My nice new 164 is a POS

[Mcmahonmik@domain.elided]

Sigh - advice and sympathy request follows:

I buy 1994 164LS auto w/ 135k mostly all highway miles from its 2nd owner.
Talk to local ex-dealer, find tech for 1st owner, confirm no "major 
problems".

Within 1 week it dumps the heater core.  8 hrs. labor.  Ouch.

I drive it 6 hours each way to Indy last weekend for the F1 race.  (You gotta 
love that sh*t.)  On the way back it loses all AC cooling, and the display 
for the climate control flakes out so you can't tell what setting it's at.

THAT'S THE GOOD NEWS!!
   When I take it in to check for freon leaks they show me the serious oil 
leak in the right front region.  Like from somewhere under the timing belt 
covers where you can't see much.  So much oil that I'm 2 quarts low, and the 
problem can't be easily (or cheaply) diagnosed.

Question:   Where in the right front would a 164LS leak oil?!?  
The tech's guess was the cam seals.  Ouch.  Expensive.  Any other likely 
places?

Question #2:  how dangerous is "waiting to see" how much oil I use or burn 
from here on?   Sure, it depends on what the problem is, but oil on the 
timing belt can't be good in my book...

Question #3 (rhetorical) : when do I admit that either I bought a lemon, or 
that Alfas in the 90s turned into the caricature of the unreliable Italian 
car?  Maybe Alfa left the US market because the 164 drove it out...   Or 
maybe I'm just unlucky and bitter...

Peace,
-mike
86 graduate (a real Alfa)
94 168 ( a real pain)
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