I have a Punto ELX (2000) and on the way back from north Norfolk to my home on Friday i stopped off. While i was parking the car there was an awful smell of burning rubber. When i returned to the car there was a horrible crunching sound, i think to do with the clutch. Anyway the car started and i moved off. A couple of miles down the road the clutch (i think) gave out. I had to call the AA to be recovered. My partner located a garage in Chelmsford called Mr Clutch who quoted me £201.00 incl VAT and that seemed okay so the car was towed to them.

On Saturday Mr Clutch rang me to say that the problem was more than just replacing the clutch. They said that the whole unit had blown up and there was damage to the starter motor and other parts. I am waiting for them to ring me tomorrow to find out the other costs and have asked my partner to speak to them and find out exactly what damage has been done because, frankly, i didn't understand it!

They also said that they thought there was a design fault with this area of the Punto because they had seen this damage before on nearly all Punto's where the clutch had failed.

Has anyone else had this problem, any help would most appreciated?

Thanks

sounds like a story to me.i would take it somewhere else TBH.it is possible its taken the whole lot out with the likes of a ring gear failure.i bet when you get the total quote its an obcene amount.
there are loads of options including buying a donor punto for parts.
theres a punto in my local gumtree needing a clutch for £100 with mot
if you do go with them i would ensure all replaced parts are supplied back with the car

Thanks for that.

I am going to ask my `other half' to speak to the garage in the morning and also ask them to keep all the replaced parts.

I'll let you know what happens.

i would get a price fro the job and a full breakdown on whats getting done for that amount including warrenty.
then post back before going ahead

Thanks, i'll do that.

We did get two more quotes for the clutch and one was around £240 and the other (our local garage) would be about £300! But that was just for clutch. It's really expensive around here to get anything done!

Heh...I used to live behind Mr. Clutch in Chlemsford.

I'd agree with custard..defo get a full breakdown of the work to be done and the cost.....and look at the posibility of other garages once you ahev the breakdown.
The other alternative would be to find out what parts need replacing and get them yourself, then just have a garage fit them. It might work out cheaper...but no garuantee's.

Have just rec'd price for job: clutch incl labour £201, clutch fork £45, starter motor incl labour £156. Total price £402. My partner spoke to the garage and they told him the price for the starter motor was mianly for the part.

He did some ringing around and came up with a new s/motor for £80. But then we found out that there are two possibilities for the model - either a 8 bendex or 9 bendex (not sure if i've spelt that right!). We rang the original Fiat dealer to find out and they told us that it could be either and we would need to get the information from the unit itself! Got this from the garage and then rang round for quotes - £101 and we have to give them the old unit (this is for the 9 bendex - had we wanted the 8 bendex the cost would be £80 and they wouldn't want the old unit).

Why did Fiat put different units in the same model car with one unit being a lot more expensive than the other? Doesn't make sense. Perhaps they were made at different plants.

The latest news!

I collected the old starter motor from Mr Clutch on Monday (the top of the cone was broken off but attached) and took it with me to collect the new one. Returned to Mr Clutch for them to fit.

Rec'd call later that day to say that it didn't fit. One of the bolt holes was too small and that they couldn't fit it.

Returned to pick it up Tues am and returned it too the company i bought it from and they said they would send it back with the old starter motor so that the bolt hole could be drilled out as per the old one. (This must have been done when it was originally fitted as we've had the car from new and never had any such work done on it.)

Went to pick it up the on Wednesay and they told me that it had been re-done as per the old fitting. So then i took it back to Mr C.

Mr C called me on Wed afternoon to say it still didn't fit. I told them that the fitting had been made the same as the old starter so that didn't make sense and they said that if they had supplied the s/m everything would have been fine. I pointed out that the fitting was had originally been drilled out and that they would have had the same problem with their own s/m.

I got my partner to ring them and try and sort it out. He rang the company who supplied the s/m and they agreed to go over and collect it from Mr C and get it sorted.

Today, i understand from my partner that the company have been over twice with the starter motor - Mr C said it didn't fit again - twice!

Also, a friend of mine who knows all about cars said she couldn't see how the clutch going could break the s/motor. I'm beginning to get worried about all this. It seems that i'm being led down the garden path and Mr C are being really awkward.

I've also been reading some other views on Mr C from this forum as well as others and am very concerned.

Ihaven't heard from them today so i'm hoping that the latest s/m fits and i'll be back on the road tomorrow.

The company who supplied the s/m have been really helpful and i think have gone far beyond what they were obliged to do. I'm going to get something nice to take over to them to say thank you.

I'll post back when i have some more news.

Just rec'd call from Mr C to say my car is ready for collection.

Yippeeee.

Will report back if there is any discrepancy in what was quoted.