ralphalfa

Hi,fellow selespeeder! The reservoir has a breather tube coming out of the cap and this tube ( on my SW 156, anyway) feeds through the wing and out of a gap in the wheel-arch liner. I assume this is to stop excess fluid from an overfill running all over the inside of the engine bay. I don't know if some version supplied a catch tank, but it seems a reasonable alternative to a puddle on the floor! Smaky, no doubt will know the truth. Regards from ralphalfa

The engine management light has come on twice and gone out after a few days. I suspect a lambda, as one was replaced with a non-OEM version a few years back when I had similar symptoms. I don't have ECUscan. The car is a 156 2001 TS 2.0 with twin lambda sensors in the manifold (CF3?). If i unplug the sensor, the light goes out and am I right in thinking this proves it to be a duff sensor. I have seen Alfashop selling one for about £59 and Amazon are advertising one at about £45 which they say is Bosch. Any knowledge about which yo go for, or get one from the Main Stealers? Ralph

I am old and I learned to drive (after a Lambretta LD125 and a couple of motorbikes) on a 1953 Morris Oxford MO side-valve which I bought for £30. The MO looks like a large Morris Minor but much nicer! My Dad did all the teaching and he used to make me drive on any longer journeys we took and made me go quickly enough not to hold up the traffic, so I learned early the art of overtaking sans power. It needs planning! I passed my test first time but not before I had an argument with the Examiner over the safety of the three-point-turn he asked me to do. A good mate of mine failed his first test but was consoled by the Examiner telling him he had completed the course in record time!

Smaky is the chap to go to for the best help on selespeeds, but if you look at the thread "Selespeed Woes" + "Selespeed Woes Solved" you will see that I had a very similar problem which had a simple solution and you may be as lucky as me! Ralph

Hi,mocher72, If you look on my post "selespeed woes" and "selespeed woes solved", that may help you. I must emphasise that I am no expert on the subject and Smaky got me thinking on the right lines. Basically, my problem started like yours and escalated to being unable to select gears with the engine off and the problem was mechanical in that the clutch pushrod was not adjusted to give sufficent movement to disengage the clutch enough to allow gear selection. I do not know if the 147 system is identical to the 156 but on that, the breather must be disconnected from the filler cap and the ignition on MAR to check the level. I may be wrong but am pretty sure the level will drop if the system is in use and engine running - Smaky will know! I hope this is of some help and your garage know what they are doing as a lot of them seem to be in the dark when it comes to selespeeds! Good luck, Ralph

Just posting this in case it might be of use to any other selespeed sufferer -I mean owner! If you look at the "selespeed Woes" thread, you will see that a lot of time and money was spent when all that seems to have been needed was a bit of spanner twiddling. Ah well, we live and learn but I am kicking myself for not remembering that. A big thanks to Smaky for advice and support and rememeber - DON'T PANIC! Ralph

As I don't have access to any diagnostic kit, Iswapped things around as you suggested and nothing changed so I just experimented with adjusting the clutch rod length a bit at a time and then trying to select gears and it worked!! I can now select all gears with engine off and having started the car with jump leads from the battery sitting on a bench beside the car I can get 1,2 N and R as it should be. there is no graunching or jerking when gears engage but I will have to wait till tomorrow to get it all back together and see if it drives. Will it be OK to drive it without calibrating the system? My nearest Alfa specialist is In Cardiff which is 45 - 50 miles from my home in Swansea so I could take it there if it won't damage anything. I am quite hopeful that you have identified the problem and I am very,very grateful to you, Many thanks, Smaky - you have a friend for life! Gratefully, Ralph

Smaky, Have just seen your response to Brackenfox about swapping the top two sensors and poss clutch bearing problem - was that reply meant for me or am I just being stupid, again?! Ralph

I suspected that rear sensor as I managed to get an Ohmeter on it and it seemed to have different readings to the other two. The garage I took it to had a Bosch analyser which they said was talking to the system and gave a P1742 error and they put a new sensor on -the one at the back but then they still had errors but did not record the error codes! The mechanic recalled them being P1743, 1748 or something similar. When the problem first started I could select all gears with the engine off but now they will not engage except maybe one try out of ten or twenty. Have just been out to try and not able to select any gears with engine off or running -tried about twenty times. Ralph

Pump seems to run as usual 8-10 secs on door first being opened and cuts in after 2 or 3 attempts at gear change for a few secs. I can hear and see the clutch rod moving and sometimes the gears will select with ignition at MAR but not all the time. With the engine running no gear will select - sometimes 1 flashes briefly before N comes up and there is a single bleep. There is no selespeed warning light showing and the fluid level has never been low when I check it each week when I check the oil. The clutch was supposedly set and a recal done by Rusper Alfa a year ago- about 6000mls back and I have just done an engine and gearbox oil change - gear oil looked very clean and I found only minute bit of sludge on plug. The car is a 51 plate with about 65000 on the clock all by me! I dont have any way to recalibrate the system as the car is now back home after my nearest garage gave up on the problem before the IMF had to bail me out! They said there were a feww error codes, but the only one they seem to have recordrd is P1742 selector range sensor, if that helps. Is there any other way of setting the clutch? Thanks for replying, Ralph

A few weeks ago the change from 1 to 2 jumped into neutral and then all was ok for about a week. Then it did the same and refused to run in anything except first or (sometimes) second. At the same time reverse would only select after first gear but not from neutral and then did it with a bit of a thump. At first, the gears were all available in MAR but then only first, second and reverse but intermittently. The pump runs as it always has and I was advised to change the accumulator-no difference. I have had the car towed of to a local workshop as I suspected a gear position sensor was duff. The garage said that this showed on their diagnostics and changed it, but then got the same error messages! They have played about with swapping sensors and doing some wiring checks but are stumped and I am getting the car trailerd back to my home to see if I can do any better-fat chance! Expert help is rquired - I live in Swansea and don't have any local Alfa dealer or one I would trust