Louie Bee said:

Ah yes I meant Banging on about.. Sorry perhaps a bit rude of me !

I may be wrong (and sorry if I am) but every time someone asks about buying a multijet Panda, it seems you always post up to try and put them off.

OK you didn’t get on with the power delivery, but you make the MJ panda out to be unlike others in its class without always explaining turbocharger lag trade-off of and you don’t like non naturally aspirated across the board.

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Ah, don't worry. I understand that there are many people who like their MJ, fair enough. I guess, though it's not for everyone and I would say that a more complicated engine and the higher purchase value is perhaps not as good a purchase as the 1.2 unless you are doing high mileage and arguably if you are a bigger car would be more comfortable anyway.

I would say though having driven other turbo diesels, from vans to Golf GTI's that I wonder if the 1.3 MJ engine is just a bit too small capacity for a diesel. I think bigger diesels (ie 1.9/2.0) make more sense. I do admit that I am not a diesel fan, but the MJ put me off diesels a lot.

trackdayqueen said:

Ah, don't worry. I understand that there are many people who like their MJ, fair enough. I guess, though it's not for everyone and I would say that a more complicated engine and the higher purchase value is perhaps not as good a purchase as the 1.2 unless you are doing high mileage and arguably if you are a bigger car would be more comfortable anyway.

I would say though having driven other turbo diesels, from vans to Golf GTI's that I wonder if the 1.3 MJ engine is just a bit too small capacity for a diesel. I think bigger diesels (ie 1.9/2.0) make more sense. I do admit that I am not a diesel fan, but the MJ put me off diesels a lot.

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I understand you, at least up to a certain point.
The MJ engine really suffers from turbo lag due to its small capacity. I also don't like diesel engines (this car was my first one), and this engine reminds me why sometimes.
Morning very cold starts are like going to the farm and go for a ride on the tractor: there is a lot of clatter and vibration. Only a Diesel can be this bad, due to the high compression.
Then there's the power delivery while driving on the city: amazing while on boost, dangerous while not.
Finally, it's a complex engine, with a lot of complex (read, expensive) parts.

Even so, my complaints end there.
No petrol Panda (probably excluding the 100hp), neither most petrol-powered Panda-rivals, make overtaking so easy.
It can be one of the most frugal cars ever made, if driven accordingly. If not, it will still be economical.
While at speed and warm, it becomes very refined and quiet.
I also cannot understand why many miles shouldn't be done with a Panda MJ. I already had two vacation drives (each one around 4000 km - 2500 miles) and loved every bit of them!
To the end, the best: as klytus said, exploring this engine's qualities can be such fun that many entertaining moments are guaranteed!

So, up to a certain point, it's like driving a revvy, normaly-aspirated petrol-powered car. You have to focus on the rev counter to get the most out of it, and enjoy doing that!

Me thinks you may have wasted some money on the turbo boost sensor .. the garages fault reader says the engine management warning light was turned on by the turbo over boost sensor it does not neccessarily mean the sensor is faulty it probably is telling the truth i.e. the waste gate rod has seized causing the over boost ..

I'm with notsmartcars, the loss of power at 3000 rpm is just the turbo linkage that needs freeing and cleaning. After 5 years of ownership from new and used the car for courier work I would buy another if they were not so expensive to buy now. I have even had had whole dismantled motorcycles in the back!! A good work horse that I feel hard justified to move on.

The MJ went back to Heath Road Garage last week and a phone call told me that the non-factory turbo pressure sensor he'd fitted had failed and he would fit a new original equipment sensor.

This seems to have worked and the car is functioning well. I also had the handbrake replaced as the ratchet had failed which is only the second non-wear item to go west in nearly 70K miles so I'm well pleased with that.

I was obviously refunded the cost of fitting the original sensor. To supply and fit the new sensor and the handbrake lever was £190 including parts, labour and VAT.

In fairness he did tell me on the first visit that he would fit a non-standard part which, being a cheapskate, was ok by me.

Glad your up and running and thats all that matters whats that at the back the old sensor put back and then the linkage freed off ... surely not

My is the same, I suspect it is the Turbo injection, it started making a loud squealing noise under load, any comments?

When my water pump failed at 90000 miles there was no coolant loss but the car developed a very strange noise for 100 miles before I took a closer look .. worth a quick check before looking at turbo

The Beard said:

A few weeks ago I dropped it to 3rd on the motorway at about 40mph and accelerated hard to get past another car. At about 3,000 rpm it suddenly lost power (almost as if my foot had slipped off the accelerator) and a warning light came on. After that it felt ok up to about 2,000 revs but had no power after that. When I got home I turned the engine off then turned the ignition on and off quickly 7 or 8 times which made the warning light go off. The next time I drove it there was no problem until I floored it at 3,000 and the same thing happened.

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My 55 Sporting does exactly this, the EML is now on permanantly (it used to clear after a few "reboots") but the problem stated above do't always occur. Somedays it will rev up to 3500-4000 no problem, other days you hit 3000 and then there is no more power available.

I've got a code reader just havn't had time to look at it lately but would like to get it fixed as cheaply as possible!

The turbo linkage is not that easy to see, let alone get at. I had mine done when the clutch was replaced. The boost sensor, from Fiat is cheap, I tried replacing mine and it made little difference. It seems that a lot blame the boost sensor, they should be looking back and checking out what causes the switch to operate and ensuring that a trip condition is present in one of the inputs at the time it operates. Its a logic circuit, so it could be just one input to the sensor - manifold pressure, or a sum of inputs. The boost sensor switch can also be tested I believe.