Had the same shake 1 year ago, changed the right side axle and it was fine for 25000km, now Shaking Stevens is back.
So changed the right axle again to no avail.
Next cleaned all the wheels that are filled with mock this time of year from road salt etc which cause the car to shake at motorway speeds, but this has nought to do with the shake under acceleration. Wheels are balanced and brand new so not the culprit.
Well this time it is the left axle (UK passenger side) that is shot. It has the same ca. 3cm free play as the right hand had when it was gone. I hope this will send Shaking Stevens packing back home.
It is the spider = 3 bearing housing, that is not strong enough for the torque of this little engine, so torque under acceleration eats them spiders, only a few millimeters, but that is too much play for a bearing to do its job smoothly. The same axles are used for petrol engines. They should be refinforced for the diesel, but Marcello at Fiat engineering dept probably though that, "noo... it is a fine for this carra also, no?"
Modern cars have this proble sorted with turbos that kick in immediately at low revs, so torque is even adn does not destroy the axles and bushings...not like the 1.3 mjet that requires Lada style revs to take off from halt. (MOT lads almost could not get the car out of the brake testing dyno last year
So to remedy: Here is what you do: order (on ebay or whereever) the whole axles with shafts & nuts (these are quite bulk as the same is used for Opel/Vauxhall Corsas, so do not bother to buy just the outer or inner axles) as below if yours is the 75bhp version (if other look at
eper for the correct partnr)
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Right axle (UK Driver side) for Fiat Grande Punto 1.3 mjet Diesel 75hp part number:
46308329.
I ordered from ebay.uk seller j_r2006, (their item ID was 142239530881)
at £82 shipped to Finland. Came in 1 week and perfect quality.
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Left axle (UK passanger side) for Fiat Grande Punto 1.3 mjet Diesel 75hp part number:
46308345.
I ordered 17.11.17 from ebay.uk seller in Poland Uniwersal.pl, (their item ID was 332106905941)
at £60 shipped to Finland. Should come within a few weeks and should be teh correct part. I will post here.
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Next in line is to change the tierod ends,lower control arms, and stabilizers, which can be ordered from e.g. Autodoc for about £100 the lot for both sides. That should make the front of the car new..for ours is driven 170.000km already so these are just basic wearables..
The engine mounts might be good to change also, as was said above, that albeit they look ok to the eye, our engine rocks like Mick Jagger on start up and shut down, so they are prob shot.
I'll keep posted, and would be most glad if others tackling the same would alse find the time. Cheers