[Guest]

Hi,

I'm having some problems with my 147 SS.

When starting from cold the clutch is very very jerky, but this stops *more or less* after a few miles. It still feels different to how the system has behaved in the past.

Last month I did get a dreaded "Selespeed Failure" but after a restart of the engine it disappeared.

In addition to this my steering has begun to feel soft and vague, and the car will sometimes pull to oneside when braking hard.

I'm not a mechanic and my dealer is a fair drive away - can anyone offer any advice? The car is in its 3rd year of Alfacare.

 

[VeloceMitch]

hI dd
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:<hr /><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> In addition to this my steering has begun to feel soft and vague, and the car will sometimes pull to oneside when braking hard.
<hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sounds a bit like Tyre pressures, or have you checked them allready?.
cant help with the Selespeed problem, Mines a manual.

 

[Guest]

The Selespeed clutch thing also crept up on me after 6~9 months. It certainly wasn't doing it from new though.
I have spoken to my dealer about it and they confirm that it is normal behaviour. I tend to thing they are right as we are starting to also notice it on my wife's 4 month old 147.

 

[Guest]

I checked my tyre pressure - I normally do this every week and they're fine. I tend to have them a 2.5bar as I tend to do a lot of high speed driving. I wonder whether it might be the tracking or such like? The roads where I live have potholes the size of moon craters and it can be hard work avoiding them all......

 

[Simon_S]

Greetings from another Midlander, know what you mean about the roads round here
Anyway, my Selespeed always has been little bit jerky on its first pull-away in the morning so I don't think it's anything to worry about.
As for the handling, tyre wear perhaps? Are they worn evenly across the tread? This would indicate a tracking problem. You could try swapping front to rear, but it's safest to keep the best tyres on the rear.
Guests, formerly Ryauto, in Knowle aren't too far away and I've always found their service to be pretty good.
Hope you get it sorted soon, cheers,
Simon_S

 

[Guest]

Hi Simon,

I bought the car the day before Ryauto became Guests!

I might take the car into a tyre place to get them properly looked at - just need to find time - too bloody busy at the moment!

Any recommendations i.e. Kwik Fit etc?

 

[Simon_S]

I normally use Kwik Fit, purely because they're convenient for me, but have had better service from Plumes in the past.
Cheers,
Simon_S

 

[Guest]

Just got back from Kwik Fit - wheels needed rebalancing and the tracking was out - has made a huge improvement!

Steering still feels a bit funny - may get the dealer to have a look at it.

 

[Guest]

Kwik Fit?! aren't they expensive as hell?

 

[Guest]

It was £28 inc to get 2 wheels balanced and the tracking done. Needed it done quick (kwik?!) and my dealer is a 55 mile round trip...

Not a choice - a lack of options.

 

[Guest]

Hi there
I have the answer to your selespeed problem.
I owned a 1999 156 selespeed which had problems, the complete gearbox and actuators etc replaced at 6000 miles then the new gearbox had a fault which required stripping, then the new actuators packed up and were replaced a further two times, not to mention the two gearbox ecu's it went through (even a new one sent from Italy was faulty) then the relay for the selespeed pump packed up stopping the car again, finally after 17,000 miles and a gearbox that still gave problems (this car was never abused, my wife drove it most -i mean broke down in it most-)i solved the problem I SOLD IT and bought a manual 156, which i have now had for 8 months with no problems. Good Luck, if it's like mine i'm afraid you will need it.

 

[Guest]

frown

 

[Guest]

Hi,

My '99 156 SS also suffers with Selespeed trouble. I've got 51K on the clock. The cluch seems to open an close when the car is driven slowly after starting in the morning or after work, leaving the car park. This feels like a rocking motion and some times when I slow to go over the speed bumps I end up reving hard as the clutch opens and closes on 2nd, this is clutch slippage and I've wondered if the clutch mechanism is self adjusting??

Recently I did have trouble selecting 3rd gear and a 'blinking 2' on the display going down through the gears... no gear selected when this happens. That was put down to a low voltage problem on an actuator, That was fixed and no probs since.

Just had the timing belt changed, E565, and it's made a big acceleration difference to the car surprisingly!

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:<hr /><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by dd110:
<strong>Just got back from Kwik Fit - wheels needed rebalancing and the tracking was out - has made a huge improvement!

Steering still feels a bit funny - may get the dealer to have a look at it.</strong><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">i used to live in Cov and always went to silver line wheels in warwick. They were the only place who could acuratly set up my old 4ws honda!! dealers included!! Sh*t fit would not touch it. good prices on new tyres too, so good in fact that i found it cheeper and quicker to drive to them from cambridge for 4 new tyres than get the same ones locally. there addres is:

Silverline Wheels & Tyres
Unit 3-4, Nelson Lane
Warwick Warwickshire
CV34 5JB

Tel: 01926 490002

and no i dont work for them!!!

 

[Guest]

the geometry sould be out,get it checked properly using laser alignment.This is wheel alignment,not wheel balancing

 

[Guest]

Hi Alfauser

There is an adjustment on the clutch, but it's only for initial setting and should not need reset. The clutch is controlled electronically through the hydraulics. When it is working properly there is no juddering or any other problems what so ever, hot or cold (the clutch action is so good when it's ok that you would be hard pushed to better it even in a manual car). If your car's clutch action is poor it can be "reset" by disconnecting the battery for a few minuites, and then reconnecting, however AFTER reconnecting the battery, switch the ignition on and listen under the bonnet, you will hear the electronic throttle resetting, leave the ignition on until it has finnished. Now try the clutch action, if it is still poor something has failed, or, the clutch works ok but then get's worse again something has failed (if this info is incorrect don't tell me tell Alfa Romeo as this is what they do).
As for the failure to select gears- unlucky, this is what happens to selespeeds- my car was actually in the garage more than it was on the road, weeks at a time, and Alfa still couldn't fix it, why, because the design is flawed and built to a price for mass production, sure some cars last for thousands of miles, but some don't even work when they come out the showroom.
Answer, buy a manual car, they are far better to drive anyway, selespeed has not been perfected yet, it has already had several "software updates" and needs alot more (not to mention all the mechanical problems), every component in the selespeed system is prone to failure, even the gearbox, which, apart from the selector shaft is actually the same as the manual box but the selespeed system manages to break that too!
PS Alfa customer service don't want to know either.

Good luck

 

[Jono]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:<hr /><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by csg:
<strong>Hi Alfauser

There is an adjustment on the clutch, but it's only for initial setting and should not need reset. The clutch is controlled electronically through the hydraulics. When it is working properly there is no juddering or any other problems what so ever, hot or cold (the clutch action is so good when it's ok that you would be hard pushed to better it even in a manual car). If your car's clutch action is poor it can be "reset" by disconnecting the battery for a few minuites, and then reconnecting, however AFTER reconnecting the battery, switch the ignition on and listen under the bonnet, you will hear the electronic throttle resetting, leave the ignition on until it has finnished. Now try the clutch action, if it is still poor something has failed, or, the clutch works ok but then get's worse again something has failed (if this info is incorrect don't tell me tell Alfa Romeo as this is what they do).
As for the failure to select gears- unlucky, this is what happens to selespeeds- my car was actually in the garage more than it was on the road, weeks at a time, and Alfa still couldn't fix it, why, because the design is flawed and built to a price for mass production, sure some cars last for thousands of miles, but some don't even work when they come out the showroom.
Answer, buy a manual car, they are far better to drive anyway, selespeed has not been perfected yet, it has already had several "software updates" and needs alot more (not to mention all the mechanical problems), every component in the selespeed system is prone to failure, even the gearbox, which, apart from the selector shaft is actually the same as the manual box but the selespeed system manages to break that too!
PS Alfa customer service don't want to know either.

Good luck</strong><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well well aren't we the cheery one today?! There are plenty of us who chose Selespeeds because we actually prefer them to a manual!

I questioned my local dealers service department about the reliability of Selespeeds and they have not any major problems at all yet! Perhaps I live in a country with a moderate climate (Auckland never gets colder than 6C) which doesn't cause some of the problems others seem to have in harsher climates?

Jono

 

[Guest]

Believe it or not I actually enjoyed the car while I owned it, BUT, it cost several thousand pounds in garage bills and was still not fixed, not to mention my pregnant wife constantly breaking down on one of the busiest roads in the area, twice while crossing them, leaving her unable to move at 90 degrees to the traffic! and then the dealer (after contacting Alfa in Italy) admitting they have problems and and as of yet they can't fix them (January 2001).
I hope no-one else has these problems, as the system is a good idea and can be fun to drive, but until they solve the problems I won't be buying another one.