General new with a couple of problems!

[nickthetaff]

Hi,

Firstly, I'm new, and the Forum looks great. We've just bought a 2007 Multijet Eleganza. It's our second Multipla, after a gap of about 5 years. We love the Multipla, and our new one is an improvement on our last 2001 model, particularly in refinement.



I have 2 potential issues with it though

• The clutch is heavy with a very low biting point, and in turn the gear change is a bit heavy and notchy, with getting reverse often a grinding experience!
• Also, there's a whinning noise coming from the rear nearside, it remains whilst coasting in neutral. I'm thinking it's a wheel bearing?

The car has covered 42k with full history, and apart from these 2 issues is great.

Any advice on possible causes and costs would be gratefully received

 

[cooky257]

Here's my post from three weeks ago;
The noise in the rear of my Multi seemed a bit loud,a bit sort of huming,but I couldn't be sure that it was definately any louder than normal.I obviously suspected the wheel bearings. Anyway it began bugging me. I tried very hard to identify which side,but just couldn't tell.
After searching around for a while I found some on ebay sold by Partsbuy,
they state that they are made by Continental direct,a german company(the tyre manufacture) They were £26.50 each with ABS ring, I thought these were a bargain,but probably not very good quality.
I took a chance and brought 2 of these. They arrived in their boxes in 2 days
and on close inspection they look and feel very high quality. I fitted them this morning (very easy) and I am delighted will the result,definately much quieter in the back.
Obviously I don't know about the longevity of these bearings, but its a definate thumbs up for partsbuy and continental-direct.
And NO I don't work for either.

 

[cooky257]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sadly I only have bad news for you.
This is another of my posts from about a year ago, it may shed some light on your situation.
"I would just like to add my experience of the multipla clutch, mine is a 115 jtd with 66500k, like many others the bite point was about one inch from the floor,the pedal felt fine, then it just stopped working/disengaging altogether. I read everything on the forum and concluded this, If your clutch is like this,it is probably nothing to do with the master or slave cylinders.
It is the fingers of the clutch cover plate are worn down or disintegrating so much that the clutch will not release. I opted to change the clutch myself as I was quoted £500 to change the clutch by an independant fiat specialist who was very helpfull and I picked his brain. I asked about wear on the DMF his words were "new normal movement is around 25mm, most he works on have about 50mm movement." this movement is measured by rotating the flywheel back and forth and measuring the movement, I did this with mine, it moved quite easily about 25-30mm so its ok. I bought a fiat clutch kit for £132 plus a cheap aligment tool. Some great posts from JTDman and bikes-for-me helped but I found it to be a horrendous job,knuckles skined,forearms bruised and 12-14 hours of work. I nearly gave up after 6 hours,but I stuck at it. Horrible job and I had a warm garage and a pit. Maybe it is worth paying someone else to do it. Its hard. Anyway I did finish and my clutch now is very light to use,with a normal bite point at least 3-5 inches from the floor and disengaging beautifully".

Stiffness of the pedal is not really an indicator of a worn clutch plate, so if you are very luck it maybe just one of you cylinders, probably the slave, these are about £35 to buy and maybe 1/2 to 1 hours labour.
Good luck.

 

[nickthetaff]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm going to look at the slave and master cylinders on the clutch before I order a new clutch kit.

 

[widemouthfrog]

I'd put a fair sized bet on it being the clutch. Mine was exactly as you describe when I bought the car and I thought to myself "It might be the clutch, but it's worth doing the master and slave cylinders first". So I shelled out on having them replaced (a small fortune - at a Fiat dealer - on the master cylinder as I had the whole thing replaced rather than just the internals) only to find the clutch felt exactly the same when I went to pick it up.

Clutch then duly replaced (at a non-franchised specialist after I'd been cleaned out by Fiat for the cylinder replacement!) and that sorted it.