welcome to AO mate

Sorry to hear about your problems - I can't help but there are plenty here that will. Good luck.

 

Hi,

Thanks for encouraging but no one replied so far. Can you tell why?

 

Have you had the selespeed system recalibrated after the clutch change?

 

Chris,
If you mean the procedure with the examiner? but of-course. As I remember it's the one that takes the gear for all it's shifts while motor is off. I also calibrated the clutch distance several times just for testing and now it's possitioned 27.1mm. I read few articles about it should be 28.0-28.5 mm. But the dealer says it's not that big of an issue. Today my mechanics replaces the old Variator back just for diagnosis (aftre reconditioning with new spring and cleaning). What do you say? Can it be any relevant?
Also what can you say about the vacumm from the engine. I feel some times that the brake pedal is running away just a bit while just slowing down but not pushing the breakes.

 

Sorry, I think this one is too complex for a text forum. There are some many areas that could be checked. I think only a garage can sort it out.

Unless someone else wants to make some suggestions?...

 

Thanks anyway. So far I got nothing from the forum except you.
After putting the old Variator, the problem sayed the same :-(.
Can it be that timing is not perfect lets say by one teeth on one camshaft and it wont be noticed by the examiner?

Another input is that while neutral, I can't keep rev on less than
2000rpm. I guess it has to do with the throtle body potentiometer. How can I verify this?

 

First check the entire length of the air intake from after the air filter to the throttle body for air leaks. Check the folds in the rubber bend just before the throttle, check that ALL pipes leading into the plenum (after the throttle) are properly connected. Be very thorough, there are a lot of pipes and it's easy to miss a small air leak.

If the brakes feel strange that may just be because the idle revs are high and the engine breaking isn`t so good. Even so, you can try to disconnect the vacuum link to the brakes and block the pipe to the engine to see if the master cylinder brake assist has broken and is letting in air.

If there is no leak then don`t worry too much about the idle revs yet. It may be that the throttle body clean has upset the ECU but it will re-learn in a few hundred miles of driving.

Have you done a throttle reset (turn on key, wait for 90 seconds, hear clicking from throttle body, turn off key, wait 30 seconds, start car) .

Yes, it is very possible that the timing isn't quite right - did the mechanic use the cam locks? Check for air leaks first though.

 

Hi
I know its no help to you,but your issues have taught me something which I had previously considered.Namely,best get one major job done at a time,then if problems arise,hopefully they can be pinpointed around that work done.Hope your garage sorts it all for you. Cheers Steve

 

You wouldn't believe how so right you are. I never do that but this one looked to me so streight forward

 

Hi Mushi, sorry to hear about this issue. I can't help & I hope you come right. Please keep us posted on the outcome, it would be a great help to anyone with a similar problem in future.

 

Has the mechanic got much experience with selespeed because it sounds to me like it has not been calibrated correctly. Throttle maybe needs to be reset (calibrated)

 

1). I have kangaroo at low speed and gear, plus the reaction to my throtle command is kind of with latency (late) at any speed at any gear.

This is a big one, the selespeed runs a fly by wire throttle, if you put your foot down, theECU tells the throttle butterfly to open, if this is now not happening, or happening slowly, I would suggest there is something wrong with the ECU or the throttle fly by wire control system. The variator increases power at 300rpm by playing with valve timings, but if the power is late and then arrives that isn't a variator issue. It is a management issue.

2). The clutch is sometimes engaged (seperates) at low speed especially in traffic and without me to notice, i press the throttle to keep going and the rev gets rapidly high then a sec after, clutch disengaged and the car jumps!! I know the ECU has to avoid such phenomenon and that means something was wrong on the assemble side. I had been to the garage several times and he is not ignoring but trying to help without success so far. Examiner says nothing. We cleaned the throttle body (don't do it! is cause another effect of loosing iddle zero but this a different story that was fixed).


The clutch on a selespeed is operated by hydraulics and needs to be set exactly to the parameters set by Alfa, the clutch throw is vital to smooth gear engagement and release for smooth driving. The selespeed software has a number of inbuilt safety systems which are designed to prevent failure. One of these is to put the car into neutral and release the clutch in the event of some technical problems. If your car is doing this and then jumping back into gear or something similar, I would guess it is the ECU controlling the selespeed system trying to make your car run. It is based on interpreting the input from monitoring sensors and assumption about clutch plate position based on the factory settings.

I would suggest you find someone who knows the Selespeed system and has the examiner system and is able to use it effectively to look at the car, and set it up properly.

The MAF sensor, throttle body, fly by wire control and variator are all linked into electronic control and can all really mess with the cars behaviour. It could cost a huge amount to fix this piecemeal, go to an expert and get it all looked at. Looks like your garage have made a simple problem a lot worse!

 

First, thanks a lot .
For throttle intake, 2 weeks ago, we have thought of this and for just in case wraped some tape exactly where you suggested just for awhile and it wouldn't help. As well, we have looked at the pipes (not so many...). There are 2 pipes coming from the engine to a something called BlueRay or BlueBay piston (I guess) and from there to the break booster, all coming to the throttle output. I thing though if there was an air leak, the engine would run shaky at idle too, right?

For the breakes - what do you mean by engine breaking? This is interesting because that's what I feel - the engine is not breaking good enough when I leave the pedal. As I started - it Kangaroos or late. No, if I do so, what should I do to the open pipe goes to the break booster? Can I drive like this? It sounds dangerous. How can I tell if the master cylinder has broken?

Indeed, the the ECU was upset and what the mechanics did is temporary replaced throttle with another car, the ECU was relaxed and back to my throttle was relaxed too.

We have done few throttle resets. By the way, I have slightly different procedure: On=90Min then Off=90Min then start car for 5Min without touching the pedal. Is that good too?
Also mind that while the car is cold, the rev can be controlled for lower than 2000rpm.

The mechanic is an authorised FIAT dealer that is permitted for Alfa too. He has all the tools and he claims that it can be done only with the ALFA tools. No other way. My question is still, can there be a mistake even if you use the tools and where could it be?

Cheers mate

 

Sorry for being such a pusher. I forgot to mention one important behavior: at arround 3000-4000 at specific pedal press, the enging clicks (in fact the valves) like it has a precede ignition. Can this assist the diagnosis? One of the things we di fo that is revert to the old Variator which di not help. My fuel is 95.

 

But of-course.

 

he is indeed authorized and experianced few FIAT robotics and 147 selespeed but not enough. Still we have visited also AlfaRomeo garage and they could not tell better. He is very well familior with the system. He had done training and has all the tools to take care of Alfa. He is also very pedant and treat my baby as it was his. (he owns Fiat Sport Turbo 1998). Still he must have missed something that we are trying very hard to trace. Remember - he had done the variator twice now and still need to replace back to my new one. Each job is 5 hours and he does not charge of-course.