Classic Alfa Forums

I know this isn't a classic but a know a lot of you drive newer alfas. My son today has taken his giulietta for it's test .It failed on a lower front track arm bush .I know it's probably easier to fit an arm . They have quoted him £430 to fit a new arm plus £30 tracking. Have any of you had one fitted and what was the cost ?

Jamie Porters Alfa Workshop sell them for just over a ton. They call it a lower wishbone.
And have a "how to" section which gives step by step instructions/photos of how to do it.

.........and in their servicing section they quote £220 incl VAT to fit one.

Not too convenient for you in Herts, but it does seem your sons garage are having a laugh!

I’ve used this chap a few times in Mansfield for Mrs Veesix’s Giulietta

http://af1services.co.uk/

He’s a bit loud, but knows the the newer Alfa’s. The last service was priced a bit more than I thought it might be (can’t remember exact figure, it was still reasonable) but equally when he did the cam belt and water pump it was a very competitive, if not cheap tbh.

I’ll be using him again for the next service.

Tim

Thank you for your replies . It doesn't look like to bad a job would have to buy the sockets thought. I'm just hoping he finds somewhere cheaper as I will end up doing it.

Doesn't sound a particularly good price, haven't changed one on the giulietta yet but shouldn't be more than an hour or two work so with the part, labour, vat and tra King reset I'd expect most garages to be in the £250 to £300 range..

Who ended up fitting the lower arm!

He got a local company to do it thank god ! £350 changed and tracked. They said to him they don't want to do another .

Done one on my Giulietta today, bottom ball joint was worn out. Could have got just the joint, grind out the rivets and bolt in the new ball joint but the rear rubber bush looked a bit cracked so got a complete wishbone. Quinton Hazell one so good quality, was about £45 delivered from Parts in Motion online.
Only awkward part of the job was removing the aluminium subframe brace that goes forward to under the bumper. Held on by two bolts near the arm mount which are easy enough but the forward end has 3 bolts which face backwards rather than forward, bottom two can be hot on easily enough but the top one could hardly be seen.
I took the fog lamp grille out then the foglight itself and with the aid of a universal joint it came out OK.
Probably took a couple of hours to do so not overly drastic, serviced all the brakes and generally gave the car a much needed once over as the poor thing just gets used and abused.
Got some more service items to do plus change the rear wheel bearings as they're a bit grumbly. At 165k and 11 years old I'm tempted to just keep repairing it until it drops to bits. No point in selling it to upgrade, it's hardly worth much and I'd only get a newer version really. I don't want anything with electric handbrake etc and the car still does nearly 50mpg, has enough room, good loads space available, comfy and most stuff works.
Only thing I'd like is a DAB radio to get more choice but not enough to warrant changing.
Has anyone used one of those DAB FM transmitter?

We fitted a double din Kenwood unit to the Porsche and it’s really rather splendid it gives DAB radio and hands free Bluetooth for phones so if we use Google maps on my phone it displays on the dash like Factree ! we had to get a. Replacement facia in the same. Shade or grey as the rest of the dash. But overall we’re happy with it

Interesting about things like google maps being displayed on it Lou, I have finally caught up and use that now rather than my aged Tom Tom....

It’s superb much better than Tom Tom and it gives live traffic data so you can see jams ahead and change your route it then plans a new route automatically. you add the Google maps app on your phone and once it’s paired via Bluetooth or a usb cable (it’s more stable using cable) it displays on the head unit screen it’s a touch screen unit

I’d keep the Giulietta until it drops dead Kev.

I know I defected to the dark side but the aim was 200k plus miles, same reason you give which is all you get is a newer plate, the cars themselves were still nice.

First one was 185k but clutch was getting ready so px’d it, second was at 160k when it got written off, if it hadn’t been wiped out by a Romanian truck driver I’d still have it and be on 250k, and I made a mistake swapping the one that replaced the write off at 100k for a low miler as I expected to be doing high miles at work.....then lockdown happened. Hindsight I should have just hung on to the 100k miler for another 5 years, it drove lovely.

Mrs veesix’s petrol Giulietta is staying until it either drops dead or is banned from the road. It passed its last mot with no advisories which is promising so hopefully no wishbones just yet. It’s due a cam belt tho so need to get that done.