I have an R reg 1.4 Brava. Recently when the engine has warmed up the clutch has started to make a screechy sound. ie its fine for the first few miles of a journey. After the first few miles as soon as the clutch is pressed you get a screechy sound . It almost sound like a belt slipping. Once it in gear and going its absolutley fine. Its got 37000 miles on the clock and recently had a new timing belt.

Any ideas?

sounds like your thrust bearing has gone on the gearbox. not an expensive part but involves removing(or at least seperating)the gearbox.
are you doing it yourself?worth doing the clutch at the same time if your doing all the work to get to it

No not doing it myself. Would have to get our local garage to do it. You think its worth changing the clutch? How much would a new clutch cost? I've not had the car long. It s the first Fiat I've owned.

Shame to have to do it when you've just bought it but it almost certainly is the clutch release bearing and once you have the gearbox off it's foolish not to renew the clutch too unless it's very recently been changed (but then the clutch bearing wouldn't have worn out).

PRICE
Looking at close to £200 for the whole clutch change as it's a lengthy job. May get it for slightly less if you ring around.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU LEAVE IT?
Eventually the clutch bearing grinds it's way it into the clutch pressure plate and you end up with a non driveable car

Thanks for the advice. I've phoned round a few garages today and described the symptoms. They were all unanimous in saying that it will be the bearings. They all said though that they wouldn't replace just the bearings as they come as part of a 3 piece clutch kit. My best quote was from Mr Clutch who have quoted me £150 including VAT for the clutch kit fully fitted. This seems quite reasonable compared to clutches I've had replaced on other makes of cars.

That sounds good. Go for it. You should have a very nice clutch afterwards

The thrust bearing of these is a tiny stupid wee thing that we call the "comedy" bearing in our shop, as it's such a joke of a thing, if it's squealing, it's because it's seized and is eating it's way through the fingers of your pressure plate diaphragm, it'll fail VERY soon, on my ex's Uno, it took less than 20 miles to let go.

It's usually found in cars that spend a lot of time in the city, as it's caused by keeping your foot on the clutch too much.

"it's caused by keeping your foot on the clutch too much"

Unless the clutch bearing is made of case hardened cheese as in most early Fiat's in which case the blessed thing will give up quicker than it should no matter what you do or how good your clutch control skills are




Beware incidently of having an "uprated clutch" fitted. We had one of those once thinking "Oh that'll be good, it'll last longer" etc. They can be very heavy as they have stronger springs (pressure plate) and are very tiring in town traffic. It also puts more load on that precious clutch bearing again!

Have a look here to see what happens when the clutch bearing starts seizing
https://www.fiatforum.com/showthread.php?t=10789

To be honest, unless you have silly bhp, the clamping force of an ordinary pressure plate will be ok, more important is a better, scatter woven liner, or a paddle clutch plate, these will grip better for a given level of clamping force, and they're pretty cheap to reline.

Yes absolutely. Unless you're towing a caravan full of illegal immigrants for a living or constantly seeing how quick you can run your tyres down at traffic lights then the bog standard Fiat clutch does the job more than well enough.

Pity Fiat didn't endurance test the clutch bearing or predict the working loads on it! Perhaps converting tonnes per cu cm didn't work as well as computing £££s per repair

Deckchair5 said:

Yes absolutely. Unless you're towing a caravan full of illegal immigrants for a living or constantly seeing how quick you can run your tyres down at traffic lights then the bog standard Fiat clutch does the job more than well enough.

Pity Fiat didn't endurance test the clutch bearing or predict the working loads on it! Perhaps converting tonnes per cu cm didn't work as well as computing £££s per repair

Click to expand...

Agreed 100% About 1 in 10 clutches that we sell are for the Punto/Uno etc, and 99% of the old Fiat units that we see have bearing failure, the friction plate is well within limits!

It's not just Fiat though, peugeot have done it as well, at £130 a pop!