Hi all , site newbie here.
I have just bought a 2001 punto 1.2 8v. When driving ,my car wobbles side to side, ( its a wobble rather than a judder, and it is sometimes slight sometimes more pronounced, it usually starts at about 35mph, )i have had the balancing and tracking checked and checked for buckled wheels, all ok there, the odd thing is there is very little vibration through the steering wheel ,its felt more through the pedals,and the wobble stops when the clutch is pressed down. Anyone have any thoughts as to what it could be?.
Ive searched the forums and found many theories,,,,,,, the most worrying was a member with similar symptoms, having to have the diff renewed. Giving that the car is for my son when he passes his test and cost me £450 , the thought of spending out tons of money on it sends shivvers down my spine,not to mention the earache i will get from the wife.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Have you checked the wheel bearings? If you can, jack the front end of the car up and if you can wobble the wheels that usually indicates a problem with the bearings.

I'd be checking the condition of the track rod ends.

You have to wonder why it wobbles without feeling it through the wheel.

Any other component in the steering would be next on my list, e.g. rack

My advice would be seeing as you have spent the equivalent of a small countries national debt on putting your son in a first rate quality car would be to let an mot man peruse it irrespective of how long the current ticket is.
This way any bulging tyres or old nails holding suspension together will be found.

Do i detect a hint of sarcasm,,,,,,,
Anyway just an update,,,,, ive had the balancing done, new trackrod ends and tracking done, ( wheel bearings checked when up on the ramp).
Wobble is till there, but only when the drivetrain is under load, put your foot down on the clutch and the wobble disappears.

not sure here mate,

so this is just guesses,
what it couid be,


*failing drive shaft, (roller bearing)
*Engine Mount,
*Diff,

I was thinking its either the tripod bearing on the driveshaft or the diff. But there is no clonking or knocking I had it up on axle stands put it in first and let the wheels spin, at first the drivers side only spun( just as i suspected) no wobble, when i stopped the drivers wheel turning with my foot so the passenger side started spinning,,,,,,,,, guess what,,,,, wobble started.

I can't see it myself. Diff is very well isolated from steering/wheel inputs.

Free check at Kwik Fit might turn something up.

tonyspunto said:

I was thinking its either the tripod bearing on the driveshaft or the diff. But there is no clonking or knocking I had it up on axle stands put it in first and let the wheels spin, at first the drivers side only spun( just as i suspected) no wobble, when i stopped the drivers wheel turning with my foot so the passenger side started spinning,,,,,,,,, guess what,,,,, wobble started.

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Had this before, have a look at your drive shafts, has the nearside one been replaced ie: its black painted and still fairly clean we have had it where wrong drive shaft has been fitted and the shaft is about 10mm too long and the tri bearing runs in the bottom of the cup when the wheels are on the floor but if its doing it while wheels are off the ground i would look more at the brakes and hubs unless you have put jack / axle stands under the lower arms. can you freely spin both front wheels when its in neutral? does the the wheel have bearing play ?
jack the car up at passenger side under the lower arm so wheel is in "road" position rotate the wheel by hand first and see if there are any tight spots then start engine put in first and lift clutch with handbrake on . the nearside wheel will spin, is it running true or does it look like its wobbleing (look at the rim not the tyre)
if there is a wobble have a look for the wheel locating pin, its like a bolt head but has a small spike sticking out of it that goes through hole in wheel to locate wheel bolts, sometimes when the discs are replaced people lose it (it also holds disc to hub ) so they just put a normal bolt in to hold disc but the trouble is the bolt head is deeper then the locator bolt so when you fit your perfectly balanced wheel back on the hub it does not fit flush where the bolt is hence causing the wheel wobble

hope this helps, let us know how you get on

Thanks for the advice jon, when i had it up on axle stands, and had the whole wobbling thing happen only when the n/s wheel spinning i did notice the driveshaft moving up and down almost as if it was bent, not much but can be seen,and there is some play at the inner cv joint. I was kinda thinking it wasnt anything to do with the "wheel end" of the driveshaft as the wobble stops when the clutch is pressed in, if the wobble was caused by a buckled wheel,lumpy tyre, mis-seated wheel etc wouldnt it still wobble whether the clutch was pressed or not ? Anyhow i have a secondhand shaft coming from ebay, ill swap that out and see what happens.

tonyspunto said:

Thanks for the advice jon, when i had it up on axle stands, and had the whole wobbling thing happen only when the n/s wheel spinning i did notice the driveshaft moving up and down almost as if it was bent, not much but can be seen,and there is some play at the inner cv joint. I was kinda thinking it wasnt anything to do with the "wheel end" of the driveshaft as the wobble stops when the clutch is pressed in, if the wobble was caused by a buckled wheel,lumpy tyre, mis-seated wheel etc wouldnt it still wobble whether the clutch was pressed or not ? Anyhow i have a secondhand shaft coming from ebay, ill swap that out and see what happens.

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was just a thought but i see where you are coming from, if there is play in the driveshaft end that could cause it when you dip clutch you take all the load off the drivechain

had a pug 305 deisel that i bought off a customer ( ran on fresh air 1800cc )
fault was used to jump out of first, third & fifth if you braked going downhill could not find anything out of place or wrong with it, had the old ball end linkage system for gear change. and everything was tight checked selection and settings all ok. still did it left it for months then decided it was time to sort was not going to beat me.
strapped a 12v inspection light under bonnet and mounted my camcorder in headlight cavity set to record and drove up and down a few hills ( always someone behind you when your experimenting lol) got it jumping out. played the tape back and was suprised to see that when braking the engine / gearbox moved towards the nearside slightly ( had put white chalk lines all over the visible stuff ) will see if i can find pics i have somewhere,
now i knew what was causing it as engine moved linkage pulled it out of gear as one end it bolted to bulkhead on a pivot.
off side had been replaced by one from a petrol model ( slightly longer ) and was pushing engine and gearbox over. this would not have caused problem on its own except car was old and a combination of soft front springs ( allowing front to dip too much ) & worn engine mount rubbers ( allowing sideways movement ) too long drive shaft pressing on cup pushed box over, drive shaft had a label on with part number and we check was for a petrol 1400cc model. second hand drive shaft and mounts cured it and cured some vibrations as well.

moral of the story is that could be more than one thing but a few small things.

Just a quick question, as i have to remove the inner cv cup as the new shaft has one fitted, i know there is a clip holding it into the diff and that its quite easy to remove , how do i fit the new cup? How do i put the new clip on when the shaft is inside the diff? Or would it just be easier to remove the cup from the new shaft and use the existing cup? I think i know the answer but thought id ask anyway.

take cup off new shaft and leave original one on,

you can change them over but is it worth it,?

ihate the smell of gear oil,

Thats what i was thinking, cheers hammer

oldhammer said:

take cup off new shaft and leave original one on,

you can change them over but is it worth it,?

ihate the smell of gear oil,

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you could pop the shaft out of the box but would lose the oil, if you take the boot off the inner joint you can pull the shaft out BUT watch out when you do a sometimes the tri-bearing outers can fall off. get some cv joint grease packed in the cup before you put it back in ( if you dont have any you could get some out of old cup ) put boot on and replace tie wrap ( mot failure without one ) you may find one of the tri bearings falls apart, if it does this was probably your fault, common problem, if it has clean out cup with rags and inspect where the bearings run for any sharp edges or indentations. if you find any you may be better changing whole shaft as will still be loose

good luck let us know how you get on

tonyspunto said:

Just a quick question, as i have to remove the inner cv cup as the new shaft has one fitted, i know there is a clip holding it into the diff and that its quite easy to remove , how do i fit the new cup? How do i put the new clip on when the shaft is inside the diff? Or would it just be easier to remove the cup from the new shaft and use the existing cup? I think i know the answer but thought id ask anyway.

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clip will come out with shaft, can be hard to get new shaft in, best way is to remove boot and get in as far as you can then knock in with copper hammer as you twist it.
will pop in, once in you can check by tugging to see if pulls out if its in ok you wont be able to pull out. refit boot and fill box with oil and tie-wrap boot
better just to leave cup in box if you can ( see above post)

Wey hey, wobble cured,,,,,,, it was the drive shaft. Took the old one off and found one of the tri bearings missing,,,, no rollers, no nothing , just a stub. Funny thing is the bits were nowhere to be found, scooped out all the grease from the cup and found nothing. The whole task was easier than i thought it would be,, 30 mins tops. Just as a foot note , despite what i found on here, the front hub nut was a 32mm not a 36..

It might of had a recent clutch change & who evers done it lost it,

glad to hear you sorted it,

Thanks hammer, and thanks to everyone who gave advice . ill get some pics uploaded soon, i had the tracking sorted out too, it was REALLY out, both front wheels pointing inwards, no wonder it was a tad jittery.