164 T Belt change intervals

[C M Smith <cmsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Since Alfa Romeo can't even decide what a safe service interval for the T 
Belt is this topic pops up again and again on this Digest and the 164 tech 
pages.

The consensus seems to be that 50,000 miles (or 90,000 km for Canuck cars) 
is too long. My mechanic recommends every 35,000 to 40,000 miles (60,000 to 
70,000 km) but points out that age is also an important factor. Once the 
belt gets over five years old you should thing seriously about changing it. 
Rubber tends to get brittle with age, especially wherever air pollution is bad.

The fail safe rule is to change it before it breaks! I can advise that my 
164 is now on its third belt at 150,000 km (about 90,000 miles) as the 
factory one was swapped out at about 70,000 km when ARDONA had the T Belt 
failure experience on the early 4 cam engines. They paid to change out my 
12 valve engine T Belt even though the problem only surfaced on a few four 
cam cars. I also got the change from the hydraulic to the mechanical 
tensioner under warranty, at a different time.Then my local mechanic 
changed the T Belt at 140,000 km with the tensioner, water pump, cam seals, 
and a few other odds and sods. Good for another 70,000 km, which at the 
rate I'm accumulating mileage will take me into the car's  twentieth year, 
if the windshield header doesn't rust through first.

Neglect this T Belt replacement at your peril. New heads are very expensive.

Cheers


Michael Smith
White 1991 164L
Original owner
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided