all kappa's behaving themselves?

[cris]

Hello everybody,
went to garage, no-one knew anything about the parts, they kinda remember i came in on a saturday, no parts in stock, (even after they phoned to say they were in!) long and short of it, everything ordered again, (i still think my parts are sitting in the corner of the stock room somewhere, 5 glowplugs, pulley belt etc. all cheap next year in stock clearance!!!) wait for the phone call early next week.

i'll let you know!! be good to not see the red check light flashing!
cris.

p.s. on the 166\k parts sharing, are the towbars and shock absorbers the same?

[Karsten]

Hey Cris

I have absolutely no idea on the tow bars but why not?... Shock absorbers should be the same.
At least they should know for sure at the Fiat/Alfa/Lancia dealership?

[Lindsay]

My understanding is the rear shocks are definitely different - at least in terms of Kappa Coupe and 166 being the same. My K has a towbar - removable type. Never been used. Original Lancia part I was told.

And in answer to the original question, mine is behaving - its not moved a wheel in 2 months, but it is still ok!

[Karsten]

Ah i forgot... A few of the Kappas have electronically adjustable rear dampers (levels the car automatically according to how much weight there has been put in the boot). But these kind of dampers are VERY expensive to replace. Luckily the dampers on our 20VT are the regular ones.
Don't know much about the Coupe... other than they have shortened the wheelbase and of course, like Lindsay is mentioning, had to do some minor changes. Hmm I do like those front dors (frameless windows).

[Lindsay]

I agree, those electronic dampers are hugely expensive, around 600 euros each. Mine also has the standard ones thankfully. I got a pair of new rear Sachs for it for 120 euros from ebay. Don't need them yet but too good a deal to miss.

Frameless windows nice. Pity the rears are fixed. Be nice if they wound down.

[cris]

I think the adjustable dampers were only on the sw and coupe. could be wrong, my k is a '97, to old to have them. ( i think i read somewhere that it was on the 2nd generation k, once again, could be wrong, happens a lot!)
on a brighter note, garage phoned, parts turned up, (still think a stockroom blunder) and booked in for the 18th, just wondering how much the hourly rate is!!

cris.

[Adrian]

Speaking of which, how much is the average hourly rate on a Lancia wherever you live? Here (Czech Republic), the only main dealer in town charges less than 20 EUR/hour, while my non-official mechanic charges 10-12 EUR/hour. Funny enough, his hourly rate varies with the complexity of the work to be done.

[Karsten]

Pretty funny if the price varies depending on complexity

Be sure to sit down when you are reading this Adrian...
The Alfa/Lancia specialist that mostly takes care of our Kappa charges just around 80€/hour... and thats before the infamous Danish tax adding 25% to that amount.
The crazy thing is that this is about the average price for this kind of work here in Denmark... no matter if need a new timing belt or just a checkup.

[cris]

hoi,
20 euro, that sounds good, 80 euro, OUCH!!!!!
hoping around the 45-50 mark, lower would be nicer!
its a long drive to cz for a service
cris.

[Karsten]

By the way... can anyone guess what the price of a brand new Lancia Kappa 20v Turbo in 1999 was?
We bought it in 2003 for half the price
Denmark has the highest taxes on cars in the world (as far as I know). Hundreds of people are being investigated by the police at the moment because so many danes drive around with swedish or german numberplates on their new BMW or Mercedes.