One day, I felt that the clutch didn’t bounce back as sharp as usual. Very soon, I couldn’t engage any gear by depressing the clutch pedal though the pedal still bounced back.
Since the clutch pedal did bounce back, my mechanic suspected that the brake master cylinder has gone. By replacing the cylinder, it worked.
However, the story didn’t end here.
I tried upgrading the final gear to improve the torque at low rpm but failed. Details can be found here. I got another used gear box from a scrapped 2004 156 selespeed model. The new final gear ratio now is 3.73 vs 3.56 in the original box. According to Automobile Catalog, the 2 boxes are the same except the final gear. Provided that the 2003 model comes with higher power and more torque with its direct injection engine, Alfa Romeo still put a higher ratio final gear. To me, it seams that it is a reification to a weak spot of the series I 156.
Spec. of alfa romeo 156 by Automobile Catalog
Replacing the open differential and the final gear for my Alfa156 were two major upgrade items sitting long on my list. Among the two, replacing the final gear was the one having the higher priority. In my opinions, the gear ratio arrangement for Alfa 156 2.0 and above is designed to achieve a better fuel consumption figure on long haul trip and a higher top speed figure for marketing purpose.
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