2003 156 jts selespeed - opinions

[Alfa_alchemist]

Thanks for the advice Doug.
I didn't know that service intervals are so spread out for a car that seems so fussy about proper maintenance (20k? - thats way too long, I think I'll just stick to service intervals between 5k and 10k, atleast for oil).

I have currently filled the car with 95 RON fuel from BP, but I think I'll change it to 98 with my next fill as everybody is suggesting it as the best fuel for JTS engine.

How do you guys go about getting those wear and tear parts (brake pads, filters, etc) for your 156's? Do you order them from alfa dealers or do bigger car-parts companies still supply them?

I've been driving my alfa alot more over the weekend and I just love the way it drives and the looks it gets from people - it looks like a way more expensive car than it is. Everyone thought I spent at least 30 grand plus on the car (poor alfas do depreciate fast)

[Doug Gould]

My 156 is my daily drive. Its been serviced exclusively by Lance Dixon. I just don't want to have any pressure about working on the daily driver. And frankly, Lance Dixon is cheap enough not to be worth making much effort to do otherwise. I do less than 20,000km per annum (its 6 years old - done about 95,000km) so its not much more than 1 service a year and mostly they seem to be a couple of hundred bucks. If I were doing it myself, I would expect that you'll find a Ryco Oil Filter. My next option would be to try Turin Imports in Adelaide for fuel filters, etc. There are others just as good, I just like Turin. I'd be looking for a friendly brake place and depending on your bent, be putting in something like Ferodo DS2500, although I have no complaints about the OE pads. Maybe even RB74 from Race Brakes.  Beyond that you'll be at a dealer. For most marques the days of inflated parts prices are gone. We buy oil filters at trade price at the dealer for a (Japanese) work car that are cheaper than you might pay at Autobarn, etc. We even buy brake fluid & engine oil from the dealer! I wouldn't be scared of the dealers at all.

Personally, I'd leave the filter in place and change the oil as often as you have the energy, then get someone to do the 20k services. Note that oil filters work better as they start to pick up grunge which reduces the pore size of the filter paper. Changing them frequently does not do you any favours. The best advice would be to pick someone smart that is near you and that you get on with, to work on it / advise you.  I have one guy near me that works on some of my other Alfa's, but I'm not going to name him because all the guys I've met who advertise with the club are impressive. Pick one & call in for a chat.

Doug

[Alfa_alchemist]

Thanks again for the reply Doug.

Now I've been driving alfa more in the last few days and tonight I've notised a bit of an issue with the selespeed. When up shifting from third to fourth there is noise -"krr" (like the sound of clutch when u misshift in a manual car, just slightly quieter and shorter), this also happens (less pronounced) when downshifting from fifth to fourth; all of the other shifts are smooth and quiet. The car stil accelerates normaly in 4th gear, its just that the noise is present when shifting from 3-4 and 5-4.

What might be causing it? Clutch, actuator or something else?

[Alfa_alchemist]

I have taken the car to the Alfa dealership today for the inspection of the gearbox. The cause of the sound is the synchro on the 4th gear which seems to be worn.

They did the recalibration of the selespeed which has made the sound almost dissapear, but its stil noticable if you put the ear to it.
They told me that there should be no issues with the gearbox if I continue driving it, its just up to me if I want to get rid of the noise by replacing the synchro. The cost of replacing the synchro is between $1200 and $1500 because the gearbox needs to be pulled apart. I think I will wait for a while before I decide on fixing it.
I dont wanna take it to the car dealer where I bought it, as they would probably leave it there for a few weeks before they start fixing it and I don't trust them with the big job like this - its not worth it.

[Alfa_alchemist]

hello guys, just doing a quick update as its been a month since my car purchase.

Firstly an interesting situation that happend to me a couple weeks ago while driving an alfa.
I set off from the lights towards this slight uphill section of the road and i notice a highway patrol car behind me.
As I'm slowly cruising I realise I'm starting to lose power and stepping on the accelerator doesn't do anything - so i try downchanging but nothing helps and the car is coming to a stop in the 70 zone and the copper is still behind me probably thinking- wtf is this guy doing? I stop in the left lane and the engine just stops - the policeman pulls up next to me and asks what happened; I replied "i dont know, i think that engine or gearbox died" to which hes says: "well thats what you get when you buy an alfa, good luck" and then he speeds off.
'Motherf....r' I think to myself, and than it hits me that I've been driving with the fuel light on for the last couple of days. Luckily the petrol station was a short distance away, so there was I on a busy road in the middle of the day filling petrol from a canister (it cost me $26.50) into my alfa. I turn the key and the engine starts. What bugged me is that the fuel gauge never dropped below the 'empty' line when I was driving it - but I've learned my lesson now, when the light goes on - fill up as soon as you can.

I have also been fiddling with the ASR (anti-slip regulation) button next to the gear knob, which is basicaly a traction control. I've noticed that when its tured off the engine becomes far more responsive and lively and when you turn it back on it feels like you took 20kw from the engine.
Is that the way it should work normaly cause by reading about how it works, the ASR should only come into action when the ECU senses loss of traction, otherwise it shouldn't intervene with the engine. But to me it feels like it does even when driving normaly, so every time I wanna give it a bit of a squirt I turn ASR off.

When to comes to selespeed, I have learned to enjoy it as it's a good compromise between having a manual car and the car you can easily drive in traffic. There are two things that annoy me abit, firstly: the slow clutch take up from start - It seems that you can't lauch selespeed fast off the line as you are always 'outlaunched' by all the corollas and camrys next to you lol; secondly the change from first to second always seems to be slow but almost never smooth no matter what revs/throttle position you use even when its in sports mode (over 5k revs and full throtle) you still whish it had a faster change.

All in all I'm satisfied with my alfa is it always make me grin every time I drive it, and I always have to turn back to have a look at it when i park it- a real looker

[Scott Farquharson]

The asr may not be traction control but snow/ice driving mode which will do what you described - my 90's BM had it.

[Alfa_alchemist]

More updates guys.

THERMOSTAT

I have just replaced thermostat on my 156 JTS in the alfa dealership.
Ever since i purchased my car I have noticed that my engine temperature goes down a lot when cruising with no traffic - we are talking 55 -60C on a cool night, cruising on a motorway (optimal temperature should be 85-90C). At first I didn't think much of it, but then I did a bit of a research and came to conclusion that 'stuck open thermostat' is a common issue with all alfa 156's. Now that I've replaced it, the temperature sits at 90C no matter what the driving style is.
The engine now feels more responsive, and apparently a cold running engine uses more fuel, so I should see an improvement there as well.

MOTOR FAILURE WARNING

In this month of ownership I also had a bit of an issue with a 'motor failure' warning that came up on the computer screen a few times in random situations. The warning would disappear after a few seconds and the engine would stil run normaly. I have researched this as well and it turns out that this is also a common fault that is caused by a bad conection/wiring at the main computer. So today at the alfa dealership I asked a mechanic to have a look at it.

On alfa 156 JTS the main computer is located all the way on the right side of the bonnet, under black plastic cover next to the selespeed fluid. When you unscrew the plastic cover (simple two screws) you will see a small black box with a bunch of wires going in to it from one side and a bunch of wires going out of it from the other side. The wires are connected to the computer with a plastic clip (yellowish colour) and usualy the main problem is that this clips get loose over time causing bad connections (thus sending bad signals to the computer - motor failure warning).
There can also be a bit of rust/dirt at this spot which needs to be cleaned and the clips need to be tightened. In my case, the mechanic discovered that one of the clips was actualy missing, making the connection to computer very loose. He replaced to clip and cleaned the spot from the dirt. Hopefuly this will sort out some of those warning issues.

PRICES OF SERVICING ALFA 156  AT DEALERSHIP

I have collected a few different prices for repairing and servicing alfa 156 JTS at my alfa dealership, so will put them up for your future reference.

REPLACING THERMOSTAT (inc labour)  -$450 (thermostat cost alone -with housing - $240)
CAMBELT CHANGE (inc labour) -$860
FRONT BRAKE PADS (inc labour) - $350
REAR BRAKE PADS (inc labour) - $450
ENGINE SERVICE (replacing oil and filters, calibrating selespeed) - $330
REPLACING WORN SYNCHRO ON SELESPEED (inc labour) - $1400
AIR FLOW SENSOR - $990
GENERAL CAR CHECK-UP AND PROBLEM DIAGNOSIS - $150

[Davidm1600]

Hi all

All the postings make some very interesting reading indeed for me, since I too was on the hunt for a "modern" Alfa, to give the poor old 1750 GTV a bit of a rest until I can properly restore her. Having traulled all the various websites for some time I settled on a couple of manual sportwagons in Sydney, one ended up being sold (was too slow) but I managed to buy the other one.  This was back in mid November last year.  So what did I get for $20K, a 1 owner from new, full Alfa servic history, metallic light blue, black leather, wagon with 89k on the clock. It has the Bose hi fi upgrade which is superb.  Am I impressed with the car.  Absolutely.  Nothing so far has gone wrong with it. Touch metal!!  My wife and I drove it home to Hobart over a two week period, and with the back seat down the storage space is impressive. 

Now, before I bought it I talked with my mechanic who runs an Italian specialist car workshop (note not Alfa dealership) and he seriously advised me that the most important things to consider were, buy the best I could afford, not a selespeed, with as low kms, service history and crucially to make sure the belts had been changed.  All of this in my case was done. 

On the question of the Alfa dealer vrs independant, here in Tassie we don't have the same options as you do on the mainland and from a cost perspective the Alfa Dealer is also the local Porsche and Mercedes dealer, etc etc.  Their hourly rate is expensive compared to other workshops.  I guess it comes down to who you may trust and/or can afford. 

So far I have done about 6K and have had no costs apart from fuel, and getting the car re-registered in Tas.  However, thanks to all of you who have posted details on range of costs etc as it is good to know what I may be in for.  Mind you the car is so fuel efficient, so that too is brilliant. 

Believe me, given the stories re not replacing the belts and consequences is well understood.  Mind you with the Fiat twin cam you have to do this every 30,000km.  I remember what happened to my mum's 132 when we delayed doing this.  Ouch.

Cheers Dave

[pep105]

Cant stress the importance of the timing belt change enough as lots of others already have.....

My 147 had its timing belt changed at only 34000 km only because it was 3 years old at the time
and back then Alfa had changed it policy stressing that the belt be changed at 60000 kays OR 3 years.

No pointing in delaying it when it needs to be done anyway, coz if that goes its all over literally

Dave - my old Fiat 131 Superbrava slipped the belt one notch once due to excessive pre-ignition (I was lucky!) belt was less than 6 months old didnt ask any questions changed it again

Rather buy just a belt/tensioners, than add valves, pitsons, head or worse (+ labour) to your shopping list 

[Davidm1600]

Hey Pep105, spot on mate. 

Preventative maintenance far better for the bank balance than leaving it too late.  I seem to recall in mind of that changing the belt on my Fiat Twin Cams (124 sport, 125 etc) every 25,000.  The cost for the belt back then $30-40 plus labour = cheap vrs an engine rebuild $2-3K (1990's costs). 

The other thing I forgot to mention about the JTS motor from what I have been told is that it is absolutely critical to make sure that the oil level is kept topped up.  Can do all sorts of damage to the variable valve timing gear if it gets low.  My engine feels and sounds extremely healthy, no tapping noises or anything just silky smooth and revs cleanly.  The way it should be.  Cheers Dave