I have recently (2 weeks ago) bought a 1997 Ford Fiesta. Looks lovely - drove well for the first 500 miles - then - it started making this grinding noise and the down gear change was really jerky if i had to break sharp(ish), grinding noise is slightly worse when turning a sharp corner, took it to the garage who filled up the auto transmission fluid as it was virtually empty. Now its still doing the jerky downchange but also threatening to stall when i stop, giving a nasty jerk forwards when coming out of reverse and back into drive and generally behaving like it has some form of Fiesta ADHD :-( The garage man also told me to drive it until it was dead and write it off as he thought it was a gearbox problem and would be too expensive to fix. Do any of you brainy guys out there think it might be something i can fix and is the noise connected with the jerking or could it be seperate things? the car came with a full service history and everything so im gutted!!!

 

Is it the CVT box?

 

if its the belt box its may need fluid and if thats ok it probably knackered now

 

If its the CVT box (steel belt) then running them low on oil destroys the clutch pack and the belt

 

thank you for your replies guys, i took it to an auto gearbox man and he said it was the hydraulic control unit (whatever that is) and it will be £345 to fix !!!! also the grindy noise was from the brakes :-( i was sold a bummer ---- by an RAC man too ggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr