156 Selespeed problems

[Roby]

Hi Everyone,
I have a 2001 156 Selespeed Monza that has brought me a lot of joy, but I have experienced the following problems:

1. When I am driving for a while in stop and start traffic, the car starts to rev highly and bunny hop all over the place.
2. I have lost 4th gear totally.
3. In idle the selespeed pump is working very frequently (whch I don't beleive is normal)

I brought it into a smaller Alfa garage who said that I need a new Actuator ($3,500).
I have read some overseas forums that suggest this is a last resort, and that there are other parts like the pump, solenoid that should be replaced first.
Has anyone had the same experience and can you recomend a mechanic that will do the right thing?

I was told not to drive the car, so am currently using my wife's vw Cabriolet Beetle (GULP) , yes an Alfista driving a hair dressers car!
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Roby

[John Hanslow]

Have a look at these treads from our forum under the 156 series of cars:

http://www.alfaclubvic.org.au/forum/index.php?topic=3786.0   and

http://www.alfaclubvic.org.au/forum/index.php?topic=3333.0.

Our Alfa Specialsts are pretty good with fixing this as more info is out there and parts available.  Check out the link in the thread and make a few calls.  We have had a lot of good reports as per thread info.

Manerallo-PurSang Motors (Brunswick), Monza Motors (Bayswater) and the Italian Job (Clayton) are a few places worth a call.

Good luck and let us know how you go

[Roby]

Update to this forum entry.
Visited Beninca Motors who fixed my jumping/surging problem...I can now drive car in busy traffic with no more jolting.
They spent some time to diagnose my missing 4th gear, and believe the problem is in the gear box.
So I have 2 experts, one says its the selespeed unit, the other says its the gearbox.
I will bring the car for a third opinion.
Does anyone know were I can get a gearbox?
Has anyone purchased on o/s?
Thanks
Roby

[Paul Gulliver]

You would be very brave to second guess Beninca's on anything Alfa

[JOHN G]

Well I must be very brave 

John

[John Hanslow]

Was the selespeed unit diagnosed on the Alfa Romeo engine analyser ?

Not all specialist workshops have this - some use an aftermarket analyser.  This could account for the difference.

[Roby]

Hi John, all I have seen from the workshop that said I needed a new selespeed unit was a laptop analyser, not sure if it was the alfadiag.
To be honest I didn't ask what benincas had.
I am thinking of bringing the car to Maranellos, and see what they have to say.
I am also trying to see how much I can get a gearbox from o/s.
Thanks

[Andrew156]

FWIW I took my recently purchased 2002 156 Selespeed to Donnelli Motors in East Malvern. Alex uses the Alfa factory diagnostic system with factory updates, etc. I was very happy with the diagnosis of my selespeed issues and it now drives beautifully.

I am new to this Alfa caper so not casting doubt over the skills and ability of the specialist workshops. Simply I acted on a recommendation which fortunately is close to home, and my experience positive if that helps

Good luck.....Andrew

[John Hanslow]

Thanks for the info Andrew156.  I wonder how many other workshops have the Alfa factory diagnostic system ?

[dehne]

hi rory there are heaps of places here is oz you can get gearboxes from, i would tend to look at the box because all the selespeed unit is is an autoclutch so to speak(type) when you want to change gears the the computer tells the pump to work which operates the hydrolic clutch which the tells the accumulater to change it into the selected/desired gear, but saying that all alfas have different probs but same symptoms. getting a third opinion i thing will be the go,does it miss all the time can you put it in manual and drive slowly and change it in to 4th ur self, hope you find the prob anyway

[Roby]

Thanks for your response Dehe.
I dont have a 4th gear at all.
In manual mode I can click through 1-2-3-nothing-5, I need to double click when in 3 because there is a hesitation, then it eventually engages 5th; its a bit hair-raising waiting for it to finally find 5th.
So by double clicking from 3rd, it smoothly enages 5th from 3rd.
When slowwing down in manual mode the car will gear down  5-3-2-1.
In city mode it behaves almost the same, just that it spends more time searching for 4th, the revs may go up until  it finally engages 5th.
I have avoided using City for the moment.
I have found  a thread on a UK forum, that discovered that the "teeth" for 4th gear in the gearbox had been broken/shawn away.

[monoman]

Give the job to the one that will guarantee their diagnosis. i.e.  If they says it's the gearbox, and that doesn't fix the problem, then no charge. 

[Alfa_alchemist]

The non selecting 4th gear on selespeed (it seems to affect the early generation gearboxes) is a common problem on UK Alfa forums that I have come across in my research on Alfa 156's - the problem seems to be caused by a build up of 'oil swirl' - old thickened up gearbox oil inside the actual gearbox itself.

Because of the narrow design of the gearbox casing, this seems to affect the 4th gear the most and causes difficulty in selecting it. As far as I can remember the solution was to remove the gearbox and clean it and change the gearbox oil as well. Now a damaged 4th gear could also be the cause as alfa gearboxes are known to have weak synchros and bearings.

[Andrew156]

FWIW I took my recently purchased 2002 156 Selespeed to Donnelli Motors in East Malvern.
Good luck.....Andrew

http://www.donninirepairs.com.au/
Sorry my bad . It is Donnini Motors in East malvern

[monoman]

Thanks for the info Andrew156.  I wonder how many other workshops have the Alfa factory diagnostic system ?

My experience is that 2 I have been to have the Factory diagnosis computer, and 2 others I have been to have non-factor. 

My 147 selespeed stumped them all because none of them logged a single fault for the selespeed. In fact, each showed that all of the selespeed functions were spot on. 

Despite this clean bill of health, my selespeed would very often fail the pre-start check and fail to even turn over, would later fail to select 1st for takeoff, would remain stuck in 4th or 3rd or 2nd when stopping and it might take 1 minute or 2 days to become drivable again.  The reason for all these problems turned out to be many and various minor and intermittent shorts and breaks in the selespeed wiring loom, and a few in the main loom.  Because the faults were outside the selespeed, no faults were shown on the diagnosis systems.

Every mechanic  I went to contributed in part to the diagnosis.  They all went that extra mile to really try and find a suitable fix, and not one of them was in the slightest greedy - they are all club sponsors too.

I have found  a thread on a UK forum, that discovered that the "teeth" for 4th gear in the gearbox had been broken/shawn away.

If a tooth has broken off I expect there should be metal bits in the gearbox oil.  Or, like mine , there might be an electrical problem within the 4th gear harness or connectors.