The 1.2 came up with two faults in one day this week.

First the clock reset itself and looking at other threads gather this might be down to a failing battery. Will charge it up at weekend, it only does a few miles a day with lights and blower on, probably needs a good long drive.

Then the passenger door refused to open using the outside handle. As I can open from inside and swing the door about and hear what I assume is a control rod to the outside handle rattling I reckon it has come adrift. Does anyone know how these are fixed ??? on other cars I've owned it's just been held by a spring clip. Hopefully the same here and I will find the bits in the bottom of the door.
Nearly three years old but as it's almost always driven just one up the passenger door won't have been opened more than a couple of hundred times.

Otherwise all is well for the approaching first MOT.

SurreyAlan said:

Does anyone know how these are fixed ??? on other cars I've owned it's just been held by a spring clip. Hopefully the same here and I will find the bits in the bottom of the door.

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I know the tailgate lock has a metal rod with a little plastic clip to keep it in place (I had to reattach mine). I'd assume the doors would be fairly similar.

Ta, I've looked at my elearn CD and it looks like the usual prising of bits and a few screws so hopefully it won't be too traumatic getting in to take a look. Just hope the plastic bit has fallen off rather than broken

Had same prob on a Punto 75 SX and on my 1.4 Idea, both identical faults and easily fixed as the cable had simply dropped out of the location slot. On the Idea, the cable housing was a tight fit (good) and I don't think it had been fitted fully home on installation.
Not sure about the Panda, but all I had to do was remove the fixing screw in the door release and pop it out. This exposed the cable, so a bit of a relief as I was dreading having to remove the door card. Hope yours is same.

SurreyAlan said:

The 1.2 came up with two faults in one day this week.

First the clock reset itself and looking at other threads gather this might be down to a failing battery. Will charge it up at weekend, it only does a few miles a day with lights and blower on, probably needs a good long drive......

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Had that on our Dynamic, some weeks/months later the engine cut out completely when running over some serious speed bumps and finally, on a cold morning, failed to start at all. No problems in between. Battery off, re-charge, re-fit and not a hint of trouble since. I suspect it was originally a not too tight connection, but hope it works for you too - waay cheaper than a new battery if it's not needed yet.

Checked the terminal connections are secure on the battery and not just sitting in place?

Put the battery on charge which didn't take long before it registered full yet the accessory that goes in the ciggy lighter registers a red light indicating it has a low charge so perhaps the battery is suspect - see how that goes. No code needed for the radio so it must remember it for a while.
As for the door lock, even more plastic bits than shown on elearn to get in the way which I guess are there to prevent the bent coat hanger brigade breaking in.
It was the rod that connects to the exterior handle, managed to re-locate it but I expect it will fall out again, needs something to secure it like a tight plastic cap.
As the protective film was torn wonder if it had been off during the PDI or maybe just not well fitted at the factory.

Does the in car thing check for battery condition or charging condition??

it just has 4 lights, red, yellow and a I think a couple of greens.
The red indicates not very good, I think the red and yellow indicate 12 v, and once I realised that my occasional other half has the headlamps and blower on and turned them off, then that is what it shows at rest with ignition on (on the 100hp I think I get 3 lights on at rest). With the engine running all 4 come on. I think it just indicates the voltage. It starts fine so perhaps it was a one off.
Looked at the tyres while I was fiddling, suspect another case of misalignment as approaching 10000 miles I would say the fronts are down to a bit under 4mm which seems rather a lot when my 100hp fronts are only down to 6mm after the same mileage. Wonder how she drives when I'm not in the car?

SurreyAlan said:

........suspect another case of misalignment as approaching 10000 miles I would say the fronts are down to a bit under 4mm which seems rather a lot when my 100hp fronts are only down to 6mm after the same mileage. Wonder how she drives when I'm not in the car?

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Our Dynamic eats front tyres, especially the N/S ones, think we're on the third set since new and just over 27000 miles. Tracking reset last week, second time this year ( and it STILL pulls slightly to the left).
If your wife drives like mine then it's a miracle how they get home some days at all. Over the years and in various cars she's made it back with one totalled wheel through driving on a flat, set fire to the back end after tying the rear box on with a "spare" t-shirt, almost wrecked an engine running it with no oil - "...wondered what that light was for" - and another with no water, driven with virtually no clutch, no reverse gear - "Oh that hasn't worked for weeks" - and on one memorable occasion, tossed me the keys as she came through the door saying, "You need to look at that car, it doesn't feel right". You could see the front discs, still glowing red hot, from about 20 yards away.....On reflection, it's probably best not to wonder, just throw up the odd prayer now and again