Hey folks.

I've been having a bit of an issue with the gearbox/clutch on my Punto and was wondering if people might have some advice...

It essentially started with some infrequent grinding noises when in 1st/2nd gear...

Then, on one occasion a few weeks ago it wouldn't go into gear at all - so I put it to neutral, and took my foot off the clutch for a few seconds (while rolling down the road!) and it was fine again.

Since then I've still had the odd grinding noise, along with the odd issue with reverse.

In one case it got stuck in reverse - which was "solved" by letting out the clutch until I heard a bit of a 'dunf' noise and the gear engaged normally.

More commonly, though, it won't go into reverse at all (the stick moves fully to the right - it just won't slot in to gear). When this has happened I usually inch forward and then try again, as if something needs to move slightly to line up correctly.

Today, though, it just wouldn't go in... I left it for a while, tried again and eventually go it to pop in as if nothing was wrong.

So with all that in mind, can anyone suggest what might be the issue? More importantly, is there a simple fix I could do myself that might solve it - or at least buy me a bit of time?

I've spent a fair whack on this car to date and don't think I could muster another few hundred quid - So essentially it's a case of a simple patch job or Punto heaven!

Thanks.

No definitive ideas, but I'd take a look at the gearchange linkage for wear, free play, etc.

if car is turned off, do you still got problems changing gears?

Yeah - at least that was the case when I got stuck in reverse and when I couldn't get into reverse.

Gear cable and linkage first place to check as said. Rarely the cable breaks at the gearbox end, inside the outer sheath. If you watch what's going on at that end while an assistant tries to select gears you could spot something. The other end is harder to get at, you have to go underneath. There have been a few cases of wear and as a result sloppy linkage at that end.

Just coming back to this now...

Could it be a gear linkage issue if it's only happening intermittently?

I can use reverse 10 times without any issue, and then it'll just refuse to go into it... a bit of wiggling around of the gear stick tends to solve the problem (sometimes immediately, sometimes after a bit of time).

It's also only reverse that can sometimes be hard to select - the car goes into every other gear just fine.

some guy had same problem, it was loose linkage cable

Sloppy gear changes could make the grinding noises - as the gear mechanism inside isn't been forced to overcome the syncro mesh

so as a result - it sits just at a stupid point and makes the grinding noise

Reverse gear is un-syncromeshed, they are straight cut gears, which means if it dont align up - it dont go into gear
This will be made worse if the linkages aint tight either!

On some linkages there is an adjuster to take up cable slack - i've got one on mk2b, but tbh its never been touched

Check the linkages are tight - and that they aren't "rocking" in there ball's

ziggy

Ziggy122 said:

Sloppy gear changes could make the grinding noises - as the gear mechanism inside isn't been forced to overcome the syncro mesh

so as a result - it sits just at a stupid point and makes the grinding noise

Reverse gear is un-syncromeshed, they are straight cut gears, which means if it dont align up - it dont go into gear
This will be made worse if the linkages aint tight either!

On some linkages there is an adjuster to take up cable slack - i've got one on mk2b, but tbh its never been touched

Check the linkages are tight - and that they aren't "rocking" in there ball's

ziggy

Click to expand...

Thanks - I'm guessing you mean at the engine end rather than the gear stick end? Should there be any play in them at all or none whatsoever?

Is there much involved in tightening them if they do turn out to be too loose?