I've been having a bit of trouble with my Punto (2001, Mk2 1.2l etc) lately and a friend reckons it's a clutch issue - it definitely feels like it's something along those lines (if not the gears themselves).

Basically all of the 'umph' of the car seems to have gone in the last while. Starting off at a set of lights you can feel the first gear struggling to get up to speed and the car can sometimes have a hard time getting speed up in general.

If it's on a hill that's even more true.

On top of that (a connected issue, I imagine) the revs sometimes spike while driving, usually when I'm trying to get the speed up (though I'm not flooring the accelerator - just gently adding pressure as you would).

The only way I can describe this is it's as if I've suddenly taken the car out of gear. It might go up for a second with no extra power actually going into the forward motion of the car and then it drops off again; or else I have to ease off on the accelerator and try again.

So does this sound like clutch trouble? From what I gather it's a fairly expensive problem to fix.

I've to leave it in later this week to do a job on the CV Joint so I'll ask the mechanic to give it a look... I'm hoping it's something minor and easy to fix!

Thanks.

to check if the clutch is ok.

Put it into 4th with the handbrake on and if the clutch is ok the car will stall the car, if this doesnt happen then the clutch is slipping

Does sound like a slipping clutch -- the engine speed increases, the road speed doesn't.

Thanks for that.

Did the 4th gear test and it didn't stall; brought it up to the mechanic for confirmation and he knew within 10m of driving that it was gone.

€350 to fix. Ouch. Now a question of whether I can or cannot afford to put it into the car (or get rid of it for something else).

Selling it with a blown clutch will seriously damage its value. So sort of screwed either way.

Punto clutches generally fail at the pressure plate so gears wont select properly. When they slip its likely to be oil from the gearbox input shaft. The bearing and seal should always be checked and changed if not 100% good. In this case its likely they have failed and taken out the clutch.

In UK a good small garage will replace the clutch for £120 plus parts. Gearbox input bearings will be another 2 hours labour plus parts. At least the bearings parts are cheap.

See the guide by @Mr Wild.

It's DIYable over a weekend. The clutches are cheap, but there's a lot of (not particularly skilled) labour.

If DIY you need four (4) REALLY GOOD axle stands and a good trolley jack. Get the car up high and secure so you can work getting the box out.

I'd not use 4 axle stands. Firstly, you plain don't need 4 (you need access at the front), secondly, it introduces a mite more potential instability.

A bottle jack (or wind up axle stand, even a plain old scissor jack) is useful for supporting the engine when the gearbox mounts are undone (use a big peice of wood to spread the load so you don't dent the sump) and an engine crane (and an extra pair of hands) will make removing and re-fitting the box so much easier.

Undo and remove the bottom strut bolts and you can split the inner CV joints at the cups (there's just enough woggle room).

WhiteSei said:

If DIY you need four (4) REALLY GOOD axle stands and a good trolley jack. Get the car up high and secure so you can work getting the box out.

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I changed my clutch with it about 6" of the ground... took 2 days but in the end i got there haha