'01 Alfa Romeo 166 2.4 JTD

[Tuunikala]

I guess it isn't as retro as the other cars, but since there weren't many sold and most of them are either crushed into coke cans or turned into a new Prius, makes it in my eyes a future classic, so why not consider it weird and "retro".

For some time I was in need of a diesel daily driver. So I searched far and wide, but nothing special came up in my price range. i even looked in different countries, to see if something comes up. But again, nothing special.

So, another day came and I was looking at different cars. And this popped up. Never had I been in an Alfa, never have I thought about buying one. But when I looked past the off-putting sales advert, there was something in me that wanted to give the seller a ring.

On that evening I went over and it was basically love at first sight. The car ran great, there were some niggling small faults, also the rear electric windows don't work and whatnot. But still, a deal was made and I was a proud owner of an Alfa.

Here are some pictures of the car:
















So, I'm dealing with a 166 powered by a 2.4 10v Fiat turbo diesel. It has a 6-speed manual gearbox and many extras. The car isn't stock power wise. according to my butt-dyno, there should be around 130-140kW, which compared to the stock 103 is a bit more. It pulls like a train and corners like a dream, hence the DSS in the subject.

There is some work that needs to be done, for example the inner cv-joints need replacing, most of the rear suspension needs to be looked after, there are some oil leaks and also, the cam belt and water pump should be changed.

Anyway, let me know if the car suits this forum or not. Since the Alfa Owners forum didn't suit me and because I'm not a die-hard Alfa-male, I thought I'd rather share the car in a community, which, like me, appreciates all kinds of different cars which come in all shapes and sizes.

[Davey]

Those engines are far better than they have any right to be, so powerful and remap amazingly! Neatly bought a v6 166 on green with beige leather gorgeous luxury car for hatchback money!

[levismerc]

Very nice! I love 166's. We didn't get the diesel versions over here in the UK - just the twinsparks and the V6s.

[oli8925]

Love an Alfa, and particularly love a big, old, left-field Alfa. I've not had much exposure to the 166 but that has some beautiful lines for a luxury cruise liner.

[porsche944]

Had that engine in a 156. Needs a cambelt every 72K miles. Great engine, even sounds good for a diesel.

[shedvan]

Sept 5, 2016 19:51:50 GMT porsche944 said:

Had that engine in a 156. Needs a cambelt every 72K miles. Great engine, even sounds good for a diesel.

Every 72k? You should have asked for your money back!

Liking this car alot, Italian leather seat look first class

[Tuunikala]

Thanks for the nice comments. and I was in doubt if the car suits this forum or not..
The seats are really, really nice. With the optional lumbar air cushion in the seat, it makes even longer trips not tiring at all. Not to mention the rear seats, where you'e in the lap of luxury. Also, non-traditionally for an Italian car, you have lots of rear legroom and also headroom. which means even taller chaps can sit in the back, enjoy the trip and even catch some sleep.
The engine is really nice. For some reason I really like 5-cylinder diesels. They sound more refined compared to the 4-cylinder diesels.
This specific one seems to have a bigger turbo, because when I went to the local wreckers and got myself a replacement turbo air inlet pipe, it didn't fit the turbo I have. It's a Garret turbo, with the cold air intake port size, if that's the correct name for it, of 52 millimeters.
But then again, for some reason the older model engine cover didn't fit my 01 engine, so it might even be that the newer 103kW ones are a bit different than the 100kW counterparts.
If anyone is thinking about buying a 166, I strongly recommend getting one. There is a lot of bang for your buck, not to mention the added comfort and whatnot.
Also, need to refuel soon, at the moment I've done 840km on one tank according to the on-board computer, but to be sure I'm going with the calculated route, to see how much the computer is off. But still, since about 35-40% of that is in city traffic, I can't really complain.

[Geordie]

I like these. Different. Considered buying one recently.

[thewindscreenman]

Love it. I have a 156 sportwagon with the 2.4 diesel engine & I can honestly say it's the best car I've ever had, & I've had loads of them! Remapped of course. Steering, suspension, clutch, gearbox all super slick.
The only thing that worries me about owning a 166 is that they are rare here. Spares that are specific to the model might be expensive or hard to get.
Guessing this one has the 10 valve engine?

[Tuunikala]

Yea, it's the 10 valve engine, factory 103kW.
But although they're rare, that doesn't mean that the parts are expensive. For example, and original used headlight with the electric motor set me back 7,50€. So, yeah, not bad at all. And they're rare here as well.
But, about the mods I'm planning to do. Since the rear suspension needs work, I'm probably going to upgrade to Powerflex in the rear. Also I might be after a set of coilovers to further stiffen the suspension. Might looks into a sports exhaust. A respray will be in my mind as well. And when everything is done, going to get either some 18" or 19" wheels, maybe a set of BBS RS replicas. If someone could photoshop them on, that would be great. Also, any other wheel or mod ideas would be great. They don't seem to have room for a bigger cooler, so that would be a no. But if there's anything I could do to increase power and cornering and overall make the car into a more sporty luxury sedan, then feel free to suggest some ideas and whatnot.
Also, since the car is going to be a daily, I'm looking into a set of roof racks, maybe even a ski box or snowboard holder to do some winter sports as well, so if anyone has a used but good set for one of these and is willing to deal with a eastern European, that would be great.
Would also love to get a new key fob for it, but the only ebay dealer selling them won't ship to Estonia, so, yeah, bit of a bummer.

[Tuunikala]

Well, planned on doing some work on the car but that backfired.
Anyway, turns out there is no wiring for the cruise control I wanted to fit. Bit of a bummer but will look into doing the retrofit.
But so far I've done 1000 miles in two weeks and can't really complain, since I'm on my second tank of fuel and still going strong with that. And there is nothing that bugs me with this car, other than the faults. Really comfortable on long drives and it just wants you to drive it. And that's why it's hard to keep the speed under the speed limit. Even SWMBO has difficulties, doing 120 in a 90 zone, but that's due to the sixth gear, revs are so low that you can't assume it by ear.

[thewindscreenman]

I didn't realise there was a 6 speed box available for the 10 valve engine. My old 20 valve had 6 gears but was under the impression that the output shaft/flywheel were different between the 2. Mine will be due another cam belt next year. It's done 145k miles to date.
There is a problem with the auxiliary belt tensioner on this engine. They seize up. Bit of a curse word to get at but did my last one OK. Around £100 to replace so worth keeping an eye on.

[thewindscreenman]

Hope you don't mind a cheeky pic of my car on your thread.
Absolutely love my station wagon, nearly as much as I love eating chocolate feast lollies in north Wales! 😁

[Tuunikala]

Well, at the moment I'm only having problems with a slipping aux. belt, going to check everything over after a cam belt change.
But, yesterday gave the Alfa a nice deep clean. Tar removal, wax, cleaned the door jambs, the seats, fitted some original used floor mats. Also gave my other car a quick pressure wash.
Funny to think that both of these cars were made in fairly small numbers, both give a warm, fuzzy feeling while driving them. Both of them are largely unknown to the public, both of them have cheap parts to service them, but no aftermarket body panels. The similarities go on and on. And to think I want to own cars which are money pits and I want to sink money in them..

[Tuunikala]

So, long time without an update. But that doesn't mean that the car has problems.
Although, one time I had a problem with the battery. But that was fixed after the terminals were cleaned up. after that the battery gave out the power needed and the car started even better than before.
But, I still have some problems I need to sort out. First of all, the service. A cambelt change is probably long overdue. also, there are two fault lights, that are on at the moment. There were three, but after installing and replacing some bulbs, the bulb warning light is now gone. The lights that are on, are the airbag warning and the preheating light. The airbag light is probably caused by a connector near the steering wheel, because after I was feeling around for the steering wheel adjuster, the light came on. But the preheating light is a different story.
At first the fault was traced back to a faulty glow plug relay. And that was changed. But the light is on still. So, another problem is glow plug no. 1. Was going to replace just the faulty one, but after consulting with my dad, I ordered all five and am going to change them today.
And after that is done. i just need to fix the oil leaks, driveshafts, do a cambelt change, replace front lower wishbones, replace all the bushing on the rear axle etc etc..

[Tuunikala]

Well, it's been a long time without any updates. So first of all, Happy Holidays to everyone!
At the moment the Alfa has been on the back burner, used for long-distance driving. At the moment I've been trying to save funds to finally start repairing the car. But, that will take time, due to another addition to my fleet. Which was by accident, I shall add.
Anyway, I bought a cheap '98 Golf MkIV 1.9 SDI. Just as a quick flip. Images of it at the beginning. I should add, it's a bit of graphical content, it was used daily by a young family with a small baby..









Well, yeah..
Anyway, after two days of cleaning and sorting some bits out, the car turned out like this:














But, since I already have a diesel as a daily and the Golf isn't something to be proud of, I listed it up for sale or trade. At that moment, I was about 440€ outof pocket. That includes the purchase price and everything. But not registration to my name, I had a deal with the previous owner.
Anyway, I listed the car for sale, for 850€. Since the car had MOT and insurance, it was the cheapest MkIV for sale, which was ready to drive.
So, waited a bit and after a few days, I was offered a Opel Omega, as trade. Thought for a while, and after getting some confirmation from a fellow Opel dealer, pulled the trigger and I was a proud owner of an 1998 Opel Omega 2.5 V6 CD.
First I'll add a picture of the state of the car when I got it. Afterwards I'll add some pictures I took, since the car is listed for sale.

So, it looked like this. After I washed it, of course After that I got some roof bars:

And removed the LED-s.
But here are the pictures I took for the sales advert:





















Anyway, some basic information and specs of the car.
As mentioned before, it's a '98 Omega. 2.5 V6, manual, CD spec. It was imported from Germany in '06, and it was bought by an elderly gentleman. Who drove it until '13-'15 (not sure about the exact year, some of the invoices from '15 are still addressed to the old chap), when he unfortunately passed avay. When the car was in his hands, it only saw the Opel main dealers' workshop and only original parts were used.
Anyway, the chap passed away and his son inherited the car. But since times are different, the car didn't see much use. So, he sold it to the next person. The next guy was, and still is, working in a Lexus dealership. So the Omega saw a caring owner, who washed and polished the car. It also passed it's MOT fairly easily. He also fitted a leather interior and a LSD differential. A new windscreen as well. And he traded it for a '99 Volvo V70 diesel. The guy who traded the Volvo for the Omega, drove it for a few days, then the insurance was ended and since he was cheap and didn't want to register the car to his name, he traded it for my Golf.
So, here's the story of the car. It's basically full spec, just a few things missing. Hopefully I didn't overload the thread with pictures..

[Geordie]

I like Omega's. Nice colour too. Don't worry about pic overload...the more the better.

[Tuunikala]

Well, that was short-lived. Sold the Omega on the 30-th of December. Which is a shame, but that could only mean one thing...

PARTS!

So I went shopping on the Internet, racked up a bill of 733€ and I'm now waiting. All that just to get the Alfa through a new MOT. Maybe. Might also need an extra 500, but that's not certain at the moment.

Well, found a result for the moment. There's a different seller of the key fobs who actually posts to Estonia, so that's a result. And with the logo included. it's a bit on the expensive side, but who cares, I need a working key..

So, that was a short-lived cry for help. Hopefully there won't be any issues with this seller.

[Tuunikala]

Well, got myself some parts. Now I just need to attach them myself. Although I work in a dealership, which deals with Opel/Kia/Saab/Cadillac/Corvettes, not a single person is interested in fixing up my Alfa. So, onwards and upwards.

[Tuunikala]

Well, replaced most of the parts. So, new cambelt, new water pump, new aux belt, new air/oil/cabin/fuel filters, new oil, new sump plug, new lower wish bones and new inner boots for the driveshafts.

At this time I'm grateful that I studied to be a mechanic, made everything a lot easier.

Also, fixed some wires going into the bootlid, new case for the key and gave the car a good wash, including tar removal, engine bay wash and also, a good clean of the interior, coupled with a leather conditioning. And the results are here.















And for show, some evidence of the bigger electrical extras working. The electric seats+memory works also, mirrors and whatnot. So, as said before, this car reminds you of the legendary "reliability" of the Alfa-Romeo, by being actually reliable..