2004 Fiat trigano Tribute gear leaver problem

[Mickydripin]

Hi all,

I have been to look at the above and it is great "But"! the gear leaver is very stiff There is no play when in netural, When you try to put it in to gear you can only get it in with brute force and trying to get the other gears in is just pot luck.

When the owner drives it he has no problems most of the time but when putting it in first or reverse it is a two hand job.

I think it is cable controlled down to a linkage.

Any help appreciated

 

Mike

[Mickt]

I take it is a Fiat Ducato, which has cables to change gear. Where the cables meet at the quadrant on the gear box this sometimes seizes and needs removing to clean. Typical fiat no grease point.

[Derek Uzzell]

This (infuriating) video-clip relates to a stiff gear-change on 2006-onwards Ducatos

 

 

but the advice should generally apply to the preceding model.

 

I regularly spray the under-bonnet gear-change linkage of my 2015 Ducato with this stuff

 

https://wd40.co.uk/specialist/anti-friction-dry-ptfe-lubricant/

 

as it's dry and less likely to hold muck.

 

It seems to be beneficial as the initially stiff gear-change freed up significantly after the initial spray treatment, and now (although definitely not ‘feather light’ light my Skoda car's) my Ducato’s gear-shift quality is pretty good.

[Mickydripin]

Hi all,

Thanks for your help, Much appreciated.

Mike.

[mgnbuk]

My first van was a 2003 CI based on a 2 litre JTD Ducato with a 5 speed gerabox. It had around 28000 miles showing when I bought it & the gearchange was stiff, particularly going in to 5th. It didn't get any better or worse for the first year I had it - I checked the cables & pivot points & all were free & well lubricated, but for the second year I did a full service on the van, including a gearbox oil change.

 

That gearbox had no level plug or dipstick, so the only way to check for the correct amount of oil was to drain & measure. IIRC it should have had around 2.5 litres, but only around 1.5 litres came out. What came out was also nothing like the Selenia full synthetic gear oil that went back in - the Selenia oil was red & almost odourless & the stuff that came out was dirty yellowish & smelled like traditional EP gear oil. The Fiat service manual on CD recommended putting in more oil than the handbook said, so around 2.8 litres went back in (slowly, through the gearbox breather, as there is no other fill point).

 

The transformation in gearchange operation was dramatic - all the stiffness & baulkiness just went away. The gearbox was also noticably quiieter. The Selenia oil was not cheap, but made a big difference. My van came with a comprehensive service receipts file, but I found no reference to a gearbox oil change, though the supplying dealer had fitted a new speedo drive gear (the speedo only read intermittently when the gearbox warmed up - replacing the worn drive gear fixed that). The gear change had been stiff on the test drive I had before the gear was changed, though, so the oil was probably chaaged before the dealer bought the van from the previous owner.

 

HTH

 

Nigel B

[Derek Uzzell]

The oil you used won’t have been a “Selenia” lubricant, as these are engine oils.

 

The lubricants Fiat recommends are normally Petronas products (which “Selenia” is) and the transmission oils are branded “Tutela”. In 2003-2005 the Ducato Owner Handbook would have recommended Tutela “Technyx” or “Matryx”, both of which are SAE 75W-85. I believe one is semi-synthetic and the other fully-synthetic and I think both are red in colour. There’s an example advert for Tutela Matryx here

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-Alfa-Lancia-Tutela-Matryx-Synthetic-Gearbox-Oil-SAE-75W-85-API-GL4-14921616-/121998793646

 

There are quite a few on-line warnings about rainwater entering the gearbox of earlier Ducatos, and if that happens it definitely won’t do the gear-change quality any good. I’m not sure, though, if the water-ingress problem persisted into the early 2000s.

 

It certainly would do no harm to change Mike’s Tribute’s gearbox oil, as (as you’ve said) this could provide an immediate improvement. It would also be worth ensuring that the cables-to-gearbox linkage is well lubricated.

 

I think it may be possible to adjust the gear-change cables, but it would require the necessary skills. Mike has told me that the gear-change cable-assembly’s Fiat Part Number is 1328122080 but no longer available from Fiat. Also that he was advised by a Fiat agent that replacing the cable-assembly would be time-consuming (£350 labour-charge estimate) due to access limitations.

 

Hopefully lubricating the linkage will help and a gearbox oil-change help further.

[Mickt]

I have a 2003 Fiat 2.8jtd and to my knowledge the gear box oil has never been changed or topped up. The only problem I had with stiff gear change was the quadrant on the gear box got stiff and the mechanic removed it to clean, there are no grease points.Must point out I have had this MH since new