Sportronic problem

Hi People I have had a problem with my 166 3.0 sportronic gear box for a few months now, its constantly refusing to stay in manual (to the left) mode and slips back to drive at the same time the red gearbox symbol comes up on the dash. Okay its not a big problem as it resets itself when i stop and restart her, but irritating as hell as i can't use her properly on those lovely b roads! Reading through the threads on a sportronic search I see it may be a couple of things;
1. a gearbox electronic brain (sounds easy to change)
2. change of the oil or lube is required (as she may be overheating) this gearbox behaviour is a safety failover built into the box.

Can any let me know if they have experienced the same / similar fault and any advice is appreciated, where to go i.e will a local mechanic be able to change part/ oil and rough price. I have a suspicion it may be no 2 oil change, then i read conflicting opinions that this may bad practice and you shouldn't change it? my opinion is after 74k miles it needs new gearbox oil! Okay nuff said over to you wiser folk out there...... Cheers

are there any wiser folk out there able to advise me please.....
anyone there.....

any one able to respond sorry to go on....

Have you tried re-seating the contact for the sports mode / steptronic and / or cleaning it? This happened to me a couple of months back and it turned out a wire to my LPG inidcator had got between the contact and the gearstick - when I re-seated the wire out of the way it worked fine.

Does it mechanically slip back to D or electronically?
If latter then check all the micro switchs under the gear lever fascia.
If former then check as much of the mechanical wire/rod linkage as possible.
Oil change not too difficult -see previous threads on a search. You need ALOT (20litres?) of oil to do it properly.
Suggestions have been made to feed/drain through g/box oil cooler pipes.

IMO you should change the autobox oil every couple of years - I get mine done every year during one of the services as its not a big job.

If you think the gearbox is getting too hot you might want to check the fan on the gearbox oil cooler.

Originally Posted by CrispDust

Does it mechanically slip back to D or electronically?
If latter then check all the micro switchs under the gear lever fascia.

CrispDust its electronically tripping i.e from drive putting gear lever over to the left into auto then shifting up and down it may occur & sometimes when i go back across to auto/ drive mode! i am half competant but looking for the mirco switches can someone describe this in detail are they under the gear lever leather cover? when I find them what do i do?

Oil change not too difficult -see previous threads on a search. You need ALOT (20litres?) of oil to do it properly.

Can a competent non alfa mechanic carry this out without too much trouble and how long time wise and what oil should I buy and where from, sorry to be a pain in the rear and thanks up front again....

Gearbox is pretty standard automatic gearbox so no reason that a competent mechanic couldn't change the automatic transmission fluid - not sure of the spec of ATF that Alfa recommend.

Sounds like gearbox is going into limp home mode - does the 166 have a gearbox oil dip stick like the 156 - located at the front right hand side of the engine.

If so this should give you a good indication of the quality / quantity of the ATF thats in the gearbox - it should be clear bright red.

Pascs I dont know about the gearbox oil dip stick but will take a look in the handbook and under the bonnet. The ATF is the gearbox oil i guess? I think this will be in the handbook too, when i identify the type of oil wheres the best place to buy it also any online shops you know of.

No there is no dipstick.
The problem with the auto box is that you can't just undo drain plug, some oil will drain out but alot will stay in the torque convertor, which is why ideally you need to flow this through with a large reservoir of fresh oil and drain off alot of it until most of it is new oil.
It needs to be a good Dextron 111 type. Redline seems to be recommended by BMW owners who have a similar gearbox (but curiousley with an inspectable/cleanable filter).
Or there is an equivalent Castrol oil made for several manufacturers, I believe the Citroen/peugeot version is the cheapest (Xantias have an almost identical box)

To get to microswitches you have to lift off the flat panal that has the gearselctore lights in it - just spring clips but tough to lift and clips can get bent.

Crispdust thanks for that, bit of a poor design the gearbox not draining easily and what a waste of oil......i will search for Dextron 111 is halfords a source or an internet shop?

To get to microswitches you have to lift off the flat panal that has the gearselctore lights in it - just spring clips but tough to lift and clips can get bent.

What am i looking for when i have removed the panel and located the switch, check its broken engaging??

Esso ATF LT 71741
=> Audi Oil No. G 052162A1x
=> BMW Oil No. 8322 9407807x
=> Citroen Oil No. Z 000169756x
=> Jaguar Oil No. JLM 20238x
=> Mercedes Benz Oil No. A 0019892203x
=> Peugeot Oil No. Z 000169756x
=> Porsche Oil No. 999.917.547.00
or Transmax Z
also Q8 and Redline 4 fluids can be used.

cheers Crispdust I will get my man on to it! cant stand not having manual overide!!!