Hi all, hope ur well and happy

Thank goodness l found a site where l might be able to get some advice on my 88 black panda cl (affectionately known as rolo).
Ive had it for years with no problems ever and still got the original receipt from fiat for it! ive no problems with rust or mechanics either so i guess im lucky.
Recently though its been acting possessed -all the electricals of the car have gone mad. When l hit the brakes the headlights, dash lights and stereo cut out. When the radiator fan cuts in the same thing sometimes happens. The internal light in the cabin works when it wants to, but sometimes when l switch it on, the handbrake light on the instrument panel comes on instead and finally, the fuel guage and temp guages have a fit while lm driving and will swing back and fourth for a few seconds before resuming normally. All these incidents only happen sometimes and other times all is fine and they dont happen at all! Would anyone have a clue what is going on?
Do l need to call a priest? )

Thanks
Andy

Good job you called FIAT busters

Most likely cause of all the electrical grief is the earth connector block on the inner wing behind the passenger side headlight:
as a pre '93 model nearly all the earth leads (black wires) come back here. They are push fit connectors with a little tab in the back you need to move to release them off the block which is bolted to the wing.
If you remove each connector in turn and clean the "spade" it pushes onto with some abrasive (wet and dry or similar) and make sure the connector is nice and firmly on when you remake the joint.

There is the possibility of inner wing corrosion causing problems, in which case you need to find another point to connect to the bodywork, but as your Panda has no rust [:0] perhaps this isn't the problem..

Regards


John H

Agree with John, earthing is the first thing to check.

There may be a second multiple earth point just forward of the battery on the inside of the drivers side wing, it often gets missed. The eight point earth connectors are still available from Fiat, but tell your dealer to look for them under Uno as they got missed from the Panda section on the computer. New terminals on all of the black earth wires would not go amiss either.

Please let us know if this cures the problem.
Rgds.

Ta muchly guys!

Will check those inner wing contacts in daylight. This is the first problem l have ever encountered with the car - panda is surely the best model fiat have ever made in recent times. My parents have been willing it to die for years so that i'll have to get something newer and safer but it just keeps on going!

I thought i would borrow this tread if it ok??

In my Marbella/Panda mk1 I resently changed some of the Fuzzes(u know what i mean??)
And all the Electrics was A-ok! (The "Turning directionals" "More known as Blinkers!!" was out and so was the AirCondition Fan and some other stuff, But the "Warning" Button that lits everything upp worked ok and the Headlight was also ok, So its not all the Electrics that goes out, Then when u start the car again the next day the same Fuzzes are out!! Can this also be some sort of Earthing problem???

||0-60: Some time tomorrow?||

Hello again, Marbella.

If your Marbella is wired up like a MK1 Panda the fuse which powers the things which fail is fuse 1. As far as I can see they are:

flasher (indicator/blinkers) normal operation. (there's a different fuse for "Hazard" - all indicators flashing)

brake lights

heater blower

reversing light


Some of these are interesting - you could replace the fuse, and if you had a fault in the reversing light wiring, or bulb, it would be OK until you reversed.
Do you reverse out of your usual parking spot??

There could be a problem with the brake light wiring too - but that would go even quicker.

Try the listed things one at a time, and check the fuse after each test, it may help localise the fault.

Post here if you find a specific cause and I'll get back with the colour of wire to search out.


Regards


John H

Thanks so much John!!

Yes, i think its 3 fuses that goes out,
I dont reverse the car out but i revers mybe 100 meter away from the "parking"
Ill just have to go out an try your "fault localiser" !!

||0-60: Some time tomorrow?||

Three fuses is pretty dramatic [:0]

Thinking back to your first post in this thread - you say you changed some fuses.
Why were they changed?

Were the replacement(s) the correct current rating? I think they should all be 8 Amp, except for fuses 9 and 10, which are 16 Amp.

According to "Haynes", this is what they do:

Fuse 1 - reversing light, stop light,direction indicator, warning lamps, fuel gauge.
Fuse 2 - windscreen wiper, heated rear window switch, rear wiper.
Fuse 3 - LH headlamp main beam.
Fuse 4 - RH headlamp main beam.
Fuse 5 - LH headlamp dip beam, rear fog light.
Fuse 6 - RH headlamp dip beam.
Fuse 7 - front LH parking light, rear RH tail light,rear number plate light, instrument panel illumination.
Fuse 8 - front RH parking light,, rear LH tail light.
Fuse 9 - Horn and interior light.
Fuse 10 - Heated rear window and Hazard warning lights.


Thinks...

If you loose all those fuses on start up I suppose it's possible you have a poor earth connection to the engine (it's likely to be a fairly hefty braided strap, bolted to the bodywork one end, and the engine( or gearbox ) at the other)
- I'm not sure where it is on a MK1, but a careful look around, or under it, in bright daylight should reveal it.

When the strap isn't making a good connection the 100+ Amps the starter motor needs will be drawn down the path of least resistance (literally): on Minis years ago you could get the choke cable glowing red hot when trying to start it


Regards


John H

I changed them because they wore out,
Yes i fitted the exact same sort of fuse...
I dont lose it att start upp, im prety sure, but while im driving or when i trun it of...

Fuse 1 - reversing light, stop light,direction indicator, warning lamps, fuel gauge. ( I only belive that the direction indicator are out, the other works i think)
Fuse 2 - windscreen wiper, heated rear window switch, rear wiper. (im not to sure but i think that the windscreen wiper work)
Fuse 3 - LH headlamp main beam. ( i think it works)

I dont seem to be the exact same electrical Scheam,., hmm ill have to take a look






||0-60: Some time tomorrow?||

Perhaps the Marbella is different to the MK1 Panda

How many fuses do you have - 10 or 15 [?]

hehe!
it 12 of em, it start whit (4) 7.5 and then (2-3) 15 and some 20 att the end...
It seems to be a very different system than that the Mk1 panda has,,,,

||0-60: Some time tomorrow?||

It will be tricky to sort out then

I suppose if you have all fuses OK, then remove one of the ones that blows and check everything to see what stops working, and repeat for the others which fail you can find out that way what they power..

It's still odd that three different fuses blow though.

I wonder if you have frayed wiring somewhere rubbing against part of the (earthed) bodywork?

Check around the wiring loom(s) I suppose - probably in areas where it might need to flex or move a bit: engine area, or steering column/dashboard ... perhaps??

i had the same problem. wot u gota do is tourch iit and claim of the insurance

Kazzie
http://myfiat.fiatforum.com/Panda_fanatic _girlfriend/car.jpg

y'all seem smart... maybe you can help me.

i also have a lighting system that has "gone mad". i secured the passenger side black wire to the near by parking light housing.

i changed the flasher for the blinkers.

i checked all the fuses; they're good.

i put brand new light bulbs in EVERY socket in the external system.


the blinkers flash when the headlights are off, but both sides of the lights flash, even if i have the blinker like i'm turning left....

the drivers side rear blinker light stays on when the lights are on...

passenger side rear parking light is not working (i'm american, driver is on the left).

i found some blue oil filled thing underneath the dash; it had wires going into each end... it was loose (unscrewed), and oil was leaking.

i opened it up and there is a fuse looking thing with copper wire coiled around...the wire is broken. i think it's some sort of oil-filled fuse, but not sure.

any ideas? any ideas why my light system is acting so weird?

check the hedgehogs they tend to be the biggest issues with old panda electrics, and as for oil filled switch, i hope to god it's not a Mercury filled switch. if it is and you got that all over, mercury poisoning could be around the corner.

It's highly unlikely that the car "ThinkQuickly" has is a Panda, he's in America!

What sort of car do you have? Let us know and I'll send your post to the appropriate section with a brand new thread all of it's own. This thread dates from 2003!

Which is really wierd cause Jim just broke down with the same or very simmilar fault :spin: *hums song from twilight zone*

What ever happened to John H, he was a wealth of knowledge like Pete.

John H hasn't been on here since November 2005. He certainly knew his stuff and owned multiple Pandas. I don't know where he went, but I hope he is ok.

Edit - I have emailed the address associated with John's account, hopefully he'll reply.

I hope he gets back in touch. He was a big help with the odd bit of info I needed back in 2004/5.