My '07 Panda 1.3 MJ with 64k on the clock lost power simply turned itself off at 60 mph yesterday - very inconvenient on the A1. It had been running for 90 mins and running well at 60-65 mph and showing 60mpg, heard/felt something something vaguely go 'thunk' and yellow injector malfuntion light came on immediately, oddly, the clock zero'd itself like the battery had been disconnected, so am suspecting (hoping) something electrical, rather than major £££ component at this stage

Engine turns over at normal cranking speed, 'nearly' firing, nothing oily dripping out the bottom. Bizarrely the car was with the local Fiat stealer the very day before, apparently having dpf de-clogged and eml code reset, (I say apparently as I'm not even sure my Panda has dpf) and other error codes rest, so at best, this is throwing me a curved ball in terms of getting a diagnoses together.

car had to be trailed to local dealer as it was after hours - I know on Monday Fiat will probably spin engine and check codes and assuming they'll check injectors/injector relay (?) cam sensor, etc unless there is a obvious evidence of perhaps slipped chain/bent oily bits. Its at this stage, I'm running out of inspiration, as to where the fault might be (new engine paranoia is setting in)

Any thoughts on a diagnoses welcome, and if anyone can throw light on whether my 07 panda mj has a dpf would be good to hear

I'd guess timing chain.

Wee Smurf said:

I'd guess timing chain.

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Probably not since it's cranking rather normally without firing.
Battery connections ok?
Crankshaft sensor is always a suspect and will probably not register a code.

gr J

I am fairly certain your Panda doesnt have a DPF. I had a similar breakdown on the A1 with a Punto Multijet. Turned out to be an injector.
Hope this helps, Pete

thanks for the replies - was indeed a snapped camchain :bang:

I now have available for salvage a rather sick Panda! will see if I can find the right section and list this

I am just in the process of repairing mine after the same has happened it cost about £200 for parts plus a couple of weekends of my time in the garage. Very fiddly though, I could do with a trained squirrel to make accessing some of the bolts a bit easier.
Hope you get it sorted one way or the other. Regards Brian.

may still be economical to put a £500 engine in it,
unless you just fancy a change?,
charlie

Mine's due to have the chain changed in a fortnight at 82,000 miles.

Also, did the failure cause any internal damage? Valves, guides and pistons for example.

The Beard said:

Also, did the failure cause any internal damage? Valves, guides and pistons for example.

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I'd put money on it having done so as it is an interference engine.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

I'd put money on it having done so as it is an interference engine.

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Mmm, Think I might be keeping it well below 2000 revs for the next couple of weeks.

I had my chain replaced at 71k in January. Glad I did when I saw the state of it. I've now got 82K on mine too. Need to organise a service.

Btw sometimes I don't like being correct especially when it's something that's expensive / possibly terminal.

Thanks for the thoughts Brian, am inclined to keep chickens in the damn thing, but that would make me cross everytime I went to collect my eggs

What level of damage did you find btw?

Not had time to do much to it, other than get a trusted mechanic friend to run a compression test; predictably this showed little/no compression across all four, but without getting the head off it's hard to say.

I would be very surprised if there was nothing more wrong with it than a snapped camchain, and broken rockers.

compression test.. with nothing driving the camshaft.. how that supposed to work then..??

please do enlighten me,

do you mean a leak-down test?
Charlie

The Beard said:

Mine's due to have the chain changed in a fortnight at 82,000 miles.

Also, did the failure cause any internal damage? Valves, guides and pistons for example.

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I'm assuming that where the £200 comes in ,

Charlie

ah that'll be it

On mine it snapped the rockers on 4 valves which were the ones on cam at the time thus leaving all valves closed so a compression test is possible as the engine turns over freely with all the valves not opening due to the chain being snapped.
Since the valves are inline with the piston stroke and not at an angle the force of impact is concentrated on the rocker which is a weak spot by design to minimise the damage.
I have just finished mine and the total cost for parts including oil and filter, coolant 4 rockers gaskets alternator belt and complete cam chain kit came to £212 plus £29 for the tool to lock the cams and crank in the correct place and after spinning over for about 10 seconds to bleed the fuel lines she fired up and runs beautifully so a snapped chain does not necessarily mean the engine is a write off however if it has no or low compression then it's probably knackered.

Remember when timing chains lasted the life of the engine? They are so flimsy now they might as well stick to belts.

madrat said:

Remember when timing chains lasted the life of the engine?

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Yep, seems Fiat got this engine wrong.