General still clunking after many new parts

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General still clunking after many new parts

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hey all,

had this since buying my car over 4 years ago, a clunk from the left side and sometimes the right (seems to come from the middle of the car at the front)

in this time it has had new drop links, new anti roll bar bushes, track rods inner and outer and today i had a replacement steering rack put on it and it's still the same :cry: although it didn't seem as bad at first but maybe that was wishful thinking!

put a new caliper on it today too as the handbrake mechanism was sticking, went to adjust the handbrake to find the other is doing the same too.. starting to get a little fed up of the horrendous build quality now :mad:

any ideas what could be clunking? soo annoying
 
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Forgot to mention they've been changed too.

Are you really? Its shocking lol but I've had many cars.

The amount of common problems they suffer is shocking, the hard to press horn, rusty bulk head thanks to a very poorly windscreen drain setup (see guides to check yours!)

Not to mention the m32 gearbox that is pretty much guaranteed to need a rebuild every 50k miles.
 
I'm fairly impressed with the build quality of the grande tbh.

It's much better than that of some of its rivals.


+1 (y)


For a budget super mini its very good indeed.


Most problems occur due to lack of maintenance. This may not apply to the current owner, but previous owners in most cases will be using it with little to no maintenance until the required works mount up, then offload onto an unsuspecting third, fourth....etc. owner.


In my case, I bought a car that was supposedly 1 owner, turned out to be 2 owner, myself being the third. The second owner did his best to destroy the car over a 2 year period and if he had kept it for another 1 or 2 years that would have been the end of that car.


I bought it, spent close to 750 quid in maintenance (mostly parts costs), done the work and 2 years later and 20K later, I'm one happy owner. Most people who get in my car comment that it feels like new, but I doubt they would have said that when it was purchased.


For the record, no car will survive similar type of treatment and similar remedial bills for a BMW in comparison will be in the 2-3K range.


P.S. If you are relying on a Stealer (Fiat) to look after your car, you are wasting time and money. Go find a good Indy, or ask here for one in your area.


Humour
 
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I'm a qualified mechanic, look after my own car.

I've dealt with them through warranty stuff though when a clutch on my 11k mile punto disintegrated (wouldn't cover it)

In some cases I agree with what you are saying but no lack of maintenance has resulted in the poor windscreen design causing the bulkhead to rust on cars less than 3 years old or m32 gearboxes failing in less than 30k miles etc.

I've had many fiats over the years I know what they're about and I accept it I just feel some of the stuff that has went wrong with mine before 50k miles is pretty bad. Should both brake calipers really have seized before 50k and 7 years? What maintenance have a i skipped..

Had my car since it was still in warranty with 20k miles on it, few will have been as spoilt as mine.

Obviously I'm gunna get slammed for slating it on here but she will be fixed so nothing is wrong with her :)

Ordered a top strut as looking back only the n/s was changed, new caliper ordered to fix the other side.

Stuff just got too much the other day I think I just needed a rant!
 
The GP is shocking in regards to build quality and design flaws.

Mine was flawlessly maintained had it from 2200 miles to over 50k - it's was terrible.

Mainly used on the motorway but had every known fault pop up and some. Including the sticking caliber of this post.
 
I'm a qualified mechanic, look after my own car.

I've dealt with them through warranty stuff though when a clutch on my 11k mile punto disintegrated (wouldn't cover it)

In some cases I agree with what you are saying but no lack of maintenance has resulted in the poor windscreen design causing the bulkhead to rust on cars less than 3 years old or m32 gearboxes failing in less than 30k miles etc.

I've had many fiats over the years I know what they're about and I accept it I just feel some of the stuff that has went wrong with mine before 50k miles is pretty bad. Should both brake calipers really have seized before 50k and 7 years? What maintenance have a i skipped..

Had my car since it was still in warranty with 20k miles on it, few will have been as spoilt as mine.

Obviously I'm gunna get slammed for slating it on here but she will be fixed so nothing is wrong with her :)

Ordered a top strut as looking back only the n/s was changed, new caliper ordered to fix the other side.

Stuff just got too much the other day I think I just needed a rant!

I never said it had fantastic build quality, just that its better than its rivals.

A corsa will literally fall apart as you drive down the road. They also suffer from rusting ending up with rain water running straight inside, and bad top mounts many issues with sevral engines, petrol ones still have a habit of eating head gaskets. They have had endless recalls and which are still continuing...

The fiesta interior is very flimsy and rattles a lot. They have lots of electrical faults. The bodywork rusts badly. Water sits in top mounts rusting them making them impossible to remove. Water runs in through the glovebox frying the fuse box. Diesel engines blow turbos for run and petrol vvt engines need new cams every 40-50k.

Also the 1.9mjet is a brilliant engine, but yes the m32 gearbox they use isn't .... But let's not forget the engine is fiat made and gearbox is straight from a Vauxhall.

Which is why they now use their own 6 speed c530 box in the newer 1.6mjet (which is proving to be much more reliable)


Ok I know the grande punto has its fair share of problems and design flaws. But it's no worse than any other budget supermini by a long stretch.
 
i get you, but there are comparable super mini's that don't suffer these inherit flaws too. (the grande also lets rusty water in through the bulkhead thanks to the crappy windscreen drain which i sorted myself as fiat didn't want to know) at least the corsa got recalled, these should have been recalled for the windscreen drain at the very least and the gearbox on the Mjet models.

like i say, i love my car i just get annoyed with it sometimes as i feel certain things should not have messed up by now being a modern car with 50k miles and has been very well looked after and is garaged november through march (i have a pajero for winter)

with a bit of luck the other top strut will cure the clunk and my car is back to being 100% minus the gearbox whine but i have another to go in when the clutch or gearbox gives out whichever comes first lol
 
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Cheers mate :) had the whole lot checked last year when I tried to track it down (got under the car when it was on the ramp myself) but it's something within the steering system as you can hear it with the engine off turning the wheel left to right quickly.. Can only be that other top Mount everything else has been changed (not to get rid of the noise just maintenance over 4+ years)

What are the subframe braces like? I put the powerflex arb bushes on it and noticed a nice improvement
 
I never said it had fantastic build quality, just that its better than its rivals.



A corsa will literally fall apart as you drive down the road. They also suffer from rusting ending up with rain water running straight inside, and bad top mounts many issues with sevral engines, petrol ones still have a habit of eating head gaskets. They have had endless recalls and which are still continuing...



The fiesta interior is very flimsy and rattles a lot. They have lots of electrical faults. The bodywork rusts badly. Water sits in top mounts rusting them making them impossible to remove. Water runs in through the glovebox frying the fuse box. Diesel engines blow turbos for run and petrol vvt engines need new cams every 40-50k.



Also the 1.9mjet is a brilliant engine, but yes the m32 gearbox they use isn't .... But let's not forget the engine is fiat made and gearbox is straight from a Vauxhall.



Which is why they now use their own 6 speed c530 box in the newer 1.6mjet (which is proving to be much more reliable)





Ok I know the grande punto has its fair share of problems and design flaws. But it's no worse than any other budget supermini by a long stretch.


Where did you retrieve that information from?

I hate the Corsa - however they are far better built than the GP despite sharing 30% parts. Open the bonnet of both and look how the top mounts in a Corsa are covered and not in the GP. This means in a GP the water sits on top of them rusting through.

I have never known a Fiesta through top mounts, further more rust? Which model year are you on about the 1995-2002? They do but they are old now and not the equivalent to a GP. I don't even know of these VVT engines your talking about.
 
Where did you retrieve that information from?

I hate the Corsa - however they are far better built than the GP despite sharing 30% parts. Open the bonnet of both and look how the top mounts in a Corsa are covered and not in the GP. This means in a GP the water sits on top of them rusting through.

I have never known a Fiesta through top mounts, further more rust? Which model year are you on about the 1995-2002? They do but they are old now and not the equivalent to a GP. I don't even know of these VVT engines your talking about.

My brother is a mechanic.

The build quality on the corsa is atrocious.

The fiesta rusts around the rear arches, the paint is really thin so just chips off. Water sits in top mounts making them very hard to remove. Its the 1.6 vvt engine I'm referring to, the cams fail causing server power loss and loud rattle

Im not saying i dont like these cars ... in fact i prefer the fiesta to the grande, would of got one if i could afford one. The 1.25 petrol is a gem of an engine and no small hatch drives as nice fiesta does.

Though i cant fault my grande (1.6mjet) never had an issue with it. Only time its been in the garage other than MOT and servicing was for 3 recalls (steering column, some wiring behind the radio and a software update)

Like i said before, the grande has some major design flaws like the access hatch in the scuttle panel leaking onto the bulkhead & drain tube which drains directly onto alternator etc.

Just pointing out other cars also have some pretty big flaws despite them being a great car :)
 
Cheers mate :) had the whole lot checked last year when I tried to track it down (got under the car when it was on the ramp myself) but it's something within the steering system as you can hear it with the engine off turning the wheel left to right quickly.. Can only be that other top Mount everything else has been changed (not to get rid of the noise just maintenance over 4+ years)

What are the subframe braces like? I put the powerflex arb bushes on it and noticed a nice improvement

The Subframe braces are very worthwhile! :devil:. Only thing I'd say is if your cars lower than mine you may get clearance issues on certain speed humps.

It could be the bolt on the steering "shaft" that's visible in the drivers foot well. The same one that had a recall for coming loose and knocking :rolleyes: :p
 
The Subframe braces are very worthwhile! :devil:. Only thing I'd say is if your cars lower than mine you may get clearance issues on certain speed humps.

It could be the bolt on the steering "shaft" that's visible in the drivers foot well. The same one that had a recall for coming loose and knocking :rolleyes: :p

will look into it then cheers mate, mine's back to standard at moment.. i got very tired of not being able to scale small speedbumps :p got a puppy end of last year too and she's a really bad traveller so the tough ride made it 10x worse.
 
in extreme cases sheared causing total loss of steering control. Something to do with the flaring...
 

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