Technical punto hgt variator

Currently reading:
Technical punto hgt variator

macc punto

New member
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
6
Points
4
Hello All

My 51 plate HGT is going in for the cambelt change very soon, but also recently i have noticed that the dreaded diesel clack has happened a few times on startup. It only does it for a few seconds and not all the time but usually when the oil is hot. Its had Selenia 20k in from new (full service and 32k on clock now). Apart from this the car is great, its fast and fuel use is about 35 mpg driving steady and 27 in town.

My question is will the variator last a while or go down hill fast from now on.
I know that when the belt is changed the variator is easy to do at the same time but money is tight right now and the belt quote is £200 and the belt+variator £420.
Would it be recomended get both done at once or could i get away with the belt only? and is there anything that i could do to prolong the life of the variator?
The belt is a priority as its overdue by about a year.

Thanks, any suggestions would be appreciated
 
20k is the wrong oil

your meant to ignore your hand book and put selenia performer 5w/30 in it
or the replacement for that 5w/40 wide range also under the performer name

20k 10w/40 is wrong for any fiat 16v engine especially those with timing variators any fiat tech will tell you this

my dads has been sounding like a diesel for over a year now on start-up and has got no worse once the oil pressure is up they work fine and don't have a cascading failure effect so personally i wouldn't worry

you will know when its completly failed as it will lose you that 4500 rpm pick up and go but it will drive like a normal non vvt 1.8 so wont cause any damage or anything

allot of people say that the gsr copy is better but i have seen no evidence of this like a 100k mile test for example

i have heard of fiat replacement ones failing but they are re manufactured in the uk so have failed once before so i'm not surprised they dont tend to be of the highes quality i'm sure a brand new not exchange item would go for another 60k no trouble

it's in your hands what you do really i just came to reassure you that leaving it till money is better wont do any damage

you don,t have to fully remove cam belt to do it either just loosen tensioner and wangle it in
 
I have just fully finished rebuilding my brothers W reg HGT Punto which sounded just tragic on tick over so we decided to rebuild the whole engine, whole suspension system including wishbones etc and fully underbody sealing to protect the car from any rust.

Back on topic... Once engine was fully back together with all new Veriator and so on car sounded actaully worse than it had before and we though maybe it was something we had done.... I spoke to Peter and he recommend trying some Hydrolic Valve Lifter cleaner which I purchased for £6 from a local LVW Wynns I think the make was.

Emptied the oil down to very lowest mark on dipstick and put the entire can into the oil directly (this stuff really stinks like such as killed about a billion brain cells) ran the engine. After 1 to 2 minutes you could hear the engine going quieter so we decided to keep it going for about 30 mins and :worship: the car sat purring like a brand new car, simply couldnt believe it! Decided to do the same for a few more nights while it was sat in the garage and followed by a clean oil change and it was just perfect...

Cheers
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the comments.

After thinking about it I have decided to get both done at once. I have tried the engine flush and valve cleaner which made the engine much less tappety & smoother but didnt stop the clacking for long. I would rather the engine be in top shape and as i need the belt doing i might as well do it all in one blast. The price for belt + variator that i quoted in the original post is from my local fiat dealer by the way.

Thanks for the info on the oil, i will put that in from now on, but it doesnt seem to be in shop4parts? anyone know were you can get it from.

Anyway the HGT is still a top car whatever faults they might have.
 
Yes Selenia oil for Alfa's would be best. IMO its not 5w/40 he should be using its too thin. It is basically the Alfa 1.8TS with a different head and the oil you MUST use in them is Selenia Racing Engine Oil 10w/60.

My local Alfa/Fiat specialist will not use anything else on those engines and they have had no comeback with engines breaking unless they have been worked on else where.

They do use Selenia WR 5w/40 on the Fire engines.

There has been several reports on Alfaowner.com where using 5w/30-40 has killed peoples engines. Mine has been one of them! :cry:.
 
Yes Selenia oil for Alfa's would be best. IMO its not 5w/40 he should be using its too thin. It is basically the Alfa 1.8TS with a different head and the oil you MUST use in them is Selenia Racing Engine Oil 10w/60.

My local Alfa/Fiat specialist will not use anything else on those engines and they have had no comeback with engines breaking unless they have been worked on else where.

They do use Selenia WR 5w/40 on the Fire engines.

There has been several reports on Alfaowner.com where using 5w/30-40 has killed peoples engines. Mine has been one of them! :cry:.
at fiat we find that all fiat 16v fire engines 899 pushrod and the 1600 16v especially suffer from tappet noise from using 10w40

how ether 10w40 is fine for the 8valves with the exception of newer engines running variable valve timing again lik the 1.4

but 5w40-30 stops this and we never had a problem there

my dad uses the alfa oil i suggested in his 1.8ts and never had a problem yet

he did use 10w40 and took out a big end bearing it use to be a fleet car also so it's not been mallmaintained or anything but it may have been a fluke

so i think it's safe to say the hgt engine itself is fine on all of those oils 10 5 whatever

as for it's hydraulic tappets they prefer the thin stuff it's stops them jacking valves open and cuts out the noise

but when it comes to variators i don't think anyone has done enough testing to say one oil is any better than any other for keeping them working

i have seen them fail after 60k and i seen em go well past 100k on regular oil changes

my dads is on 106k and still going even after what i's been through

my opinion on them is some fail and some don't live with it

remanufactured ones are a bit hit and miss which may have given fiat / alfa a bad name for them

and as people have said gsr do one has anyone actually see one of these fail yet and how many miles
 
Last edited:
Back
Top