Alfa 156 GTA Selespeed trouble, HEEEELP!

Hello Everybody,

I am new at the forum, but there seems to be a loot of GTA owners here, so maybe someone could kindly offer me some advice in this matter.

I am a happy owner (until now) of an Alfa 156 GTA SW selespeed -03 (silver color).
The car has done 103 000 km. I am located in Switzerland, and have bought it second hand. I have been doing 40 000 km in it and it has worked like a dream. Fridays and weekends are spent embarrassing BMW owners in traffic lights and around the mountain passes :-). The selespeed has been a blessing around serpent roads in the mountains, but I’m afraid that the blessing turned into a curse right now.

I had a big service along with a cam belt change made at 100 000 km (better too soon than to late). The 3 –year warranty as also ironically passed last August, so now I fear that I will have to face an astronomical repair bill by myself.

Recently the gearbox has been playing the following tricks on me.
It sometimes refuses to engage reverse. You can hear that it tries to engage gear, and the reverse lights even flashes, but then it goes back to neutral.
It in possible to drive forward, but it only changes between 1-3 and 5. Gear no 2 and 4 normally refuses. Changing to “city” mode does no difference. When I reach motorway speed, it is possible to change into gear no 6.
It also feels like that the changes also are slower than normal.

When the car does the automatic down change (at the lower gear limit), it doesn’t feel very smooth. There is a slight “clunking” sound and feeling. This also happens when gear 2 is working.

The problem is getting more and more frequent. Can it have something to do with the car being recently serviced (by an authorized Alfa dealer that has done a good job up till now)? They may accidentally have disturbed a connector or something.
The pump is running for around 15 sec, when I open the door.
The battery voltage is 12.7 with the engine turned off. There is no malfunction warning on the rev counter.

Does anybody recognize these symptoms? Pleas help with advice if you can, I need to get my Bella to normal…….

Hello!

Good luck, these are seriously rare cars - most GTA's were manuals, especially in the UK. Some of the guys on the 156/147 forum might recognise the symptoms of the mailaise... Good luck!

1) Check the Selespeed fluid level and how clean it is.
2) If fluid is OK, ask an Alfa dealer to Calibrate the system using the examiner, this is likely to resolve the issue and takes about one hour.

I agree with CJ, it sounds like it is well out of calibration.
It should be done at every service, but probably isn't...

Hello, and thanks for the suggestions.
The 156 GTA is not that rare over here, you see them once in a while. I made a quick search at the local used car search engine. (www.autoscout24.ch). I gave 93 pieces 156 GTA fore sale at the moment, of which 25 where Selespeed versions. That gives an indication of the proportions.

I can tell you the latest developments. I took a drive to my dealer last evening. They plugged in the examiner, but the only error code was from the sensor (switch) that is positioned above the break pedal. This switch obviously gives input to the selespeed gearbox as well. I also had a cruise control malfunction some time ago, that was because this switch had come loose. I attached it and everything seemd normal.
My mechanic told me that some wrong inputs from this sensor (switch) can make the computer go nuts, and get in to some sort of loop. I’ not sure he really knew what he was talking about…..

They cleared the error code with the Examiner, and claimed that everything was perfectly alright with the gearbox and the settings. We took a drive with the examiner plugged in, and the Pressure reading was between 40-46 bar. They told this is normal, but again I got the feeling that the mechanic didn’t really know what he was talking about. What is your experience? I have read that it should be 50 bar (with the 5- speed gearbox). Does anybody know what is normal for the GTA-box?
I asked what if it happens again, and they told that they will change the brake pedal sesor (switch), in this case.

They didn’t charge a cent for it, and even changed one of the parking light bulbs at the same time. Happily I drove home, and had a bit of a race with an FIAT coupe 20V turbo. Acceleration was almost equal, so he obviously chipped the Turbo. The Selespeed was working like a dream, and I could clearly see that I gained quite a bit at each gear change, compared to his manual. Nobody can call the changes slow :-).

This could be a happy ending BUT……….

I go for another drive 2 hours later, and again I get funny gear changes,,, RAAAAHH!!!
This time it reverses, but gear 2 and 4 refuses. The down changed are rough, and noisy. After 10 km it however cures itself, and everything seems to work normally. Today on the way to work it also works normally..
I still doesn’t give me a good feeling, and I’ constantly wondering if I will be left on the side of the road. Any suggestions?

I just wanted to add the last news and the possible way to solve this problem. Hopefully it can be of some use for a fellow Selespeeder :-).

The previously horror with gears dissapearing continued until I got the chance to visit my dealer some time ago.

They did the following things to resolve the problem;

1. They did a system diagnostic, and the error that popped up was “faulty brake light switch”.

2. They replaced the brake light switch with a new one.

3. They topped up the Selespeed fluid (it was close to the minimum level).

4. Second diagnostic, no faults.

5. They run the system calibration, including clutch calibration. The mechanic told me that if the clutch calibration is on the border, it can lead to a whole row of funny and random behavior from the gearbox, since it wont allow a gear change if it doesn’t get an OK signal from the clutch.

So far everything works like a dream again, so it looks like this was the solution to the problem. My Alfa dealer handled this in a nice way, since they didn’t charge me a cent for above mentioned service (which was done outside normal working hours, since I just passed by half an hour before closing time). Also they did the previous diagnostics for free, even thou I’m the second owner to this car and way passed warranty.

Glad to hear you've sorted your problems! Now go and enjoy it!

Glad to here it is all ok.

re the Selespeed fluid level, you need to keep an eye on the level. There isn't very much in the system so it doesn't take much of a loss before problems start.
Check it when you check you engine oil etc...