Alfa 156 Sele stuck in N -listen to this!

[alfahal]

Hi

My 156 selespeed from 1999 decided to get stuck in neutral with this horrid sound when trying to engage 1st gear:
http://www.espmusic.se/alfa/Alfa_156sele_engaging_gear.m4a

Leaving the car for an hour to cool down gets it back to normal, but this has now happened 4 times (of which once at a red light) so I'm reluctant to drive it. Reverse works fine. Could it be the solenoid for the 1st gear perhaps? I have a feeling that if I could force engage 2nd gear directly somehow I would be able to drive it to the Alfa service garage. If there's a trick for this, anyone... please let me know!!

I have been running the MultiECUscan software but not quite sure what parameter to look for... Had an error code (P1743) indicating a suspicious clutch sensor, but this was stored in memory and the error doesn't show up again after clearing, so might not have anything to do with it at all.

Cheers/ Henrik

[dehne]

Hi there,
Your problem will most likely be either the pump, or a Sensor think its crank angle, located at the back/ top of engine, if you can get to an alfa mech is best, to check te pump get someone else to start car and try to select gear and see if you can hear pump working, this may need to be done when it gets stuck, either way you can fix it in less than 1 hrs yourself

[Meng]

Try an EOL calibration if you have Alfadiag or MES, check clutch rod length, then wiring to see if there's a bad connection.  If all of that doesn't help then sounds like the sensor is cactus.  More info here:

http://www.ausalfa.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6517&p=121958&hilit=P1743#p121958