Expert: Stephen Sokol Date: 4/3/2007 Subject: Alfa 156 Selespeed stuck in neutral
Question My neighbor has this car which, about twice/month, shifts itself into neutral
and stays there for hours. The gear selector indicator switches to N and stays
there. When pushing on the gear selector lever, you can hear and feel
mechanical clicking from under the engine area. If you push the gear selector
level twice and release, you will here two sets of clicks about 2-4 seconds
apart.
He checks his oil level, located in a small black box on the passenger side of
his car (right hand drive in the UK) and says he sometimes needs to top it up.
However, the night I was with him, topping it up did nothing.
We pushed the car into a parking lot, left it overnight and the next morning it
went into gear like nothing had ever happened. We're both perplexed.
Any ideas or things I can help him check?
Answer The pump might stop working because of poor electrical connections. Clean the battery terminals and while disconnected from the battery touch the cables together for 10 seconds to reset the computer. You can also clean any body grounds that you find. This is a very good start.
