Lancia Motor Club

Dedra Buyers Guide, produced by Brian Hilton, LMC Dedra Technical Advisor

All twin OHC Dedra engine.
All Dedra for remainder.

Most important, make sure it has a good service history & that the Cam Belt & Counter Balancer shaft belts & all three of the Belt Tensioner  bearings have been changed within the last 3 years 36,000 miles, the handbook says 100,000KMs but it just isn't worth taking the chance, as if a bearing collapses it usually takes off the cam belt & bang go the valves, if a Counterbalance shaft belt or the cambelt break or come off the same usually happens. If not get them all changed straightaway negotiate the cost, your looking at £300 to have the work done so it's not something to ignore lightly, It is poor economy not to change the power steering and Alternator belts at the same time.
Check all the electric components work, ie window lifters, sunshine roof, central locking, the lock motors are built into the door lock if there is a problem it's quite often down to earthing. fuel filler flap release(early cars had a locking cap) from the glove box, that the boot locks with the central locking, if it has remote central locking (dark red dome in rear interior light) make sure you get the remote & the code.  Electrical problems with more than one circuit that at first sight appear totally unconnected, is invariably down to the battery to bell housing earth lead that corrodes badly underneath the battery, changing the lead for a heavier duty one and cleaning fixings will often remove all the problems in one go!
Poor starting from cold is usually the coolant temperature sensor.
Failure to idle is often due to Idle control Valve needs Cleaning/replacing.
Engine revving at about 2000rpm instead of normal idle is normally due to petrol deposits around the butterfly valve adjacent to the throttle switch.
Handbrake sticks at rear calipers if not maintained correctly, put the handbrake on & try to pull away, if one side of the car rises and the other doesn't, one side is not working.
Check for rust around boot floor & spare wheel well, sometimes the drains for the sunshine roof that pass through the floor behind the rear wheelarches, get misplaced & dumps the water in the boot, this is a killer for Dedra.
Generally rust isn't a great problem on a looked after Dedra as most of the panels were galvanised, but you may find some just above the rear wheels on the wheelarch, difficult to eradicate if bad. check where the door sill bottom lip meets the floor lip, gravel from the front wheels shot blasts the underbody protection and can cause severe rusting.
Check front suspension turrets under the bonnet as they can rust badly if not cleaned from the underside.
Make sure headlamps have no cracks, RHD headlamps are a problem to get hold of.
If it has alcantara (Seude type upholstery) I would expect it to be in good condition as it wears very well & would only expect wear on the drivers seat. Alloy wheels unless you are very lucky or the have been refurbished or renewed are liable to be in poor condition, if so don't be tempted to paint them all the same colour, without the dark grey highlights the wheels look nothing but they can be refurbished at £50 each.
Finally check wipers don't bang up drivers side windscreen pillar, this is a sign of badly worn bushes in the wiper mechanism (5), parts now mostly unavailable, although a good workshop can make/modify the mechanism.

I have a video produced by an Irish motoring programme called Car Driver in 1989 They put the Dedra through it's paces (sedatley). If I could transfer it to Digital format I could post it. David :)

Any chance of putting it on youtube and posting the link?

Brian
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There are currently two Dedras on ebay at the moment (and a V nice Y10 GTie!). Both nice but one has had a cambelt failure.

If it was the 1600, I went to see it on Friday and it was nowhere near as good as it looked in the listing. It's for sale now on Edinburgh Gumtree.
At least it wasn't the usual rustbucket around the rear arches though. ;D

Matt, this one on ebay a couple of months back-almost went to see it but wife stepped in and put her foot down on yet another Lancia.  Take it needed a bit more than fixing bump at the back?

With 3 kids now tempted by saloon although note from your previous posts that you think Thema is far better car!

Thanks.  Colin.

That's not strictly true, I've had 5 Dedra's and 2 Thema's as well as having lots of experience due to being Dedra Technical adviser for 15 years, both cars have their strengths and weaknesses, and it depends what sort of motoring you do, as to which is the best choice for you.
Bodywork and reliability I've found over 16 years of experience that Dedra is very reliable as long as it's been serviced correctly, and the bodywork is usually good due to it being galvanised. unfortunately once they dropped to the bottom as far as prices are concerned, many people who bought them couldn't afford to maintain them properly, which is a killer to Dedra's, Electrics are more reliable than  every other Lancia in their time including Thema. The Auto is a waste of space owing to the mismatch of the VW electronic Box, abysmal to drive and lousy fuel consumption, I must have been mad to buy the 2nd one but it was in such nice condition ::)
Dedra is great for all driving but excels cross country.
Thema's, I had 2 1993 2.0le 16V autos, are lovely and well equipped, and once again if well looked after very reliable, although the cambelt on 16v's is not known for having a long life., but, it's much more suited to main roads which isn't to say that it's no good on cross country, just less agile due to it's size.
but for long distance Continental cruising or any motorway/main road driving it's motoring par excellence, I've cruised mine on the French and German motorways at well over 100mph in comfort and with excellent fuel consumption.
So it's really a case of "Horses for Courses" but as long as you choose wisely, for which it's worth paying over the odds, and has proof that it has been serviced correctly, and most importantly that the belts have been changed at correct intervals or preferably sooner, then both are great cars.
One point with Dedra if your going for the twin OHC engine variants I would always go for the 2.0, mainly because the performance is better than the 1.8, but they both have the same servicing requirements and costs, and secondly the 2.0 were always higher specification than the 1.8.
Finally don't ignore the 1.6, these go far better than you would suppose for the size of engine to body, and I know of at least one that was still going strong with well over 200,000 miles on the clock, a figure that all Dedra's are well capable off.
The 1.6 shares much of the mechanicals with the more numerous Fiat Tipo and Tempras although the single point injection can be a bit of a pain.
With both Dedra and Thema if you break a cambelt have no doubts that you will probably wreck the engine, and make it uneconomical to repair , on Dedra it usually means 4 bent valves, as well as any other damage, on Thema 16v's you'd be lucky if you get away with less than 8 bent valves, plus any other damage. and an expensive rebuild in both cases.

Brian
8227 8)  

Thanks Brian for a very comprehensive reply.

Colin.

The Dedra was in pretty neglected condition to be honest and I got the impression that the owner wasn't very careful with it. The sunroof was partly opened and the interior was filthy and soaking wet for example. There was also not long left on the clutch and NO OIL on the bottom of the dipstick!!!!! It was quite solid for a change though.

You're correct in saying I'm none too fond of the Dedra, having owned a couple, but I'm looking for a very cheap Italian car, preferrably a Lancia, to use in a road trip to Croatia later on in the year. That was the only reason I was looking at it.

Matthew,
What di you have in Dedra's as it's fairly unusual for someone to have one that they didn't like, unless it was like me in owning 2 autos thinking that the 2nd one couldn't be as bad as the first, but it was!
Any particular reason or failing that you didn't like?

Brian
8227 8)

To be honest, it's not one thing in particular.

One of the main issues with the cars was the appalling fuel consumption for a car of that size. The 2.0 never achieved even 30mpg (the 8.32 even does more!) in the 4+ years we had it despite the fact that the Themas do just under 40mpg for the same running.
The other main gripe was the fact that it was incorrectly marketed as a BMW 3 series competitor but was really a Renault/Peugeot sector car.
I think it would have been a bigger success with a better range of engines, as the 8v motors were really too old by then, and the estate and diesel options which the continental markets had.

I'm also not convinced that the cars don't rust spectacularly. I've seen 3 year old examples which had rust at the front of the cills and rear arches. Not solitary examples either.

Having said all that, I'm looking for a cheap Lancia to use for the trip in 2011 and a Dedra fits the bill perfectly! ::)