In March I had a problem with Higgle ( Eleganza, Dualogic, 54plate) when she ground to a halt and the AA said it was fault P1220 and reset her computer. After that she was fine until last Saturday when it happened again, and on Monday when it happened yet again. After she had ben reset I took her to Wessex FIAT at Gloucester who had her all morning and said they acknowledged there was a fault but they could not find it and would I please take her away and let them know when she broke down again. I found them really unhelpful and after a whole morning doing nothing in Gloucester (subtle torture in itself) insisted they do something - which comprised of using her as a run around until they can discover the fault. I can't believe that they wanted to send me off to trek around the narrow Cotswold lanes and thunder up and down the M5 in a defective car - and they went on about how I didn't buy it from them and how it was "only" year 3 warranty which didn't amount to much. I feel really sad about this because apart from this one fault she has been a great car - can anyone cast any light on what they should be looking for? Not over-full of confidence that they have the ability or willingness to solve this at present .

Hi there.

Firstly let me say, never never never let the AA/RAC reset the ecu's diagnostic trouble codes, as this makes it nearly impossible to trace the fault, especially when its a intermitent fault, as frustrating as it is the best way to cure this fault is to firstly be able to reproduce the trouble code(s) and the fault, once a trouble code has been stored there are checking procedures that can take place, but if the fault is not present at the time of checking then the mechanics can be led down the garden path (so to speak). this is where road testing comes in with the diagnostic equipment attached to the vehicle (dependant on there model of the examiner), but in a nut shell intermitent faults are a real pain in the back side! ( i know this as i worked for fiat/alfaromeo )

My suggestion would be to get the dealer to have the car for a couple of days ( making sure they send a courtesy car in-place of your's ) and if you feel the fault is becoming more regular, are you able to pin point it to specific roads, time's, weather conditions etc etc and let the dealer know, and only liase with the fiat DET (dealer expert technician).. reception generally have never worked on cars in there life, and thus fob you off.

Hope this rant help's

P1220 is manufacture specific so AA wouldn't know what it was anywaay & wouldn't really care.
Take it to another garage but respect the fact others have booked often weeks in advance so it might take a day or two before they can get someone to have a good look at your car.

My wife had a problem with a car a few years back, and along the same lines as yourself, the car losing power and cutting out. The dealership had the car for some 11 weeks, the reason for this being, each time they phoned us up to collect the car I'd say "is it fixed", reply "yes sir", Me "what was wrong with it?" reply "dont know sir". Me "then keep it until you do find out".
I was lucky one of my drinking pals works for that dealership, and was able to tell me what was going on. They had the car on the ramps, it was misfiring 2 laptops were hooked into it, and yet it showed no fault.
I eventually went down the legal avenue, and once it was pointed out to them that they could be held liable if there were to be an accident due to this fault re-occuring after them saying it was fixed, yet could not say what was wrong. The following day I was contacted be the manufacturer's C.S. and by the garage to say that the car was to be changed right away. Just shows what one legal letter can do.

Tara Ian

Should of been relatively easy to find the cause of the misfire.

T14086, they changed ECU twice, fitted new fuel pump, changed fuel tank along with injectors and plugs, and yet the car would randomly misfire, but no fault would show either on there laptops or the ECU fault page.
Mind you, in saying that, talking with my boozin buddy the other night, he was saying that they have seen quite a few of these faults now, and think they may have tracked it down to an immobiliser fault. They seem to think that for some reason the immobiliser is receiving a signal while the engine is running. Anyway i'm pretty sure thats what he said Monday night is still a bit vague yet. LOL

Tara Ian

Thank you all for this really useful information, I shall be calling the garage to see how things are going later on today and I can at least give the impression of having a bit of technical (and legal) know how. I've got a Dihatsu Sirion loan car and it is not at all nice compared to the Panda,so I can't wait to get her back ... I will post when it is all sorted so that anyone else with a simioar affliction will have more clues than I have. If you see a miserable person looking very sick in a silver car in Gloucestershire that is me..the Sirion interior gives off noxious fumes as well as beign very ugly!

i bet its a 1.2 petrol model?

disconnect the battery, pull the connector off the throttle position sensor, squirt some wd40 on it, reconnect it, reconnect the battery, start the engine, and as if by magic the fault is gone

failing that, get a scrapyard throttle body and fit it.

failing that, tell your dealer to try a throttle position sensor re-learn procedure.

Fiat Panda Eleganza with an engine that cuts out quite suddenly(often in a dangerous situation)sounds very familiar to me.My dealer could never solve the problem, and Fiat UK were useless.Not wishing to be the cause of a motorway pile up I was forced to trade the car in.This 54 plate car was so unreliable it had to go to restore my sanity.My advice would be to get rid of it now,particularly if the Warranty is about to expire. I very much doubt that your dealer will solve this problem permanently.

Sorry but thats pretty poor advice! All cars breakdown/cut out at some time(my ford focus has been doing this for 5 years!).If your car was prone to cutting out regulary then using the recorder function on examiner is more than capable of locating the fault.

Sounds like you have a problem with the garage not the product.

(little-blue has you car had the software update yet? does it have air-con?)

T14086 - I have a Dynamic with aircon. What is software update you refer to? Do we all need it?

Thanks,
Creamola.

Thanks for all this extra advice - should be getting Higgle back this week but a bit worried about fault coming back so I'll run all these suggestions through with the service manager at the garage. I also ned to kno;w about the software update - Higgle has air con and is petrol. All information gratefully received.

Its for poor idle.....i'll try & remember to get more details but I think its for air-con cars.

T14086, can I just enquire, since you are a fiat tech, dont you think you are a bit disloyal driving a ford ?

I buy runabouts/hacks for work (wife gets the punto ) as I dont really take any pride in my own car (mcdonald wrappers,tools,coffee cups all over the place.....never wash them either ) so its a case of whatevers cheap & available at the time....most times though I just use company cars

Software update is for 1.2 8v & 1.4 16v by the way (cutting out),1.1engines is probably (as Jug mentioned) the TPS.

Sorry T14086 No problem with the Dealer,they were the best.Everything you suggest was done,and more. All cars do not cut out or breakdown on a regular basis. If your Focus has been doing this for 5 years as you suggest then it does not say much for the Ford Focus or for the credibility of your advice. My Panda Eleganza's engine cut out without warning, almost from new, on a regular basis in the most difficult traffic conditions, where an accident could have been the outcome.Neither the Dealer or Fiat could ever be sure why, there were no codes to check as the read outs showed no faults. At the end of the day the dealer,who drove the car for a month,and experienced the problem first hand, could only change everything he could change,all the sensors,air mass meter,spark plugs,lambda sensor and other things too numerous to mention. In spite of all this within 5 miles of finally leaving the dealer with an assurance that all that could be done had been done the engine died again,for the umpteenth time.
I do hope the little-blue-chichi gets Higgle back,and that there will be no further problems with it. I feel that like me little-blue will have the awful feeling that the car can never be trusted again, and I repeat my advice to jump ship before the warranty expires.! I hope I am wrong,time will tell.
Can't imagine why my messages are accompanied by the Uruguyan flag as I have always lived in the UK!

retriever said:

Can't imagine why my messages are accompanied by the Uruguyan flag as I have always lived in the UK!

Click to expand...

LOL

Cars have potential to cut out for one of many reasons.As for the focus I know why it does it but cant be bothered to sort it (I can get around it) but my point is fault was there when I got it(infact when built),dealer should of sorted it as its a well known fault.

Did you ever get softare update on your panda?

Higgle is home today - so pleased to see the back of the Dhihatsu Sirion. They have checked her over 3 times and driven 300 miles and there have been no more problems - but no fault located. I really hope this is the end of it (but suspect not) Thank you for all the useful info. I'll let you kno;w if she goes wrong again.