From day one the engine has had the infamous “Diesel”noise caused by a problematic camshaft variator. Since I had not heard what it is supposed to sound like, I didn’t know it was abnormal till someone told me that.
The problem can happen very soon. In 5 years of the Alfa 156 was launch, the problem became well-known as indicated in the following discussion thread in 2003.
My Alfa 156 2.0 is with the very original design. The two rubber strips on the front bumper are black that matches the colour of the side mirrors and the strip at the back bumper. I like this subtle two-tone design more than unified arrangement on the facelift / more expensive models.
When I had the front bumper resprayed, the workshop made a mistake. They sprayed the rubber strip with the silver paint. The remedy they used is to cover the silver paint with a layer of black paint on the top. I didn’t realise it until I tried wiping off some white spots on the strip, them I found the black is not the rubber and the white spots are the paint in silver……
What should I do? I don’t know how to remove the 2 layers of paints on top of the original rubber. Asking for restoration from the workshop? It has been 6 months ago from the job done, I can’t be bothered to go through the negotiation process. So I decided to try something new by myself – the removable paint – Plasti Dip
The advantage is that I can remove it if I make mistake and it is much cheaper than having a painting workshop doing it. I am happy with the result.
The entire job took me around 2 hours to complete. The actual time used for painting is only 30 to 40 minutes, having the surrounding surface well covered indeed is the most time consuming tasks. The only disadvantage using the Plasti Dip for this purpose is that I need to do it every a few years to keep it tidy.
The previous owner has upgraded the Alfa156 exhaust system with a Supersprint muffler. I do like the sound it produces. The exhaust note is a bit louder than the stock and it matches the twin spark engine note very well. It is also said a set of good exhaust system can enhance the power. Hence, I plan to upgrade mine step by step. And I started with a component with a lower threshold.
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