Grande Punto Grande Punto Multijet 1.3 Q's: Clutch adj, Filters and fluids, workshop manual

[Dolphinberserk]

G'day,
Just bought 2008 Punto Dynamic 1.3 Multijet 5 Speed Manual with 65,000km on the odometer for my 60km daily commute. This one has leather seats and dual sunroofs (ves) and is a great commuter. I can now see why Fiats have a large following and am now a convert. It is now time to change oil and filters. Can anyone tell me what type and how many filters I need (or send me a link of the right filter kit from a retailer)?
The clutch seems very shallow, requiring me to floor the clutch pedal for low speed gear changes; even then putting it into reverse often causes crunches. I don't know if it's a cable clutch or something clevererer but can anyone tell me where adjustment is? (Is it a nut on the cable under the body somewhere or some hydraulic whizbang arrangement?).
I've I have always worked on all our vehicles (Land Rover Td5 Discovery, V8 Discovery, Kawasaki ZR750, Volkswagon Type 2) myself as there are few/no reliable mechanics in Australia and plenty who'll charge an arm and a leg and still abuse your car). So I'm looking for a workshop manual. For the Punto (as the Grande Punto is called in Oz) I gather there's no Haynes manual, is that right? Is there a factory workshop? I haven't found either on Amazon on Google books. So is an aftermarket CD the only option (if so, could anyone recommend a particular CD or seller?) or can Fiat be convinced to retail a workshop manual?

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi , and welcome,

as you've probably figured out the 2008 was still termed a GP here in the UK / europe,
later cars becoming Punto EVO , then Punto..,

I've not owned a 1.3 Mjet ,

BUT the engine is a FIAT unit , commonly fitted to other small FIAT and GM cars ( vauxhall / opel),
you MAY find you can buy the service parts cheaper from opel / GM outlets than FIAT..??,
manual wise.. not too sure,
Haynes will almost certainly do a corsa Manual = covering the engine,
there are quite a few Manual downlaods on Fiat Forum,
links on top Banner..,


any idea if the cam-chain will need doing soon? 80 / 120K KMS is normal change period,


Charlie

 

[Humour]

Hello,

the 1.3Mjet's use two different types of Oil and Fuel filters as far as I am aware. The best way to get the correct parts is to speak to suppliers and provide them with the car registration number and chassis number. There is little point of us advising you when we don't know which variant of each part is fitted to your particular car.

If your clutch biting point is very low, this is to say it bites at the bottom of the pedal travel, then this appears to be a common behaviour on the 1.3's at least. There is another thread here about this that suggests that there is an air pocket left in the clutch slave cylinder, even after the clutch line has been bled, as I recently did on mine. I cant advise on a fix because the suggested action is yet to be proven, it may turn out that its a normal behaviour for this car version.

With respect to the gear selection, yes the gears on the 1.3 5 speed are a little lumpy. However reverse gear, 3rd and 2nd not going in without a couple of attempts in my view is due to excessive movement of engine mounts. I had the same issue and changed the "rear" engine/gearbox mount. I immediately noticed an improvement in gear changes for those gears, the old mount was not perished but it had cracks in it which were only evident when the part was removed from the car.

I would also add that prior to this I also changed the gearbox oil with the correct grade of oil. The old oil was clean but I bet any money was a cheap service item and arguably not the correct spec. for that gearbox, which didn't help gear changes at all.

Congrats on your Mjet purchase and enjoy the silly MPG that little lawnmower of an engine provides

Humour

 

[Skyperr]

Crunchy gear change can be caused by a defective clutch slave cylinder (i.e. leaky seals) or it may need to be bled. I replaced the slave on mine (plastic body) with one from a motor factors with a metal body. A quick bleed and we were back in action

 

[Dolphinberserk]

varesecrazy, good advice on manual and part sourcing options. The opportunities that come from having shared technology (between platforms and makers) hadn't occured to me. Thanks!

 

[Dolphinberserk]

Humour excellent advice on clutch bleeding, trans and engine mounts. I'll be checking out the gear shifts and if 2nd 3rd are funky I'll loom into the mounts. A hydraulic clutch. .. I feel... modern! My previous manual vehicleshad rusty frayed kinked old clutch cables that made for extra work.

 

[Dolphinberserk]

Skyper - I'll bleed the clutch then if nec change out the clutch slave. For this I'll need a manual, so I had better get one quick smart.

 

[varesecrazy]

Skyper - I'll bleed the clutch then if nec change out the clutch slave. For this I'll need a manual, so I had better get one quick smart.

look here:

https://www.fiatforum.com/downloads.php

charlie

 

[Dolphinberserk]

Thanks for the direct link Charlie! I'm finding a .rar file expander for Mac OS as I type, then I'll access the manual as a disk. The interesting thing will be working underneath. With my other vehicles (VW Type 2 and Land Rover), aircooled Kawasaki) I can drop the oil and sometimes even the engine without lifting the car. Having said that I like the idea of working on a car that weighs less than two tons. Cheers

 

[varesecrazy]

no worries,

as I said before the cam-chain is really lightweight jobbie, :yuck:
so a change @ 80K miles is a wise precaution,
several in the panda forum have had failures before that.., :bang:

see you over in the GP section,

Charlie

 

[Dolphinberserk]

I'll check the cam chain procedure out, thanks for the tip!

 

[Humour]

no worries,

as I said before the cam-chain is really lightweight jobbie, :yuck:
so a change @ 80K miles is a wise precaution,
several in the panda forum have had failures before that.., :bang:

Charlie

Tell us more varesecrazy.........lightweight in what respect? I hope its not a design flaw, I bought this car specifically because its chain driven instead of belt driven to try an avoid this type of failure and service intervals that come with a belt driven engine :bang:

Is there an easy way to identify its condition/level of wear?

Sorry for highjacking the OP topic, but this should be of interest to all Mjet 1.3 owners

Humour

 

[varesecrazy]

Tell us more varesecrazy.........lightweight in what respect? I hope its not a design flaw, I bought this car specifically because its chain driven instead of belt driven to try an avoid this type of failure and service intervals that come with a belt driven engine :bang:

Is there an easy way to identify its condition/level of wear?

Sorry for highjacking the OP topic, but this should be of interest to all Mjet 1.3 owners

Humour

look in New Panda section https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/338518-07-fiat-panda-1-3-multijet-died.html

this is the say hi to newbies section