Alfa Romeo 156 - 2.4 JTD Chain or Cambelt?

[joshwa]

The Alfa Romeo 2.4 JTD 140bhp - is this chain belt or cam belt driven?

I've seen two listings - one saying "this car has a chain belt so no expensive cambelt changes needed" and another listing (ebay) saying "cam belt recently changed costing £900+" !?

I've searched the net but can't find anything... although this sounds worrying:

2.4 JTDs prone to cracking their alloy sumps on speed humps. Check for damage before buying, especially drain plug.

also worrying:

Take care to grease bonnet catch regularly as vulnerable to road spray and the safety catch can stick open. Bonnet may then fly open and wrap itself around the windscreem.

[GAteKeeper]

Pretty certain all the 2.4JTD varients are belt driven. You should definately change the belt and more importantly the belt tensioners more frequently than the 72k recomended interval. make sure that whoever does it uses the proper cam locks and configures teh timing properly. Lots of stories of people doing a cheep belt change and having the bottom end drop out 10k later.

Also make sure the oil is always topped up, those engines hate running low on oil.

GK

[behappier]

JTD's are all belt driven. Cost £350 to do at a dealer, due at 72k. Mine is currently on 60k, serviced next week. I will get the belt changed at an independant in 5-6k for hopefully less.
Re the oil, it is the Twin Spark who use oil and hate running low. Same applies for the cam belt disaster stories.
2.4 is pretty much bullet proof.

[joshwa]

The more I read about it, the less it seems like a wise purchase... sure they look nice... but they tend to be very near the bottom of all the reliability surveys

Do you know if they have ISOFIX?

[behappier]

The latest ones (2003>) are VERY well sorted. Reliability is top notch - at least on mine. Never let me down. I actually can't justify replacing it, plenty fast, 43 MPG, looks good, cheap to insure, cheap to service, depreciation behind...
Highly recommended but would go for the latest ones - need 6-7k for a good one.

[SHare]

I'm a member on the Alfaowner forums and most problems are with the petrol and selespeed variants. The jtd's seem pretty bulletproof, though, I wouldnt trust the cambelt service intervals on any car, a snapped belt is death to most engines. Worst problem with the jtd's seems to be splitting hoses on the turbo which is a fairly simple and cheap fix.