there is a possibility that your bearing going were related to your cambelt
... the impact on the piston squeezes the oil in the bearing and it rubs. I
should know it happened to me. Cambelt went at 73K, big-end bearing at 81K.

What did I do? Had the engine rebuilt. The bottom end work including a crank
regrind, bearings, new oil pump and new piston rings was around £1500 ...
and now the car is better than new!! I took mine to an Alfa/Fiat specialist.
Took a few weeks (it went week before Christmas) but is was worth it. The
"new" engine uses less oil than new mainly done to the new piston rings.

OK you spend £1500 but you could make £3000 selling her straight away or
£1000 to someone that will spend the £1500 and have a good car for £2500.
You figure ......

Me: I'm keeping mine .... even though it's cost me around £3000 to get her
back on the road.

Gazza

> wrote in message
ups.com...
> I always had the car serviced at an Alfa main dealer and the service
> schedule is a cam belt change at 72,000. It was never suggested to me
> that it should be done earlier. It wasn't until it went and I started
> reading up on it that I found that in other European countries they
> were recommending 36,000. As for the oil, I checked it every 1000
> miles; if it needs doing more frequently than that then perhaps you're
> right.
>