Hi Guys,
I am a newbie to the forum, but having had several I'm a big fan of the old shape Pandas, they're truly great small cars.
My current ride is a 95 Selecta in white, only 34K miles and in great shape all round, the previous owners maintained it well. Ive only had it for a few months and all seemed OK. But the other day I drove my daughter and son in law for a few miles, the most weight we have carried. I noticed the clutch or box appeared to be slipping, but if I kept the revs down it would slowly change up as usual. Since then the transmission appears to slip even with moderate use of the throttle, and seems to "hunt" or pulse seeming to slip and then grip alternately. Does anyone know where the problem may lie?? is it the gearbox or powder clutch??
The fluid is red and clear, but the level seems rather rather high. Reverse and low ratio are readily available.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, its a great car and always puts a smile on my face.

Unfortunately this system has a poor reputation and it's difficult/very expensive to repair.

I had a Punto about 10 years ago which lost drive on a random basis. There was a local automatic specialist who "discharged and recharged" the powder clutch.....that's what he told me anyway. This was a success but the car developed another gearbox fault a year later and had to be scrapped. I was sorry to see this car go as the box was very smooth and economy was excellent.

There's a set of electric brushes around the clutch area, you could check the electrical connections.

Powder clutches can probably still be bought but there are complicated electronics which also have a part in controlling the current to the clutch. Unless you find a proper expert it might be difficult to identify the fault.

Thanks Kenbo77 for your reply. You are saying it is the clutch that's the problem!
As I regularly work in Liverpool and Derby, can anyone please recommend
a good and sympathetic specialist I could consult??

Sounds like the clutch unit is faulty. Never saw brushes cause a fault. Most common fault I ever saw was no drive which usually was the silver (metal) relay.

kenbo707 said:

Unfortunately this system has a poor reputation

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I beg to differ, although they seem to be becoming 'more troublesome' due to their rarity now and the fact that most will only report faults rather than trouble free motoring.

OP, I'd start by checking the clutch carbon brushes. The easiest thing to check, and potentially the issue if they're now worn.

Mine has started to do this exact thing, which is a real sod as I was going to run it though the winter.
Its odd because the clutch on take off seems fine, it will even spin the front wheel sometimes.
I drove it to the storage unit and for the most part it was fine but randomly it would seem to oscillate up and down with no discernible change in forward momentum.
It also seems to die down and pick up on take off.

The brushes, how can these be checked?