What is wrong with my third gear?
What is wrong with my third gear?
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Discussion

Henry Hawthorne

Original Poster:

6,478 posts

237 months

Saturday 14th March 2009
quotequote all
Good afternoon,

To put it bluntly, I can't get into third gear. All the other gears work fine, but I cannot get into third (except when I accelerate hard and keep my foot on the gas as I change up - and even then it usually doesn't work). When I first got the car, the third gear was pretty much fine but every couple of weeks I would try and change up into third and I would hit what can only be described as a "notch" between the position of first and third on the gearstick. All that was required was to move back into neutral and then back into third - I assumed I'd just got the angle wrong.

Now over the past month or so I've found it increasingly difficult to get into third. It start off with the gear "crunching" from second to third. I went to the FIAT dealership to get it checked out, but by the time the booking came around the crunching had stopped so I had to cancel. It came back again so I re-booked, and then it went away again. Then two weeks ago it started crunching from fourth to third as well. I didn't want to re-book because I thought it would go away again (in hindsight this was probably a poor decision). Now whenever I try to go into third it makes a disgusting screeching/scraping/crunching noise. If I do get into third, it only stays in so long as I'm accelerating - if I take my foot off of the gas, it just pops out of gear or the gear stick starts wobbling (which was actually quite amusing, until I realised my car was broken).

The car is a 57 plate Panda 100HP, and is thankfully still under warranty. I always let it get up to temperature before going above 3000rpm, and I've checked oil and coolant and they're both fine. The car is booked in for its 12, 000 mile service on Monday, and I've told them about the gear... But I ws just wondering if anyone knows what may be wrong with my bamboo-eating friend?

Thanks,

Sharief

seanmcpot

189 posts

203 months

Saturday 14th March 2009
quotequote all
my punto's doing it in 2nd,i think it could be somet called the syncromesh,if its under warrenty get them to sort it an it shouldnt cost out(im looking at new gear box for mine)