Well this is the issue, the clutch makes a horrible noise almost like grinding when it travels up and down. When you hold it down its silent and when fully up in gear its silent also but when you push it and make the pedal travel there is resistance and the grinding noise to mee it seems like its binding or the springs arnt working that great but this hasnt happened over night as the clutch pedal has went from perfect , then a slight squeek and now this horrible noise but the clutch its self works perfectly with no slipping or hesitation and engages perfectly in the middle!

Update: Went too asda and on the drive there the noise and pedal feel perfect and no noise what so ever its like its back to normal and feeling new again, but when i came back from shopping on the drive home the noise came back but not as strong :s

owenh said:

Update: Went too asda and on the drive there the noise and pedal feel perfect and no noise what so ever its like its back to normal and feeling new again, but when i came back from shopping on the drive home the noise came back but not as strong :s

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Have you worked out if the noise is coming from inside the engine bay or from down by your feet? When you say grinding, do you mean a rotating grinding noise or just an unpleasant metal on metal noise?

Located it is coming from the gearbag its self not near the pedal as I have checked the springs and mechanism and greased and cleaned! its un unpleasant metal on metal noise

Could be the release bearing and springs are breaking up. If the pedal has variable sfittness at any point in it's travel and possibly a slight clicking noise from the bellhousing with the motor off it's a fairly reliable sign of this issue. How old is the clutch? Our original failed this way at 42k miles.

agreed,
can you clarify if the noise occurs if the pedal is held at a point between full up and full down ?

If it is the pedal itself or the mechanism, it will only occur while the pedal is moving and also with the engine stopped.

It does sound like a classic release bearing issue or damaged fork.

i've wondered a few times if punto's suffer with bending forks
Giving odd pressure plate wear and causes the bearings to stress out and fail....

Ziggy

Ziggy122 said:

i've wondered a few times if punto's suffer with bending forks
Giving odd pressure plate wear and causes the bearings to stress out and fail....

Ziggy

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Absolutely, I have seen it on a panda so no reason why not. It causes rapid destruction of the release bearing. In other vehicles I have seen this cause the release bearing to sieze or almost sieze causing spin on the fingers of the pressure plate . This again doesnt tend to survive long though and sound horrendous.