Selespeed woes.

[westernways]

Hey Guys.

First post on here, unfortunately not a good one. Mums been driving my 156 selespeed for a while now since i've got the beema and don't have a chance to drive the alfa so much anymore. She has told me that the transmition warning light has been coming on every so often, but last night I went and checked it out for myself. Every time I switched gears, the selespeed made this horrible grind noise as it changed gear.

This morning I took it to the alfa dealership, because I don't think my regular mechanic would have been able to do anything. The whole way there the transmition light was flashing, and I broke down 4 times when the car would either not get out of 1st or 2nd gear, or it would just go into neutral and stay locked. After I stopped traffic flow in Hobart for about half an hour, I finally got it to the dealership.

Car is 01 model, and has done 120,000k's. Has anyone ever had a similar selespeed issue, and how much did it cost to repair?

I know it's not gonna be cheap, but i'd like to get some perspective as to what others have paid for selespeed repairs.

[westernways]

Update.

Selespeed is stuffed. They found an empty oil reservoir, all the oil has been slowly leaking into the gearbox itself, and has airated. Only solution is to order new gearbox and have that fitted

$5900 all up.

[angus171]

Ouch. That just justified my reasoning to not buy a selespeed-equipped 147 about a month ago! Crazy silly-speed!

Very sorry though to hear about your expense there. I don't mean to sound like a tool, but would regular checkings of the oil level have have revealed this problem before it died, or was it hidden away? I just remember everything I read about sillyspeed saying CHECK THE OIL LEVEL EVERY TWO MINUTES (exaggeration!) etc. I've read about some pretty bad bills, but that is pretty up there. Feeling for you now mate!!!
Why alfa put such a high-maintenance/tempremental box in will never be clear to me! Dragging the old alfa reliability reputation into otherwise great cars was a bit of a mistake for sure. That said, it's a pretty good one when it works.
Hopefully all goes well for you after new box!

[westernways]

I usually keep a pretty close eye on things like oil and stuff like that. I noticed it was running a little low, but service was coming up soon... never thought this would happen though.

I asked them about a manual conversion, and they said they weren't interested in doing it. So i've got no choice.

Dunno if i'll keep it or not once it's fixed.

[lh325]

heard so much bad news about the selespeed gearboxes. dissapointing to have the gearboxes ruin such nice looking cars. most of the time when something does happen to them its a major fix. sorry to hear about the costly repair. good luck with the car afterwards!