Looking good, I do like that steering wheel.

Fiat do this stupid thing with airbags now where you have to poke a hole in the back of the steering wheel then with a hook tool unhook the airbag from the wheel. It means if the airbag goes you have to damage the steering wheel as well. By destroying the old airbag you avoided this problem so good work

AndyRKett said:

Looking good, I do like that steering wheel.

Fiat do this stupid thing with airbags now where you have to poke a hole in the back of the steering wheel then with a hook tool unhook the airbag from the wheel. It means if the airbag goes you have to damage the steering wheel as well. By destroying the old airbag you avoided this problem so good work

Click to expand...

Yeah me too, much nicer and chunkier. The only reason I would remove the airbag was if it had blown so now I know how to get at it. 3 clips too, not two. I just wish I had worked it out earlier.

Defo a twin stage airbag fitted looking at that pic

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Defo a twin stage airbag fitted looking at that pic

Click to expand...

Yes I was relieved to see you that the new one also has two cables

Another day, another job. Well finishing off the job I started last week. Now I've got a decent socket set I was able to get the last two bolts undone including the steering wheel.

Took the old dash out, replaced the passenger airbag, put the new dash back in and fitted everything back. Everything went in much easier than it came out surprisingly.

Only thing I couldn't do was replace the knee airbag as when I took the old one out I broke the plug and the wires came out. I thought I'de repaired it, but I just couldn't get it to plug in and then it fell to bits so I'll have to source one of those from somewhere. Annoying!!

Haven't changed the ECU yet as I still have the seatbelts to do, which I'm going to attack tomorrow. Hopefully then, I can put the new ECU in, although I'll probably wait until I can sort out the knee bag.

Reconnected the battery and tried to start it, but it appears that the battery is flat so it's charging now. I've got a feeling that the battery needs replacing though. Considering the car is only just 2 years old with 23,000 miles, Fiat must use rubbish batteries.

I also have to take the drivers seat out so I can get the seat sewn up and also have to change the door cards. I won't bother changing the drivers door card yet, as I still have to source a second hand door. Having trouble finding one for a decent price local enough to go and collect.

More pictures tomorrow.

In fairness, not entirely unreasonable that an impact could short a cell in the battery.

zanes said:

In fairness, not entirely unreasonable that an impact could short a cell in the battery.

Click to expand...

I suppose it might, although I read a lot on here about duff batteries and out of the 6 cars I have repaired 3 of them have needed new batteries

typecastboy said:

I suppose it might, although I read a lot on here about duff batteries and out of the 6 cars I have repaired 3 of them have needed new batteries

Click to expand...

Remember also that salvage vehicles have often been left standing for extended periods, which is not good for battery health.

jrkitching said:

Remember also that salvage vehicles have often been left standing for extended periods, which is not good for battery health.

Click to expand...

That's what I was hoping but it went flat when I had the laptop plugged into it when I first got it and had to charge it. Although it's been pretty much just sitting there for about 3 or 4 weeks, I'm now charging it again, so I think I'll just bite the bullet and get a new one. I have found a good source for batteries much cheaper than places like halfords

Looking at the dashboard pics, you wouldn't believe it was the same car, lol!

Looking good and beginning to come together, not had now to understand given the work involved to get it to this stage, why the insurance companies will right them off, especially when you consider each airbag is £600+ each and all other parts would be new from fiat prices

jrkitching said:

Remember also that salvage vehicles have often been left standing for extended periods, which is not good for battery health.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

Sitting with hazards on for 2 hours waiting for recovery, quick start to get on and off the flat bed, etc etc without a decent run or charge, a sure way to kill a battery quickly.

The first thing I done when I bought our salvage Panda and had it delivered was stick the battery on a slow pulse charge (even though it wasn't flat) to top it up, and kept it well maintained during the repair. Its still good 5 years later - although wasn't a SS battery, I've a feeling that they're a tad more tempermental.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

:yeahthat:



Sitting with hazards on for 2 hours waiting for recovery, quick start to get on and off the flat bed, etc etc without a decent run or charge, a sure way to kill a battery quickly.



The first thing I done when I bought our salvage Panda and had it delivered was stick the battery on a slow pulse charge (even though it wasn't flat) to top it up, and kept it well maintained during the repair. Its still good 5 years later - although wasn't a SS battery, I've a feeling that they're a tad more tempermental.

Click to expand...

Definitely going by my past experience. Nearly twice the price too for Start stop ones. I've ordered one now anyway, luckily found a voucher code for £10 off so got it for £76 with free delivery.

Managed to source a bumper and a door at long last. Bumper in grey and the door in white, but one side and bonnet and bumper will be resprayed anyway so it doesn't matter.

Come to the conclusion that the facelift models are a bit of a pain as it's harder and more expensive to source parts. Obviously most of the parts are the same, bt things like bumpers are rare to find and new ones aren't available at all apart from Fiat of course, and I dread to think how much they are.

Bumper cost me £150 +£15 P&P, which has some very slight damage to it. Bearing in mind that I've bought perfect front bumpers in the right colour for other non-facelift 500s for less than £50.

typecastboy said:

Come to the conclusion that the facelift models are a bit of a pain as it's harder and more expensive to source parts.

Click to expand...

Yours isn't a face lift, its just an 'S' which has different bumpers as part of the spec.

Sorry yes, that's what I meant! Got the windscreen man coming Monday. £150 fitted

Sorted out the stuck on brake lights yesterday, as mentioned on the other thread. Googled the problem as well as looking on here, and found that they can get stuck on during an accident when someone has stamped on the brake pedal. Took it out, pulled the plunger out with a pair of pliers until it clicked, reinstalled and it works properly now.

Not much to report for today. Had the new windscreen fitted this morning by Budget Windscreens for £150. Well pleased. Even have a rear view mirror now, so somewhere to hang an air freshener.

Seatbelts and pre-tensioners tomorrow.

Did the seatbelts yesterday, well at least one of them.

Just for the record you do not have to take the front seats out to do the seat belts or pre-tensioners, but you do have to take the back seats out completely so you can get the side panel off. A few screws and pop studs and it's off.

Changing the seatbelts was easy, and the pretensioners too. I see now, after taking off the pretensioners how they work. When the charge goes off, it pulls the seat belt from the bottom by the reel towards the back of the car which tightens it against your body so your body moves forward less, very clever.

Starting losing the light so didn't manage to get the drivers side done completely, will have to leave that to the weekend.

So, now all I have to do is finish that and put it all back together, sort out the plug on the knee airbag and reinstall that and connect up the plug to the curtain airbag which I forgot to do when I put it in.

Sewing up the seat where the drivers airbag is can wait for now. I now have a bumper and a door, so it won't be long now until I get it to the bodyshop to have all the damage done. Just waiting for the log book to arrive.

Finished off the seatbelts and pre-tensioners today in the rain. Everything is now back together, rear seats back in and all the trim put back together.

Only airbag related thing to do is to get a new plug for the knee airbag, then I can try and reset the ECU.

There was some discussion as to where the pretensioners are, so I have taken a couple of photos today. First one shows the old pretensioner with the loop of cable pulled tight against the body of the pretensioner and the second shows the new one installed.

Car is going into the body shop tomorrow to have all the damage done and resprayed. I've done all the airbags now and have connected MultiECU scan to the car to try and reset the Airbag ECU.

Initially, it said it couldn't connect to the ECU, but then When I press DTS Scan, it shows all the error codes but there's nowhere to be able to reset them. I am using the yellow cable connected as normal to the OBD port. I've looked through every part of the software and there doesn't seem to be anywhere to reset the codes.

I'm also getting a Convergence node error whatever that is??

I do have a replacement Airbag ECU, but people on here were telling me that MECU would reset it. Has anyone actually done this successfully before?