New 156 driver

[colcol]

If you change the water pump when doing the cam belt, then it would take maybe 10 - 15 minutes as you have to undo some bolts, take off old water pump , clean up mating surfaces, bit of gasket cement and put the new one in and Bob's your Uncle done....however if you do your waterpump on its own then you are looking at the same labour as changing a cam belt as it has to come off and go back on to get th the water pump.
My new water pump was $84 3 years ago from a European parts importer, the brand is QH, Genuine pumps are most likely $150, check ebay for Alfa 156 water pumps, Colin.

[jimay3677]

Yeah, I don't think genuine are even that much on Ebay, I know they are over charging me but there's not really much I can about it is there? I need it done. But I am going to ask that the receipt for the waterpump be itemized so I can see why it cost so much extra.

[jimay3677]

After many delays and much frustration my car is finally ready for collection tomorrow.  They have done timing belt and balance belt kit. Water pump and drive belt.

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[colcol]

I changed the manual gearbox oil about 3 years ago at about 80,000 klms, the oil that came out of it was so clean i filtered it and put it back into another car i work on.
Thats means there is no nasty wear taking place in the gearbox, put Penrite fully synthetic, when you do a gearbox drain on a Alfasud or 33, they are usually very black and gritty, the 156 was good in that respect.
I also changed the oil in the power steering, no one ever talks about it, but it is well worth doing, the cost of a new rack and pump would be horrid, and the fluid change took about an hour.
Good to see you changed the balance shaft belt as well, when the balance belt breaks, it gets tangled up in the cam belt causing its failure resulting in a loud bang....followed by a long silence, Colin.

[Cool Jesus]

Even a diagnostic, you really do like to tinker then.

[jimay3677]

I find it very hard to trust anyone else to work on my cars

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[colcol]

You have to find a good Alfa Romeo Service Provider and stick with them, its like having a good Doctor/Dentist/Accountant, you have to trust them and get along well with them, Colin.

[jimay3677]

Hmmmm. Great car but the selespeed is sick. On the two hour drive home it was fine until about three quarters into the trip where it reved for a few seconds then went into first at an intersection. It did this again around town. Just then I went for another drive and after reversing I got stuck in neutral and had to push it to the side of the road. After restarting it was fine again....

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[Cool Jesus]

Fark, that suck jimay. Hopefully it's something simple like fluid. You sound like the sort if bloke that will get his head around the sillyspeed, and you will become proficient with it. Once sorted I'm sure you'll love the car, I mean Alfa. 2 hours, that's a heck of a long drive to have it looked at by the sales yard.
I like my Alfas with a stick, so I'm not much help with a diagnosis. There should be something on here or elsewhere like alfaowner.com UK site which may shed some light. I know that they need a good battery, good fluid, good maintenance and the accumulator can fail. Keep in mind that you will only ever find people having problems with their cars, I've yet to find a forum with members praising their chariots.
May be worth having a local Alfa specialist look at it and arrange the warranty work through them? Depends on the type of warranty clause you have of course.

[extraball]

its prob due lack of maintenance, and something that was bound to happen. At least you went into the purchase aware of selespeed potential issues.

[jimay3677]

The company I bought it from has a shop in my town which is where I signed and payed so I can take it there but, it's more than 10 years old so doesn't have a statutory warranty.  It should fall under the consumer guarantee though I mean to have problems with a car on the first day!?

I should not have ignore my gut which was telling me not to buy a selespeed..

[jimay3677]

If only my diagnostic cable were here.

OK, I just went out and did some tests after reading up.
I turned ignition on, I heard pump go for a few seconds. shifted into 1st, then 2nd then 3rd and I heard the pump come on again.
Shifted back down and the pump came on again so The accumulator should be good, and presumably the pump should be too..

Hmmm. This sucks.. lol

[jimay3677]

OK, I remembered having a bluetooth OBD scanner which I hooked up today.
No error codes on either the SS or engine which really sucks. It's reporting 6 gear misses.

One thing I have noticed is that the pump kicks in every couple of minutes just with the ignition on but the engine not running, is this normal?
Should it have to build pressure every few minutes?

[Cool Jesus]

Try this link http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-147-156-and-gt/359967-alfa-147-selespeed-stuck-in-neutral.html
Sounds like what your facing

[Cool Jesus]

Here's another http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-147-156-and-gt/203493-156-selespeed-stuck-in-neutral.html
I just did a google search on "selespeed stuck in neutral" and came up with a few threads.