Alfas on a budget and heater fan problem

[Joe Elliott <jelliott@domain.elided>]

  Me again.  I'm doing a lot of posting over this winter holiday, but I
still haven't told any of the stories I had hoped to....

>Any other digesti in the young-Alfa-owner-on-a-limited-budget
>category care to comment?

  Well I'm 16 years old and making approximately $35 a week.  I own a GTV6.
I bought it for $450 and have put $2300 into it (but not all that was
really necessary--I just felt like a new transmission when I had it out for
mounts, and was told that I should replace some other driveline bits that
weren't all that bad, although now I've determined my driveshaft center
support is shot...).  My friend Jake has a Milano (the car I decided not to
buy against my better judgement because I've felt since I was 12 that a
GTV6 would be the ultimate high school car.  Jake paid $1000 for his
Milano, buying it from an old friend of my dad's.  He's spent NOTHING on it
repair wise until I convinced him to get a new tranny, which is happening
now (his mounts were worse than mine, though).  That's NOTHING over 2000
miles and 6 months.  He even had $20 for cute MOMO seatbelt pads and enough
and still had money to spend to change the oil for SYNTHETIC.  That's a lot
less than he spent on his $250 Toyota Camry he got when he was 15 (although
he resold it for $750, still turned a profit, enabled him to buy Milano,
that's why he'll tell you he "loved" that car :)  ).  And he decided not to
get an LSD (that's NOT the LSD so many of our high-school peers spend their
money on, but rather a Limited Slip Differential), so he'll soon have
enough money to put 17" alloys on his Silver Milano.  Either one of us
would kill for a Verde and I think you'd be nuts to let it go just as
you're about to have a real life.  When I'm where you are in your life I'm
hoping to sell my GTV6 not for some STUPID car (I'm sorry, but I really
think that all US-market economy cars are SHIT), but for a Montreal,
308GT4, or Stratos (my new *ultimate* car), depending on just how much
money I can scrape together in my first couple of years out of school.
This is where people typically throw out their college galopies and spend a
fortune on new Civics and Jettas.  That same fortune could buy a nice used
Ferrari that you now hopefully have the job security to maintain properly.
But why bother if you ALREADY OWN A 3-LITER REAR DRIVE ALFA, and the more I
think about, despite my sick obsession with the GTV6, the Milano is
definately one of the greatest cars of the 80's, and certainly one of the
best bargains to own.  My GTV6 is certainly the bane of my existance at the
same time that it's the love of my life, but I figured as much going in.
After all, I bought a non-running car that had been sitting for 2+ years
outdoors, and is only going to fall apart (from rust) just as I get the
mechanicals 100%.  But it's a blast to drive now, and even if it's not
cheap, it IS more *reliable* than any other $450 car at the high school, or
just about any car at the high school for that matter, except maybe the
BMW's and Volvos--I wouldn't trade it for anything (except a 3.0 GTV6 or a
Stratos).  That's what you have to consider about European cars vs. the
competition.  Even if regular "maintenance" costs are greater, you get
superior reliability and lower "repair" costs. I've grown up with a Fiat, a
VW, a Volvo, and 3 Jaguars, the Fiat and the Volvo having been bought new,
and members of my family have been let down by those cars all of three
times.  A fuel pump failed in the '79 Fiat 131, but in San Diego right
between my uncle's apartment and a huge private source of Fiat parts.  At a
Concours in Cincinnati, water got in the fuel tank (yes, singular, the
other tank was untainted, but that fuel pump didn't work anyway) of the '59
Jaguar MkIX, and it had to be towed home by two towtrucks (the first one
got stuck in the mud and they called a bigger one to tow it AND the Jag).
Right after we got the '87 Jaguar XJ6 (circa 1994) the A/C compressor that
we knew didn't work seized up and threw all the belts on the way home from
Cincinnati.  A quick tow to a gas station for new belts only made my dad
late for dinner.  And we don't keep our cars immaculately maintained,
either.  The '87 Jag, for example, has a severly cracked windshield, rattle
in the right rear suspension, leaky right fuel tank, no A/C, intermittantly
functioning HVAC servos, noisy power steering, jammed tape deck, dead wire
in rear defrost, intermittant fuel stank in cabin, the list goes on.  So
what's my point? I'm not sure, but it's 2:30 AM and I have to get up
tomorrow to work on my Alfa Romeo!!  Oh, one last thought, our friend with
the Verde didn't tell us what kind of "boring" car he's getting--if it's a
$250 '82 Volvo 240 (yes, I saw such a car in town here last spring as the
students were leaving--in excellent shape) then he probably will save lots
of money and have a more reliable car, but alas, he said he's getting a
loan, so I'm pretty worried about his sanity at this point.

  One last thing that I hope everyone scrolls down far enough to read:
I've been scraping ice off the inside of my car these last few days,
because the heater fan, that's always given a squeak on startup, is
seemingly meeting some serious resistance.  At best, it makes a fluttering
noise and doesn't move as much air as it should, but sometimes it make
really crazy noise as it rubs against whatever's in there and the light
dims as the fan motor get overloaded (the first time it went so far as to
blow a fuse).  Once it met so much resistance (I'm guessing) that it didn't
"turn on" at all, and the light came on *real dim.* Can somebody diagnose
this?  Or clue me in on the nature of the mechanism and how to check it
out?  Is it an impeller or a furnace-blower-style fan?  It's not fair.  My
friend Jake is blasting around town powersliding through town in the snow,
doing doughnuts and 180 degree spins that pass for U-turns, while I'm
creeping around doing 20mph in 4th peering out of my "view slit" while I
try and scrape my way though the ice to some side visibililty with my other
hand!

Good night! It's you digesti's fault that I'm going to smell like
16-year-old-boy tomorrow because a shower at this hour would wake my
parents.

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End of alfa-digest V7 #1248
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