Easy to check system pressure if you can plug in diagnostics. Only way really. It should point you clearly to accumulator or pump.

Are you getting the sele warning light on the dash, or warning beeps when it drops into neutral? Losing sele fluid from reservior?

 

No , No warning lights or anything like that. Just jumps out of gear and the number flashes until you pull up. I dont have access to any diagnostic too close to home, I would have to travel about 100km to get to some.
One mechanic told me to pull the accumulator of and just check if the diaphram has a hole but I am worried I might upset the system and require a calibration to get it going again.

 

most likely the accumulator, its been that on every sele I owned. How anyone can check the diaphragm for a hole is beyond me, the hole is about 2mm!

A diagnostic would say for sure, but if your guessing, an accumulator is £85, a pump £250, so start with the accumulator.

HTH

 

Can I just replace the accumulator an top up the oil or do I need to get tunning/ calibration done afterwards?

 

You should be able to replace the accumulator and go. No calibration required.

You can download MultiECUScan to your laptop and buy a cable online and be diagnostic-ing to your hearts content for just a few $.

 

no need to calibrate afterwards, simply undo the old one, bolt on the new one, top up and job done.

Not quite that simple of course, the battery and battery tray have to be removed, the spanner size to get the accumulator off is 27mm and very slim so a grinder is needed to thin it down, and there will be a spray of fluid as the pressure is released although this can be lessened by removing the relay and then operating the gearbox until it stops working. It will still surprise you, wrap a rag around the join to lessen the impact! It will take a couple of hours at a steady pace.

HTH

 

great. I figure that If I am removeing the accumulator to check it I may as well just replace it.
Hopefully its not the pump as I am gathering there is a bit more involved.

 

great. I figure that If I am removeing the accumulator to check it I may as well just replace it.
Hopefully its not the pump as I am gathering there is a bit more involved.[/QUOTi
Instead of randomly replacing parts get the leads and MES or current version of alfadiag. It will save you money in the long run.
As for the pump they can be refurbished reasonably cheaply. Brushes are £6 on eBay in UK plus half hour for a autospark once pump removed.
It could also be the relay.

 

Yeah, dont start replacing parts for the sake of it. That is what dealers do.

If the accumulator fails, it usually means it cannot hold a pressure.
So, try to put the key in, and turn it to MAR.
If the pump keeps priming (when you are not changing gear) you may have a faulty accumulator.

Also try to just sit there (with key on MAR, but the engine off) and keep changing gears randomly. Every five or so gear changes, the pump should activate, listen for its movements.

 

The pump WILL keep on priming in MAR when not changing gears. The interval should be 5-10 minutes, so just sit and wait. Any shorter and the system is loosing pressure too fast and accumulator may need replacement.

When changing gear it will prime every other gear change with engine off, from my experience and reading on the subject.

You may have pressure peaks though, and this needs multiecuscan to diagnose.

Good luck!

 

ok cheers, I will have to look into getting a laptop to load the software on to as Work may frown upon me loading it on to theirs.

 

when I open the door the pump runs for a full 10 seconds, this seems longer than it used to but I am not sure. and with the key turned to MAR the pump starts on every 2nd gear shift.
which diagnostics software is best value for money? and will they run on a Macbook?

 

Yes, it will run on a Mac Book
...but you need to install ..shudder.. Windows on it.
Depending on how you have your windows installation (disc or USB stick) the installation is different, so I hope you can work a bit of that out yourself, if not shout!

The best diagnostic IMO is the free DnEcuDiag. It used to be called AlfaDiag, but I guess the author changed the name as to not offend Alfa Romeo.
You can get it here:
https://dnecudiag.codeplex.com

Its very easy to use, once the software is installed, you hook up the laptop to the car using a USB/OBD2 cable, and select the ECU you want to connect to (Selespeed).

Then the fun begins.
You could start to look at your pressure (you an see it as a continuous chart) and if the pressure drops way to quickly, its probably the sphere that is past its use date.

Your symptoms of the pump charging after every second shift sounds wrong, but ; does the gear still engage each time ?

 

Yes the gear seems to engage ( you can hear it shift as the car is not running). and it is the same whether you shift to the next gear or to neautral.

 

Ok so I borrowed a laptop and cable.
It had 3 fault codes that had hyd. Pressures between 118 and 180 bar and had fails to select the right gear or neutral. Each of these fault codes had 40-50 instances. Should I clear the fault codes?
All of the actuators completed a test sequence apart from "deactivate all actuators" which it said was not valid.
I could only get the pump to reach a maximum of 54.8 bar before cutting out. This was done with 3 repeated tests and again with the car running. When the car was running i changed gears to drop pressure and it pumped again at approx. 30 bar. With the key on MAR it dropped from 54 to 30 bar without changing gears and got to 27 bar without the pump starting.
Do these pressures seem right. As I thought it needed around 70 bar to operate properly. Also it does not hold a Solid pressure with the key on MAR it slowly drops. Any thoughts would be great.

 

Clear the codes and see which ones come back, but those pressures are all over the place, the system should run 45-55 bar! Certainly looks like an accumulator issue

 

accumulator confirmed IMHO

 

More testing today. Driving the car and the hyd. Pressure cycles betwee about 44 and 55 bar. It struggles to select odd gears and draws about 3 times the current to select 3rd gear. At times it would not select 1st and started in 2nd. Other times it would not select 3rd and went straight to 4th. At other times it would be in 4th or 5th and would loose all drive, gear indication would flash and engine would rev but could not change selection until I came to a stop and turns off the car and restarted it. When this happens you can still see the hyd. Pressure cycling as it is trying to select a gear but no selection is happening. I am thinking possibly the EV valve for odd gears. Or the coil for said valve.

 

So is the hydraulic pressure staying between 45 and 55 bar? Might be clutch or gearbox problem then. Does it change gears ok standing with the engine off?

 

The pressure is staying between 44 and 55 bar. But when the fault appears and it has problems selecting a gear the pressure may drop lower as it continually tries to get a gear. But when it works as it should the pressures are ok.

 

it has problems selecting the gear because the pressure has dropped, not the other way round!

 

If the pressure is dropping below 45 bar, then there's a problem with the sele system. If pressure remains within 45-55 bar, then there's not likely to be a problem with the pump or accumulator. As purple says, even if the gearbox was very broken, and no gears could be engaged, the system pressure should still remain at 45-55 bar.

So what is it - 45-55 bar, or not?

 

Are you using dnECUdiag ?
If so can you post a screenshot of the sensors histogram showing Hydraulic Circuit Pressure and Position of Insertion Fork ?

 

When it drives normally pressure is 45-55 bar. When it fails with selection sometimes the pressure drops down around 30 bar but not every time. Other times the pressure stays between 45-55 bar and it still misses a gear or flares with no drive. It's behaving like a basket case.

 

Yes I am useing dnecudiag. But it's not my laptop so bedtime I get the chance I will try and post some data.

 

Here are some photos of a drive today showing circuit pressure, insertion fork position as well as gear requested and gear inserted. I am uploading these from my phone so hopefully they are big enough to see.

 

that pressure graph looks erratic to me, should be smooth then regular drops and then spiked peaks as the pump cuts in to restore pressure.

CHANGE THE ACCUMULATOR!