Technical Scratching clutch....

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Technical Scratching clutch....

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The clutch on my EVO is making a scratching noise. Its at 112,000 miles, the clutch assembly has been off in the past so I assumed it had a new clutch, but maybe not, maybe it had something done to the gearbox. Its too dark to do more right now. My wife says the clutch pedal has no resistance, she doesn't normally drive this car so it was a surprise to her. It feels normal to me because it is my daily driver. So yeah....

What tests do I need to do tomorrow?

This isn't my project car that I rescued from the scrapyard, so I haven't done that much work on this car really, just a front subframe, brakes, exhaust and various electrical bits and pieces. I've mostly been putting the miles on this car because its scruffy, lots of little scratches, interior plastic failing etc. in anticipation of it dying. Do I really need to put a clutch in this when I could get another with less miles and less scruffy? I'm planning on buying a Panda anyway so I can teach my son to drive without totally crippling insurance.

How long can I drive this before it fails completely? And what'll happen?

I've not changed a clutch before, so if I decide to change it then i'll use this thread, its likely to take me a couple of weeks by the time kit has arrived, its stopped raining etc.

Thoughts?
 
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Replace the fork (and it's bushings) too.
s-l1600.webp

Even so called "professionals" often leave those worn out. It will shorten a lifespan of the new clutch set.
https://www.youtube.com/@WMCS/search?query=Fiat !
 
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I've just checked the clutch again. I depress the pedal and it makes a scratching twirling noise exactly like on youtube videos where the throw out bearing has failed. In some videos fully depressing the clutch leads to the noise going away, but not in this case.

The clutch is so cheap i may as well do this job, despite it being an old car, i'm kind of looking forward to doing my first clutch because i like to learn new things. I imagine i'm going to have a lot of problems lol :)

Here's video of the clutch slave being depressed and the noise, I presume someone will confirm?


 
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I think the driveshaft on the nearside is leaking gearbox oil, I think that has to be detached to do the clutch? So could I fix that aswell? It could stay like that indefinitely though, its such a small leak.
 
I did some prep for the job this morning, i was surprised when i started the car and the clutch was silent, but i took it for a drive and the chatter came back.

The clutch kit is ordered and arrives tomorrow. It took me an hour to move cars around, tidy them up, get it up on stands and have a look underneath. I took pictures of the axle on the nearside, it has some gearbox oil leaking from it. I suppose its possible the leak is from somewhere else so i'll hold off on buying a new seal for now.

IMG_20250207_095515.jpg


I'll only have time to spend an hour or so, here or there doing the job, so i'll be taking a couple of weeks over this.
 
I would say, as the box is coming off, it's a good opportunity to replace the drivshaft seals.
Much easier with the box off, and it looks like at least one might need doing.
Note they are different each side.

Personally I would also change the input shaft bearing and seal because I don't trust it.
A bit more work as the box has to come apart, but I think it's within an enthusiastic DIYer's ability.
There's a great guide on here:
 
I would say, as the box is coming off, it's a good opportunity to replace the drivshaft seals.
Much easier with the box off, and it looks like at least one might need doing.
Note they are different each side.

Now thats a good spot! I'd assumed they were the same both sides. The left one looks leaky, the right one ok, but i shall do both. They seem to be common on a lot of Fiat cars, so the price is reasonable enough.

Personally I would also change the input shaft bearing and seal because I don't trust it.
A bit more work as the box has to come apart, but I think it's within an enthusiastic DIYer's ability.
There's a great guide on here:

Thanks, i'll take a look. I'm pretty sure I could replace the gearbox, but i've seen inside one and would have to be careful if i took one apart. I suppose it wouldn't be like opening an old clockwork watch :)

I'm going to start dismantling tomorrow morning, i can possibly get a couple of hours into it. I've been charged £380 for a Grande Punto gearbox in the not too distant past, so thats probably 4 hours labour and £200 for the clutch. I'll be lucky to do this in 12 hours, but theres no rush, I can leave it on stands as long as necessary and use our other car.
 
Getting the driveshaft out can be a pig...
I think this video does a great job of explaining why:

The gap in the spring clip needs to be at the top.
So if it doesn't want to come out, turn the driveshaft a bit by hand and try again

Does the Punto EVO have one of those clips on the axle? I've not read about that or the tapered spline, and could imagine having a nightmare with that if you hadn't give me a heads up!

I've watched twice now, its slowly sinking in.
 
Hopefully it makes sense when you get the driveshafts out of the box!
Typically one pops out fine then the second refuses to budge.
I wish I'd known that trick with the spring clip before I did mine for the first time. Frustrating.
I think the spring clips are standard on driveshafts on all kinds of modern cars.
A smart tap is the way, don't try and prise them out.
 
So...i started the job...the first thing i did was try to empty the gearbox oil, but guess what? It was empty!

I was WTF. I knew there was a leak there, but in the whole time we've owned it the loss of oil was no more than a couple of hundred ml. I topped it up in August last year and thought that'll do for another year.

Was it the gearbox chattering I could hear and not the clutch?

It could be that i need to change the axle seal rather than the clutch?

Why no dashboard light?

I think i'm going to buy more gearbox oil and top it up, drive it and see if the problem has gone away. If so I'll do the seal rather than the clutch.
 
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That's lost a lot of oil very quickly :(

No dashboard light because there are no sensors for transmission oil.

Personally I would want to replace the seals suspected of leaking before putting more oil in if it's losing that much.

Can you confirm if the leak is coming from the driveshafts, any signs of leaks anywhere else?
 
I've just been to have another look. The leak has gotten a lot worse in the last 6 months, so I had a check of where the oil seemed to have gone. Its wet below the drive shaft but dry on top of it. However it did feel wet higher up in that corner of the gearbox, it was very hard to know though because I didn't have any visibility, i was just wiping some blue paper on the area and bringing it out to check.

What will I need to remove to get proper visibility in that awkward corner above the driveshaft? Wheel? Battery tray?

Can't say I'm looking forward to taking the gearbox off to repair the gasket on it, lol :)

Any chance the clutch has been contaminated with gearbox oil?

ePER here is giving the seal as 71734264


But eBay is giving a confusing mix of results, i can see myself buying the wrong one, several times.
 
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