A rare treat for me last night, I got to drive the Panda. Fired up and went to pull away - after previously having parked up and switching off with the lights on - and lost all dash lights. I may also have lost headlights too, dunno, it was all a bit quick and we were in a lot of traffic. Switched off and restarted and all was well excepting the clock and trip counter had reset to zero. Which was a bugger as I'm trying to check consumption.
Any ideas if this is an early warning of things to come or just one of those (Panda) glitches?

Could be the headlight stalk problem I've just had although the clock resetting sounds like it's a main feed/fuse box problem???

To see if it's the stalk, try playing about with it, indicating left/right quickly whilst the headlights are on.

Clock and trip will normally reset when battery is disconnected or when starting the car with a very flat battery.

Had it happen in sisters Active a few times before the new battery

Hmmm....well, I was indicating before/as I pulled out so it could well be the stalk. Any excuse for a fiddle, I'll give it a good wiggling (ooer misses) tomorrow night. I'd not reckon on a flat battery, damn thing is used every day of the week, as in every single day of the week, so it's well run up battery wise. Having said that, I'll go j,j,j,jiggle t'connections in t'morning. Thanks for the clues.

hmm - had this happened to me today - twice. It was -5C here this AM and when i started her up, the dash lights were a bit hesitant to come on; when they did, the clock had reset to 0:00 and was flashing. After I'd run here a bit and cleared the frost off the car, all was well. Could this be early warning of a flat battery then? I don't think the car had any trouble cranking over, mind.

And you managed to restart a two year old thread as well, nothing wrong with that battery!
You probably just need to charge the poor thing up, perhaps it's not getting enough juice during the day with all the electrics being used at this time of year.

Will be the battery, the first cold temps are what will normally kill it off.

thanks guys.

(btw - the reason i opened an old thread was last time i asked without searching first, I was kindly remind of the power of that search function. However, as not conclusive, i thought i'd ask again...)

the car is driven daily to station and back, plus other longer journeys at the weekend to keep things good. However, it's probably not getting enough to charge the battery fully...

Anyhow, at least it sounds like a cheap and easy fix

You done the correct thing regarding opening an existing thread, I think what Pandablues was saying just didn't come across correctly

It didn't then, because it was a tongue in cheek pun around the state of his battery - although....there does seem to be a lot of folk resurrecting old threads instead of starting new ones for themselves lately.

which i did get Pandablues and did appreciate!

anyhow as a relative newbie on this site, i am keen to fit in and play by the house rules

Last night, on start-up I noticed my clock flashing, having reset itself to zero.
My Panda is just into the third year warranty and it is reasonably well used, so I wouldn't have suspected the battery at this stage. I will go out shortly and have a wiggle with the stalk, lights, indicators etc., to see if there are any clues there. I appreciate the previous comments pointing me in the direction of possible probs. Thanks to all. Co-incidentally, my 7 year old Idea is just coming up for a new battery, hence my not suspecting the Panda one. Could be wrong though!

Update - tried the wiggling bit etc but unable to recreate the clock reset, so will keep a close watch on things. May get dealer to test battery - hopefully it will still be covered by warranty!

Clock reset will normally only be reset via battery / voltage issues, not by the stalks.

Not impossible to be the battery, not sure if it'd be covered by the 3rd year warrantee or not.

Most Easterly is the wise head, most likely battery and more than possible a loose connection and/or bad earth. Last cutting out on mine was when running across wee, tiny raised "slow down" thingies - sort of like speed humps for hamsters. I recharged the lump, but reckon the source fault was that one, or both, battery fixings were simply not tight enough from new.

Also worth checking if the trips have reset with the clock also, as they'll reset with a loss of power also.

Checked battery terminals and earth connection - all ok. Checked trips and found they have reset, so looks like battery problem. Am taking it to dealer tomorrow for battery test (they're all like that mate)!! If battery fails the test I am going to try to get a replacement under warranty as I think failure after just over two years is not acceptable. Will let you know how I get on.

Fingers crossed

Battery found to be in good condition throughout the range of tests at local Fiat dealer so will have to keep an eye on things. Apparently batteries on new Fiat cars are not covered by third year warranty, which means they are only guaranteed for two years, which I think is pretty poor.
Also, the batteries they sell (as fitted by Fiat) only carry a two year warranty, so I will be buying one from an independent supplier, as I need one for my Idea.

Get a boshe silver, 5 year guarantee