GTP_Ingram's Alfa Romeo 156: ch-ch-changes

[GTP_Ingram]

Just under seven years ago I bought an Alfa Romeo 156. The only car I'd owned previously was a 1.2-litre Renault Clio, so in comparison the 156 felt pretty special. It had almost twice the power, a full leather interior and was a hell of a lot more more fun to drive. It was (and in my opinion, still is) one of the prettiest saloon cars ever produced, too. I loved it to bits. No pun intended...

Sadly, my time was cut short with it when a disturbing noise from the bottom end was followed a couple of miles down the road by a terminal-sounding bang. I had to get rid of it just under a year after buying it. Ever since I've flirted with the idea of buying another.

Two days ago, I did. An advert popped online which was too tempting to ignore. A 2.5 V6 with 90,000 miles and a full service history, sold by an Alfa fanatic who also owns a 159 Ti Sportwagon and two GTs (one diesel, and his pride and joy - the 3.2 V6).

Coincidentally, it's the exact same colour combination as my old one - Proteo Red with a black leather interior. It isn't perfect - the body has a couple of minor scuffs and it needs a new cambelt ASAP - but it cost me just £1,000. Let's call it £999.99 in fact, because the previous owner left a penny in the car

Here's a thread to document my progress. I'll update with various work done, plus there will be the odd 205 GTI-based news too because - for the time being at least - I still have it.

My plans for the Alfa involve making sure the car is mechanically spot-on first, and then, budget permitting, I'm open to more than a little fettling.

Here are a few pics taken the day after I collected it:

 

[GTP_Ingram]

First Job: Engine bay spruce-up

Alfa Romeo's V6 Busso engine, in all of its sizes, is known for two things: first, the wonderful noise it makes, and second, the way it looks. I honestly can't think of another mass-produced car which looks better under the bonnet. My car had everything in all the right places, but a little clean would go a long way to bringing it back to its best. A couple of hours spent with some degreaser and Brasso have made a heap of difference.

Here's a before and after shot:

The chromework polished up especially nicely.

Moving ahead, I have a few plans for the engine, both in terms of style and power..

 

[Roo]

Beans or it didn't happen.

 

[GTP_Ingram]

Beans or it didn't happen.

Instructions unclear: ate the beans.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Great buy! I really fancy any of the modern era Alfa saloons and that I a beauty!

Do these struggle with wishbone failure too? Might be worth giving them a check.

 

[GTP_Ingram]

Great buy! I really fancy any of the modern era Alfa saloons and that I a beauty!

Do these struggle with wishbone failure too? Might be worth giving them a check.

The bushes can wear, yes. The previous owner mentioned that he's recently noticed a slight creaking over big speed bumps. I haven't had much of a chance to notice yet myself, but it's something that's easy enough to sort anyway.

 

[Danny]

Nice.

 

[TheCracker]

Beans or it didn't happen.

I passed by this very car on Sunday. it may have even had the bonnet open - So i can vouch for it's existence within the Ingram household

 

[Crash]

I passed by this very car on Sunday. it may have even had the bonnet open - So i can vouch for it's existence within the Ingram household

I thought that was all Alfas?

 

[GTP_Ingram]

I passed by this very car on Sunday. it may have even had the bonnet open - So i can vouch for it's existence within the Ingram household

What were you driving? I'll give you a wave next time you're heading by.

 

[TheCracker]

What were you driving? I'll give you a wave next time you're heading by.

To be fair, I only passed along Stone Rings on the way to see 'the mother' on her 'special day'.

 

[Crash]

Besides the snide joke I made, I want to say what a lovely car. The Alfa sedans from that era were all so pretty. Shame they were never sold in the US.

I know you've had one before, but how do they drive? Now that you've had a few days with it, how is this compared to the old one you had?

--

Are you selling your 205?

 

[eiriksmil]

Awesome..! The only thing that would make it more awesome would be a facelift cream or a GTA interior.

I've always wanted to see a 156 lowered on wide wheels.. Make it happen

 

[GTP_Ingram]

Besides the snide joke I made, I want to say what a lovely car. The Alfa sedans from that era were all so pretty. Shame they were never sold in the US.

I know you've had one before, but how do they drive? Now that you've had a few days with it, how is this compared to the old one you had?

They're really good fun overall, and quite interesting to compare to the 205, because the techniques required to drive them quickly are totally different.

The Pug has an unassisted and relatively slow steering rack. To get the best out of it, you need to make one fairly deliberate move on the steering wheel at turn-in, and gradually wind off the lock from there - using the naturally tail-happy balance to do the rest. By contrast, the Alfa has an extremely quick rack. Because it darts into corners so sharply, it needs to be fed into the bends very smoothly. It also lacks steering feel around the first 20 degrees-ish of lock (but I suppose most things do compared to the 205), which makes the smoothness even more important.

At 1,355kg, even the V6 is light by modern standards (though that's almost 500kg more than my 205 ) but it has about 90kg more weight over the nose than my old 1.8, so it doesn't quite feel as responsive as that did.

In all honesty, I think the 156 is more exciting to drive than the E36 328 Coupe I used to own. Aside from the fact that the BMW could get up to hilarious oversteery antics and had the more balanced chassis, to me the Alfa feels better damped, more agile, and more stable under braking (though I admit that last point might not be a fair comparison between ageing used cars).

Are you selling your 205?

Not urgently, but yes. I've had it for four-and-a-half years now, so I've had a pretty good run in it. Will almost certainly regret selling it instantly.

Awesome..! The only thing that would make it more awesome would be a facelift cream or a GTA interior.

I've always wanted to see a 156 lowered on wide wheels.. Make it happen

Money permitting, I'd be tempted to swap in a tan leather interior, though more money permitting, I'd also be tempted to buy some lightweight Recaros and trim them in matching leather to the rest of the cabin.

As for the wheels, at some point in the future I might go up to 17" (the current alloys are 16") and lower it subtly, too, which was also the plan for the old one. I fitted some OZ Superturismos (they were a factory fit option for the 156 GTA) but it broke down before I had a chance to fit the lowering springs. See image below, taken from the side of the M74 just after the car had died:

The current tyres have a decent amount of tread left on them though (and I think the teledials look great) so I'm in no rush to mess with them.

 

[Clark]

Yeah that's pretty light for a four door with a 6 pot, my 130 is 1510kg with fluids etc.

 

[TheCracker]

Yeah that's pretty light for a four door with a 6 pot, my 130 is 1510kg with fluids etc.

Mine's 30-40kgs more than that. Pretty ridiculous for a car of that size.

 

[Niku Driver HC]

How fantastic it is to have a Busso V6-powered Alfa for 999,9 quid? I can assure you that we do not get those prices for 156 V6es in Portugal, because otherwise I would jump on it faster than an Alfa Romeo SZ. There was a case of a 166 with the same block that was being sold for less than 10,000€, so there are interesting bargains if you know where to look...

Either way, I digress. It was wise on your part to buy the car off an Alfa fanatic; if there is anyone who knows where the car will go wrong, it's an Alfisti. As for the engine, I do wonder what will be done to it, since there isn't anything soundly wrong with it, but you are the owner after all. The rims? I'd say keep the teledials, they are lovely rims in all late '90s Alfas, from GTVs to 156es. Besides, the OZ rims seem to suit GTs better, in my honest opinion.

Well, enjoy your steed, may she last longer than your original one. 👍

 

[homeforsummer]

Mine's 30-40kgs more than that. Pretty ridiculous for a car of that size.

I've just calculated the average weight of all the cars I've owned: 1012kg. It'd be lower, but despite six of the seven being under a metric ton (and two of those in the 800kg range), the 1560kg Rover 75 I owned for two whole months has completely knackered it...

Fun fact though: My Eunos S-Spec is the second-heaviest car I've owned, at 960kg.

 

[axletramp]

Fun fact though: My Eunos S-Spec is the second-heaviest car I've owned, at 960kg.

Yeah, but you've always been a lightweight.

Nice buy btw. A grand for that car is ridiculously low - which is a good thing these days! 👍

 

[GTP_Ingram]

How fantastic it is to have a Busso V6-powered Alfa for 999,9 quid? I can assure you that we do not get those prices for 156 V6es in Portugal, because otherwise I would jump on it faster than an Alfa Romeo SZ. There was a case of a 166 with the same block that was being sold for less than 10,000€, so there are interesting bargains if you know where to look...

Either way, I digress. It was wise on your part to buy the car off an Alfa fanatic; if there is anyone who knows where the car will go wrong, it's an Alfisti. As for the engine, I do wonder what will be done to it, since there isn't anything soundly wrong with it, but you are the owner after all. The rims? I'd say keep the teledials, they are lovely rims in all late '90s Alfas, from GTVs to 156es. Besides, the OZ rims seem to suit GTs better, in my honest opinion.

Well, enjoy your steed, may she last longer than your original one. 👍

Thanks! Strangely enough, both the GTVs and 166s I've seen for sale in the UK are generally more pricey than the 156. A quick peak at the classifieds shows there are a couple of 3.0-litre GTVs for sale currently, each with around 120,000 miles, which cost as much as £3,500.

The V6 seems to be the one of the cheapest 156 engines of all at the moment, seemingly falling into a lull between those who pick the more frugal Twin Sparks or diesels and those who want the faster GTA.

And you're right about the mods - although I have a couple of ideas, there's no rush to do anyhing drastic because I quite like how it is at the moment.

Fun fact though: My Eunos S-Spec is the second-heaviest car I've owned, at 960kg.

To put things into perspective, of the six cars I've owned the Alfa is my second-heaviest car too.

 

[Niku Driver HC]

Thanks! Strangely enough, both the GTVs and 166s I've seen for sale in the UK are generally more pricey than the 156. A quick peak at the classifieds shows there are a couple of 3.0-litre GTVs for sale currently, each with around 120,000 miles, which cost as much as £3,500.

Well, I had a quick peek at the best-known Portuguese online car classfieds website, and I can confirm one thing; out of the 6 petrol 156es for sale in the country, not a single one features a V6 engine. All of them are Twin Spark-powered examples, either 1.6 or 1.8 engines... As for GTVs, guess how much the only V6 for sale costs...

...it's £15,111. Portugal is not a fan of pricing V6 Alfas for cheap, it seems. Then again, that GTV does only have about 46000 miles, if you can believe it.

The V6 seems to be the one of the cheapest 156 engines of all at the moment, seemingly falling into a lull between those who pick the more frugal Twin Sparks or diesels and those who want the faster GTA.

So in essence, it's not sporty enough to be priced as a GTA, and not cheap enough to be a bargain like the TS versions... Talk about being in the Alfa Romeo limbo of pricetags.

And you're right about the mods - although I have a couple of ideas, there's no rush to do anyhing drastic because I quite like how it is at the moment.

Alright, fair enough. For now, just run her as-is, then you can think about what to do to improve her status... if such is necessary, that is.

 

[GTP_Ingram]

A couple of other minor jobs to update you on.

I replaced the boot badge today. As anyone who had owned a BMW or a Saab of a similar age will confirm, enamel badges tend to fade badly. The front on mine looks like it has been changed fairly recently. The rear, on the other hand...

Now I've never performed gastric bypass surgery, but I'd be very surprised if it's a more fiddly task than replacing the boot badge on a 156. The emblem swivels to reveal the lock behind it, and the necessary springs and clips to make this work, if you're not incredibly careful, tend to explode in all manner of directions when you dismantle it - often down an open drain 300 yards away, or into the mouth of a passing cylcist. Most likely of all, they'll fall into the inner skin of the boot cavity, where they're unlikely to be ever seen again.

Even if you make sure to stuff rags into all of the gaps to prevent this from happening, as I did, it's still a very frustrating job. The main problem is that although I can squeeze my hands into the space between the inner and outer skins of the boot, once they're inside there isn't any room to move them. As you can imagine, this makes compressing a tiny spring while securing it with a circlip as you insert the badge from the other end a near impossible process unless you have four tiny hands.

Anyhoo, after many grazed knuckles and a few newly-invented curse words, the job is done. Worth it. Almost.

I bought a new headunit to replace the cassette player, and removed the CD changer in the boot and its associated wiring. The new unit sounds much better (that shouldn't be a surprise, considering how awful the old one was) and the colours of the display can be customised, so I've managed to find a pretty nice match to the dials.

I also made a start on cleaning the leather thoroughly, I scrubbed the boot carpet (it looked like something might have died in there previously), and I cleaned out one of the windscreen washer jets which was clogged up.

I'm finding a number of unusual items left behind by the previous owner. A couple of days ago, beneath the driver's seat I found a wrench and a shower head. Today, I removed the rear bench, and found the following items:

Ten pence, a small wooden boat and a picture of Nemo. Then I looked beneath the passenger seat, and...

A leather belt, brand new and boxed. I shall report back with other random items as and when I find them.

 

[daan]

I only found hundreds of cam dowel wood fixing screw things rattling around in the spare wheel well, and a Lego minifigure under the centre console.

 

[ExigeEvan]

@GTP_Ingram - Good job on the badge. Have you tried applying a UV protection on them? The same kind you'd use on headlight repairs would work.

 

[GTP_Ingram]

@GTP_Ingram - Good job on the badge. Have you tried applying a UV protection on them? The same kind you'd use on headlight repairs would work.

I suppose I could, it'd really take the misery out of replacing the badge. But then again..

It'll does take a good while for it to fade, so I might just brace myself in advance for the same job in a few years time.

On a different subject, has anyone had experience with LED tail/brake lights, particularly Canbus units (i.e the ones which don't trip the dash warning lights)?

One of the brake lights was intermittently failing when I picked up the 156. It turned out to be just a slightly loose contact within the bulb holder, but as I'd already bought LED tail/brake lights for the 205 I thought I'd try fitting them at the same time. In both cars, they're great - crisp and really bright - but despite apparently being Canbus bulbs, they tripped the warning lights in the Alfa.

It isn't an issue for the 205, so I've just stuck them back in there, but it's still a little irritating that they're not doing what they're designed to do.

 

[eiriksmil]

I'll give ya £10 for the belt. Or maybe you need it more than I do.. Gotta dress stylish driving an Italian car..

 

[GTP_Ingram]

Good news!

Given that the 156 has no record in its service history of a cambelt change at the recommended 72,000 miles, the risk of a failure has been worrying me, especially considering it's on 91k now.

Gladly, it's no longer a problem. After attention from an Alfa specialist down the road in Leeds, it has a new cambelt, tensioners/idlers, water pump and auxiliary belt. For the first time since owning it I've fully given it the beans...

It certainly shifts, I'll give it that. In second gear, it hits the red line at about 7,100rpm feeling like it has plenty more to give. I've seen a couple of remaps which raise the limiter to 7,500rpm, so I might be tempted to give that a go in the future. The brakes will probably get some attention too. Being both quicker and much more refined than I've been used to, corners appear a little sooner!

While the Alfa was getting worked on, I took the opportunity to give the 205 a good run-out.

Ways in which the 156 can't match the 205:

• The steering feel
• The brake feel
• The throttle response
• The gearshift quality (so much this)
• The feeling, after a serious drive, of excitement and relief that you're still alive

Hopefully there are one or two steps I can take eventually to help the Alfa get a little closer to the Pug in some of those areas (eg. brake upgrades, firmer engine mounts/suspension bushes, a remap to remove some of the "sneeze room" from the gas pedal, maybe a stiffer rear anti-roll bar). For now the 156 is great fun to drive too, but the 205 shows how a merely good FWD chassis compares to one of the best ever.

I'll give ya £10 for the belt. Or maybe you need it more than I do.. Gotta dress stylish driving an Italian car..

No deal. The price tag on the box says £17.99

 

[TheCracker]

View attachment 526754

Is this taken near Little Almscliffe? If so that little left-right series of corners in the background were my favourite hooligan section of road when i was still living there. It's like a baby Eau Rouge 👍

 

[GTP_Ingram]

Is this taken near Little Almscliffe? If so that little left-right series of corners in the background were my favourite hooligan section of road when i was still living there. It's like a baby Eau Rouge 👍

Indeed it is. Funnily enough, I nearly always seem to approach it from the opposite direction, so I haven't tried out the full Eau Rouge experience yet!

 

[TheCracker]

Indeed it is. Funnily enough, I nearly always seem to approach it from the opposite direction, so I haven't tried out the full Eau Rouge experience yet!

It's best taken from the Beckwithshaw/Harrogate side, heading west IMO.