The tranny in my relatively new (to me) 164 seems to change just a tad too smoothly and I suspect it may be a warning that it's not the best. The car has 177thousandish KMs and seems to have been well serviced its whole life. The tranny also seems to be a little slow getting drive when transiting from reverse into forward gears.
The 'problems' are very subtle and I have no other 164 experience against which to judge the transmission operation, so maybe they are all like this ?
Otherwise, it changes well under hard acceleration and changes down nicely when slowing.
Any comments or recommendations gladly accepted. What's a good fluid to service the transmission with ?
Thanks,
*bump* - anybody got experience with 164 transmissions?
I had 2 164's. I found that regular fluid changes helped a lot. I changed annually (or maybe a bit more frequently). I tried additives, but I'm unconvinced. I think it uses Dexron II and not Dexron III (it is important regardless of what the bottle might say). I think the owners manual will tell you. Its a simple & strong gearbox (and I think one of the best I've driven). Its also used in SAAB 900 & a couple of BMW's. Adjustment of the kick down cable is absolutely critical. Its easy to do and I forget the details, but I think you are looking for about 3mm of slack in the cable with the accelerator pedal untouched.
When I needed work done on one (rebuilt the governor), I figured that there are more auto SAAB's than Alfa's, so i took mine to Sewdish Prestige in Oakleigh. They have a guy who's good on the ZF A/T. I'd try them if you need to, but I reckon new fluid & checking the kick down cable will do it.
Note that you need to completely drain the system - including torque converter. There is a procedure for this that I forget, but I think its basically drain the A/T, and disconnect the return line to the cooler. Then you eitherr start the car and pump more out or fill the A/T and start the car and wait until the fluid looks clean. A bit of help from Google should get you the right proc. There used to be a very good 164 homepage and there is a very active group of 164 owners on the Richard welty (krusty) run Alfa Bulletin Board.
Touching on fluids reminds me that I got much better brake feel using DOT3 and not DOT4 fluid and the QFM pads from Race Brakes are definitely the ones to use.
Doug Gould
Thanks Doug,
I'll give it a go.
I've also received these:
http://www.digest.net/alfa/FAQ/164/forum2/DCForumID2/4758.html
http://www.digest.net/alfa/FAQ/164/forum2/DCForumID2/4634.html
and:
http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/164-168-1991-1995/31913-alfa-164-automatic-transmission-repair-16-01-a.html
This is the site you need:
http://www.digest.net/alfa/FAQ/164/
It links to Richard welty's Alfa Digest. I had a governor fail and it left me in no doubt that there was something wrong. Stick to the easy cheap stuff first. I did try synthetic ATF and I think its a bit better, but my recollection is that for the cost its better to use Dexron II and change it regularly.
Doug