hiya

passenger seat just slides backwards and forwards - I can get it to stay put briefly by pushing the release bar down hard but any pressure and off it goes again.

Even when it's fixed there's give - it rocks back and forwards about a quarter of an inch each way. Any ideas?

And is an unfixed passenger seat an MOT fail? If it is then I have a week to fix this.

thanks in advance

I am not certain, but I am pretty sure an unsecured seat will fail an MOT. Sounds like the slide lock spring has broken.

If your car is old enough, go to the scrapyard and remove a matching passenger seat. Strip it down to the runners and take home what you need. Doing this, you get to practice removing the seat from a car that does not matter before taking your own car to pieces.

Try pushing the chair ALL the way back and see if you hear a loud clunk when it hits the back of the runners. It is then locked and fine (my 3 door passenger seat does this)
and the bar should operate as expected.

Thank you Mike, genuinely, for your comprehensive (and clear!) response. 5abr3 you have no idea how much I was hoping your solution would work but it was never too likely.

With that and the clanks and the crunches and the hgh pitched whine at speed I have to wonder if my little M reg is worth MOTing at all. Shame, lovely little car and the mileage is ridiculous.

Is it a high-pitched whine at high road speed or high engine speed? And does it only really occur when the car is cold? If so, this is probably the cambelt tensioner bearing. Irritating, yes, but not really a problem. It will disappear next time you have a cambelt kit installed.

As for clanks and crunches, have a go at describing them to us. Puntos are notorious for having irritating rattles and squeaks, so us seasoned Punto owners have a vast wealth of tips and tricks to silence them. Would be a shame to let it go.

right, I may have seemed rude by my absence but it's been in a goodish cause.

noises:

* squealing sound when first starts up; unmistakeable sound of a belt slipping.

* ominous noise sounds like grinding metal when engine's struggling in too high gear, solved by changing down.

* clanking on full lock steer - this one's been solved, see below.

* there is definitely a high pitched whine from the engine, it sounds more revs than road speed but it's intermittent and rare so it's a swine to lock down.


Now, biggest surprise of my year so far: she passed her MOT!!!! Definitely worth the multiple exclamations that one. I'm advised the CV joint is failing, hence the clanking on steer, but other than that she sailed through.

So there you go; she is still a lovely little car ideal for my incity needs (I have had her on the motorway, she really wasn't comfortable) and the mileage is still ridiculous and, gods willing, I'm a Fiat owner til 2010 at least.

Thanks for your help; I will definitely be back here if I have another problem.