Hi all, so i very recently bought a seicento 1.1 sporting T reg, i have had a number of issues i have fixed and am still yet to address, but this thread is based solely on the driveshaft. i have found it very tricky to find any information about these cars, and have relied a lot on reading the threads on the forum which have been very helpful. i am hoping that you guys will be able to help me out with my current issue.

So after having a look around the car, i noticed a small amount of oil dripping down the side and bottom of the sump, at first i suspected it might be a cracked sump. after looking further, i found out that i had a split outer cv boot on the passenger side. i believe this has been driven around like this for a good few weeks which has made quite a mess around the wheel and the suspension etc. i hope it hasn't done any damage to the CV joint itself! Whilst looking around and cleaning all of the greasy mess up, i also noticed that there was some grease/gunk (not a great deal) sprayed out from around the inner boot as well, leading me to believe that i had a split inner boot as well. after thoroughly cleaning around the inner boot, I checked all around the inner boot for any splits but i could not feel or see any, i was quite confused by this as i am not sure why there is grease sprayed up around it as there would be with a split boot
Anyway whilst i had the car jacked up, i decided to have a look on the drivers side drive shaft as well, upon which i found that there was some OIL but NO GREASE around the inner boot. I believe this is where the oil dripping down the side of the sump is coming from, but i am unsure of what the cause of this is, could there be a seal gone where the driveshaft joins to the transmission causing oil to seep out? what would this involve to replace?

Does anyone know what the best steps to take are? whats the easiest way to replace the boot on the passenger side? do i replace the inner boot aswell whilst im at it? would it be worth just buying a whole new passenger side driveshaft? how do i fix the oil leek on the drivers side inner CV joint?

Also does anyone know any good places to source parts from? i am really struggling to find the correct parts for my car. A lot of searches i do come up with cinquecento parts and i know they are very similar but will these parts (driveshaft etc.) definitely fit my seicento?

any help will be much appreciated, thanks

Have a look on Ebay to see if you can find a manual (I don't know how good cd 'manuals' are..)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_o...l.TRS0&_nkw=seicento+workshop+manual&_sacat=0

Drive shafts are all pretty much the same, so if you can't find the manual for your car, consider buying a Cinquecento, Panda or Uno manual. They're cheap ... and the process of removing a driveshaft is virtually identical, whatever make of car.

A replacement - new- driveshaft will be expensive. Secondhand, I don't know... However, as you'll need to remove the driveshaft(s) anyway you may as well replace the gaiter/boots. And yes, you're liable to get oil leaking from where the driveshaft goes into the gearbox. There's a seal there.

Removing and replacing drive shafts is more tedious and maybe time consuming than difficult.

Try italiancarshop on Ebay for parts:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/italiancarshop?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

You'll find spares on Ebay somewhere. Here's a link for Seicento drive shaft:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_o...afts.TRS0&_nkw=seicento+drive+shafts&_sacat=0

Thanks for the links, very useful, and I will definitely buy a cinq manual as I didn't get a manual with the car.
I'll replace the gaiters and see how it goes.

Is yours a wet or dry box?

At that age I would suspect the cups that the spiders go into to be external. Therefore the gaiter rotates with the shaft. This we refer to as 'dry'

Later ones the shaft inner goes right inside the box and is lubricated by gear oil. In this case the gaiter is fixed to the side of the box and the seal is a bearing at the outer end of the gaiter. This is 'wet'.

let us know and we'll guide you from there.

D

My gaiter rotates with the shaft, does this mean it is a dry box?

Jumbo98 said:

My gaiter rotates with the shaft, does this mean it is a dry box?

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Yup, so take the clip off the inner CV gaiter inner side, pop the bottom ball joint, undo the hub nut and take the shaft out.

Beware cheap Spiders and CVs, real ones aren't too dear, cheap ones don't fit.

Very easy to swap over for peace of mind.

D

rallycinq said:

Yup, so take the clip off the inner CV gaiter inner side, pop the bottom ball joint, undo the hub nut and take the shaft out.

Beware cheap Spiders and CVs, real ones aren't too dear, cheap ones don't fit.

Very easy to swap over for peace of mind.

D

Click to expand...

Ok so you're saying to replace the cv and the spider and that should hopefully fix the oil leak problem?
Also could you just explain the difference between a dry box and wet box as I am a bit confused lol!
Thanks the help is all very much appreciated

Here's a link to Youtube where you can watch a video about driveshaft removal. Not your car, but the principle is the same..



There's another link with driveshaft matters:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=seicento+driveshaft+removal

Jumbo98 said:

Also could you just explain the difference between a dry box and wet box as I am a bit confused lol!

Click to expand...

Forget that, I've just read back over your previous post and i understand what the difference is now haha

Jumbo98 said:

Ok so you're saying to replace the cv and the spider and that should hopefully fix the oil leak problem?

Click to expand...

Check the gearbox oil level to ascertain the level of loss. If the gearbox is weeping then when the shaft is out pop the cup out (2 levels, one either side) and fit a new seal.

D