

>Zathras wrote:
>> On Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:29:18 +0000, Catman
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> I'm more worried about aging parents
>>
>> Gets most of us, that one.
>>
>>> and Christmas trees
>>
>> Sunroof! If James May can get away with a mast... ;-)
>>
>
>Actually Mrs Catman has suggested that very thing with her GTV.

LOL..all you need is a flag and some rigging..

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather (sold)
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email must have the word 'Alfa' in the
subject line to get through auto-filtering)

" cupra" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> "Malcolm Osborne" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> "R C Nesbit" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> Having bought the 156 with 10 months MOT on it, I
>>> mis-remembered that the MOT ran out on 5th Nov!
>>>
>>> Any road, it went in today, and failed!
>>> Previous MOT had an Advisory that there was a leak in the
>>> flexible exhaust hose.
>>>
>>> This time it failed on the same thing! :^(
>>>
>>> On the plus side, it is now much quieter, and also seems
>>> quicker!
>>>
>>> Which makes the £159 bill a bit more palatable (including
>>> fixing a nail in one of the tyres)
>>>
>>> On the minus side, the new Advisory is:
>>> "Antiroll Bar bush knocking on road test"
>>>
>>> So, FOAK, is this likely to be expensive, or is it doable
>>> by a lump-ammer-anan-adjustable monkey?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Rob Pearson
>>> 156 1.9jtd sportwagon (now)
>>> 164 V6 Lusso (gone)
>>>
>> Generally, Urethane replacement bushes are used, e.g. from Powerflex. As
>> per previous discussion on this ng, reputedly better than the genuine AR
>> parts.
>>
>> They aren't too expensive and I had mine installed by a local garage.
>>
> <snip>
>
> My experience of Powerflex bushes....
>
> S Q U E A K..... S Q U E A K.....!!!!

AAAaaaaaaaaaahhh - that's what is causing it! Mine's been doing that for
ages now. I had put it down to old age or cold shock-abs! I also just turned
up the radio and drove slower over the speed bumps.