Some people, ok most people who own a mk2 punto with the 1.9D engine have had this problem..

Car jerks/lunges/hesitates in a high gear/low throttle input, most noticiable in 4th geat between 50 and 60km/h or 5th gear at 70km/h some describe it as virtually undriveable when it happens, usually cured by moving the throttle or changing gear..

The problem is intermitent and is hard to diagnose, i tried a lot of solutions and most would only seem to cure the problem which would come back again..

I got to the point of placing a camera in the engine compartment and driving in a place where i knew the problem accured and it did, looking at the video i noticed the engine rocked in sync with the hesitation..

on mine at least the solution was very simple, a broken engine mount, the mount that holds the transmission under the car had broken the rubber.. At first glance it looked ok but on closer inspection i noticed the middle had separated from the rest..

mount replaced and no more jerking

thanks button please

so it was not the solution a month later the problem returned when the missus drove the car, seems like i just had adapted to the car and drove off the symptom zone

in august i replaced the shorter driveshaft (drivers side in my case LHD) since i had a split outer CV boot and made some noise when turning.. turned out the stutter problem was actually a bad inner cv joint, i had noticed there was some play when accelarating/decelarating in a high gear/low throttle input but always thought it was normal slack somewhere in the transmission, now there is NO play at all..

been like this for 3kkms and even the missus says it no longer stutters..

A few days ago i was having a conversation with a family friend who used to be a mechanic before retiring, he said it one of the symptoms of a failed inner cv joint is a stutter at a specific speed, usually noticed in the higher gears..

seems like my problem has been solved, i'm hoping it's not temporary this time

Hey smokeme, I have exactly the problem you have described now and am in the process of ordering an new rear gearbox mount (shaped like a fugure of 8 i think).

I also notice unpleasant noise when turning to full lock positions and, to be honest, it isn't particularly brilliant in normal turning.

What parts did you buy exactly to sort the loose inner CV joint, that wasn't what the shorter driveshaft was for was it? Need the info as I dont want to replace the engine mount to have it get destroyed as well by not curing the cause.

Your help is greatly appreciated (thanks button clicked!)

Worn outer CV joints will click and clack at low speed on full steering lock. Inner joints dont move through such a wide angle so generally last longer.

Replaced CV boots often have to be clipped further up the drive shaft to stop the edges rubbing. If the folds are too bunched, the edges will rub and in 1000 miles it will be shot again.

actually my jerking/stutter problem is a faulty idle control valve INSIDE the injector pump, pump was replaced once and i payed full price, now i've been exchanging it under warranty until they fix the problem.. symptoms return in around 2 months and diagnostics always report the same failed idle valve.. so far 4 pumps have gone by and the symptoms are back on this one as well

out of curiosity had the car on the rollers when the new pump was put in and it cranked out 75whp, a bit over the claimed 60bhp or the 65bhp the Doblo specs indicate.. my ecu is running doblo maps tweaked for economy, currently doing 4.2l/100km city driving with no highway use..