1980

Alfasud Sprint Veloce 1.5

63,000km

Well, since we purchased the Sprint in August?! 1999 as it's 4th owner with 58,000 original and genuine km on the clock, we've done the following.

The first thing we had to do was sell the Alfasud Super to pay for the wish-list. We also don't have the space for 3 car parks or the bank balance for the insurance premiums, but before she went I "borrowed" the rear ash-tray from the Super that was missing from the Sprint.

Then we needed to sort out security so for $300 we had a new Mongoose alarm installed.

Next, we checked her in for the her 60,000km service and a clean bill of health. There was the typical tuning, carb adjustment, timing, oil change, etc. Additional "tweaks" included a new rear brake hose, new cam belts, adjustment of the drivers window, and fixed a few minor oil leaks by replacing gaskets.

Then we replaced the only non-Italian tyre (Firestone) with a Perelli P2000, and had the wheel alignment done. Moved the two newish P2000's to the front and two older P4's to the rear.

The newish JVC CD/Tuner stereo needed to be paired up with some '90's  speakers to replace the original '80's Sanyo speakers. A pair of new JVC 2-way speakers were only $98! Spent some time tidying up all of the stereo wiring and now it can't be seen!

We then needed to sort out the twin Weber 36 IDF's. Off to the Weber specialist she to have both Weber's overhauled. Almost 100% - additional follow-up work pending.

Sourced a couple of good SIEM headlights (outer) to replace the original pair that where the silvering had corroded. Looks much better!

Then we needed to check a few things. Cam belt tensioners and tappet clearances. New tensioners were fitted and tappet clearances adjusted, which had been too tight. Also fitted Golden Lodge 25HL's to replace the champion N9Y's (too hot!) that had been fitted when the carb's were done. Re-tuned but there also seems to be a problem with the mechanical advance on the distributor - specifically old and weak springs for the counterweights.

Carb's will be fine-tuned soon, including repair of the distributor and repair of bolt broken-off in the top of the r/h carb. Watch this space!

Some minor TLC was required. Rattle from rear-left, and sometimes rear-right. Difficult to trace but it was suggested that it's the exhaust hitting the floor, which it does, but that's another noise! Small oil leak from oil pressure switch (replaced) and engine steam cleaned.

The "Yellow Peril" was due for it's six monthly WOF. All OK but two CV boots are split and need to be replaced - inner on l/h side and outer on r/h side, otherwise all OK. A very small hydraulic fluid leak from around the front discs wasn't noticed, which is probably the slave cylinder but it's intermittant and almost insignificant.

Found a pair of Weber 36 IDF's. Yay or Nay?

1996 (Nov)

Alfa Romeo 145 1.6 Lusso

60,500km

Purchased with only 16,000km on the clock in January 1998.

First thing was to do was the 15,000km service that had been missed. This was payed for by the dealer who we purchased the car off. Also discovered that two tyres has excessive wear down to the fabric so the P2000's were replaced at no cost, including wheel alignment.

There have been regular 15,000km services since then. Just about due for the 60,000km service.

In between services we've...

Installed a factory alarm. Usually $1,600 for the ECU or "Black Box" but the friendly and helpful team at Azzurra found one in their warehouse to sell to me for only $600! The car was sold with all the sensors and switches but without the ECU so it should have just been "plug-and-play", but oh no! The short story is that the ECU needed to be replaced with a new one from Italy which took 6 months to arrive after many faxes and phone calls to the dealer, importer, and Fiat/Alfa in Italy. When it arrived it was installed only to discover that the sensors (volumeteric) needed to be replaced also, very strange. We were lucky that this part was ex-stock in N.Z. Horray! Success at last! Thanks to Azzurra it was supplied at no cost, and the car was now out of it's 2 year warranty period.

Next on the list was a CD Changer for the Panasonic Radio Cassette which supported an external CD Changer. I wasn't going to pay $700 for a new one so I patiently waited. Then one day a stocktake/clearance sale revealed a spanking new $250 Panasonic 6 disk CD changer. Yay! Had it fitted for approx $150.

Then there were the hickups! A very small (and unnecessary) door ding in the drivers door from an incredibly inconsiderate contractor. Car was carefully parked away from others in a huge carpark at Hunua Falls, but 3 stupid and careless mowing contractors decided to park their ute's/trucks either side of my lone car, unnecessarily close, too close. Anyway, the subsequent repair by an authorised Alfa dealer/service centre upset the delicate balance of the central locking mechanism and electric window adjustment on the driver's door. After a few months it was all sorted, but only after assistance from the ever helpful importers, Azzurra. Thanks guys!

The only other glitch was a cracked plastic 3-way connector for the coolant hoses. Had to wait a few months for a $10-$20 part from Italty. All OK now.

Back to my list. Last on my list was factory 14" alloys and air conditioning. Air-con would be at least $2,000 so I've resigned myself to forfiet this luxury, but I "need" the alloys! Once again I patiently waited, with ads in the club magazine until the local dealer sent a seller to the prospective buyer. It was only this week that I fitted the "as-new" pre-loved $500 14" alloys which would have cost me $2,300 new from Italy. Look beautiful! Wait for a photo.

March - 60,000km service! Typical stuff plus...

- new cam belts
- new waterpump (bearings gone!)
- new front discs and brake pad set

Still have a problem with a "bearing noise" from the vicinity of the cam-belts, and a horrible oily smell that won't go away. Also noticed that the top of the front bumper/spoiler appears to have dropped 1" from below the front of the bonnet grille. I suspect it wasn't re-attached properly. The good news is that the service department has kindly offered to look into this further.

Well... They'd over-tightened the cam belts hoping they'd stretch. The oily smell was apparently oil leaking on to the exhaust from a plate at the end of the cam shaft. I'm not so sure this is/was the problem as the smell is still strong and there was never any noticable oil leak. What have they done?!

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