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Technical Stilo Gearbox stiff in Neutral

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Technical Stilo Gearbox stiff in Neutral

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freakydeakie

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Hi, this is my first post, so I hope there is someone here that can help. My son has just bought a Fiat Stilo 1.8 16V. I have noticed that when the gear lever is in the neutral position, its very stiff when moving it from side to side, and when pushed say all the way to the right(or left), it will stay in that position. Its not that stiff that it makes changing gear difficult, but changing gear from 2nd to 3rd also seems to be a bit tricky. The gear change itself is quite smooth, no crunching or grinding.
Any help would be most appreciated.
 
If the car's been sat around in the damp then dismantling and cleaning up surface corrosion and lubrication of the gearchange linkage sliding parts at the gearbox is probably your answer
1.8 gear selector cables.JPG
 
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Just lever in between on both sides is all I do and then it pops off

I think it's that shaft shown in the drawing above with the nut on the end that tends to seize up with corrosion and cause stiffness in neutral
 
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Deckchair5 said:
I think it's that shaft shown in the drawing above with the nut on the end that tends to seize up with corrosion and cause stiffness in neutral
Click to expand...
It is indeed ... inside the shaft there is a pair of very light plastic bushes which only go in about 25% from each end, and the shaft seems to be factory dry-assembled (bad), so the gap between the bushes fills with electrolytic crud.

Spraying the area or bushes with WD40, etc tends to make the problem worse as the the crud swells up and grips the bushes even tighter.

However, the 2 bushes can be bought separately from Fiat @ about £1 each (you MAY have to buy a pack of 5).

The fix is ...
loosen the nut (leaving in place for tapping),

tap on the nut end WHILST "exercising" the balljoint-arm back & forth with an adjustable spanner set to fit the arm (it's usually WELL seized), & at some point you'll need to remove the nut and swap over to using a drift on the spindle (= LIGHT taps + MUCH exercising).

When you've worked the spindle free ... pull out the old bushes with long nosed pliers (easy), de-crud & clean up the spindle & shaft, and reassemble with generous copper ease + new bushes.

Finally, (after also having done the "cable clean up" you mentioned) try out & play with your sweetly responsive gearchange .
.... PS .... make sure you have Madonna's "Like a Virgin" playing in the background ;)
..... PPS ..... When you've finished, you MAY get an urge for a cigarette and/or drink :p (this is slightly is slightly perverted, but probably normal ;))
 
Suicide_Jockey said:
Finally, (after also having done the "cable clean up" you mentioned) try out & play with your sweetly responsive gearchange .
.... PS .... make sure you have Madonna's "Like a Virgin" playing in the background ;)
..... PPS ..... When you've finished, you MAY get an urge for a cigarette and/or drink :p (this is slightly is slightly perverted, but probably normal ;))
Click to expand...
:ROFLMAO:
 
Sorry just been reading the thread and was wondering if this is the same method for repairing jtd gear level as mine is rather stiff and not centering, but gear change is ok except sometimes when coming from 5th downwards lol
 
Thanx for that, just one more question, the shaft thats mentioned with the nut on the end, is that the nut thats next to ref 2a on the drawing?
 
i contacted fiat 2day to ask about the bushes but they didn't seem to be listing them. only the lever assembly, would that be easier to change rather than doin the bushes, if i mind right they quoted about £35 for the assembly
 
Deckchair5 said:
Just lever in between on both sides is all I do and then it pops off
Click to expand...

Thanks Decks. However...on the 2.4 I'm not so sure. Tried your technique on the weekend and found myslef levering so hard I had one of those 'if you keep this up you're going to break something' moments. Absolutely wouldn't shift.

Do you think there might be some kind of locking ring, or somesuch, keeping the ball joint in place..?
 
i've sprayed all moving areas with white lithium grease, but also done it wi a shifter on the small lever moving it whilst spraying to get it into everywhere and seems to have temp loosened it off for now, at least its centering now lol, was abit awkward wi the metal intake pipe in the way especially when u'v got biggish arms n hands like mine lol
 
fifeplumber57 said:
i've sprayed all moving areas with white lithium grease, but also done it wi a shifter on the small lever moving it whilst spraying to get it into everywhere and seems to have temp loosened it off for now, at least its centering now lol, was abit awkward wi the metal intake pipe in the way especially when u'v got biggish arms n hands like mine lol
Click to expand...
That is unfortunately only a short term temporary cure ... It will probably last a couple/few months, but every time you repeat it, the "relief period" tends to get smaller & smaller. :(


fifeplumber57 said:
i contacted fiat 2day to ask about the bushes but they didn't seem to be listing them. only the lever assembly, would that be easier to change rather than doing the bushes, if i mind right they quoted about £35 for the assembly
Click to expand...
Only you can decide which is right for you personally, but the labour/time/effort is almost the same for both jobs ... and a pair of bushes costs about £2.50 as opposed to your £35ish for the whole assembly (which WILL eventually seize the same due to dry-assembly).

The bushes are one of those silly little components parts that Fiat list on eper for SOME models, but not for others (even though they will often fit interchangeably) ....
The part number for the bush is 46467103 (x2 required), and I know they fit the Panda, Idea, Stilo, & Doblo JTD's plus apparently a fair few petrol & diesel Alfas.
I don't know for definite that they'll also fit the petrol Stilos, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did as companies often "recycle" existing designs & components (and @ £2.50, it's unlikely to break your bank & is surely "worth a punt")
 
I had the same problem after leaving the car for 2 weeks in the damp in 1st. The leaver was terrible, would stay exactly where I would put it.

After about 50 km of town driving, it went back to normal and everything has been fine ever since. From then, I always avoid leaving it in gear though.
 
Firstly, a big thanks you to all of the excellent replys.
I am really not mechanically minded, but this has helped when I booked it into my local mechanic, when I mentioned your comments, he agreed that this is probably the problem. I was worried that it may be something more serious.
Thanks once again, and what a great forum!!
 
Hi,

Just an update (2019) on this post,everything is still correct including part number listed for the bushes. My mechanic charged me 1 hours labour to do the mod and the bushes now cost £3.50 from Fiat main dealer. I know its an old post but thank you to the guys who originally posted this stuff, got my Dads Stilo with just 55,000 on the clock and it was sitting for 4 months prior to this weekend. Had this problem and this fix worked a treat, the gear change is like new again.

Thanks.
 
Yeah.. I love old posts (mostly because I tend to have quite elderly cars).. :D

It's quite satisfying when some obscure and dusty old post from 10 years ago hits a problem right on the head... You wants to buy the lad a pint (albeit at "the same age as the post" prices, so it'd have to be Fosters aka some cheap ****.. :D)


Ralf S.
 
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