have you tried a fuel system cleaner, worked for me. see my post "dealer £1900 DIY £5.99"

It is just inconceivable that the car has needed 4 ecu's
the problem must be elsewhere. Probably the wiring to the ecu or the connector.
I DO NOT believe that replacing the ecu AGAIN is going to solve the issue.
I also do not believe the other garage that have diagnosed a faulty ecu connection with a multimeter and then blamed the issue on the ecu - !!!! unbelievable.
It is highly likely the 'fault' is in the loom / connector and has been there since the car was new. Replacing ecus simply moved the connector and sorted it out for a while.
The fault code along with a wiring diagram and ecu pinout should allow ANY competent electrical engineer to properly test the loom / connector.
I think if you replace the ecu without this being tested fully first you are wasting your money. Sorry but.
It just does not compute.

Well glad it's not just me!

I picked up a 57 reg Panda Active 1.1 a couple of months ago with 25,000
miles on the clock. Two months into having it the engine warning light came on and the car would dip into limp mode. It was as described by others.. sporadic and some days it'd run absolutely fine and others the light would come on again and the car would lose acceleration.

I took it to the first mechanic who ran the diagnostics and got 2 error codes, fuel injector number 2 and a misfire on the number 2 cylinder. In the time it took him to order the right injector (he'd initially ordered a universal one that didn't fit) I had split up with my girlfriend and moved back to manchester.. so I took the car to a second
mechanic who it's now with.. He ran the same diagnostics and got the same results but told me he didn't believe it was the injector at all... as that would either work or not.. So he's currently got the ECU away being looked at.

ECU trouble codes are a mixed blessing. A skilled technician will use the information from the fault codes to build up an understanding of what is going on and will usually be able to determine the underlying cause. A garage with fancy diagnostic equipment but limited understanding will just replace components related to the faults flagged by the ECU. That is a very expensive way to troubleshoot, and guess who pays the price for this!

My advice to anyone with intermittent problems that are ostensibly related to the ECU would be find a good specialist auto electrician. Garages tend not to employ auto electricians - they call them in when they've run out of things to swap.

You can do some diagnostic work on your own with a multimeter but really you need to know what you're doing as it's all too easy to get misleading results.

Check out the thread on "intermittent misfire" for Fiat Pandas - there's quite a lot of it going on and the problem is caused by poor ecu and coil pack connections. The female pins in the connectors tend to spread and cause poor connections. The diagnostic comes up with a possible solution of replacing coil packs - then when that doesn't work it's easy to believe that the ecu is at fault (at least that's what my RAC man said) - sadly there are so many instances of this - and the only solution that works is to give the connectors a really close examination, spray with good old WD40 and the problem goes away ......

fredpanda said:

Check out the thread on "intermittent misfire" for Fiat Pandas - there's quite a lot of it going on and the problem is caused by poor ecu and coil pack connections. .

Click to expand...

yes - that does seem to be a common theme,

and it's also the 1.1 engines..!! which is strange as the 1.2 is the more common variant

our older 1.1 - 2004 car with 80k miles has been fine,
it seem to be later built ones that suffer :bang:

Charlie

varesecrazy said:

yes - that does seem to be a common theme,

and it's also the 1.1 engines..!! which is strange as the 1.2 is the more common variant

our older 1.1 - 2004 car with 80k miles has been fine,
it seem to be later built ones that suffer :bang:

Click to expand...

Funnily enough, James May, in this month's Top Gear magazine, says that he's only ever had one problem with his 2006 Panda (a 1.2 Eleganza) -- which he's sadly replacing with a BMW i3... -- and that's a sticking throttle cable, cured with WD40...!

Presuming this is true, I'm hoping our 2009 version is as issue-free... -- although I wonder if this counts as a "later built one"...?

I hope it's better than my 09 Panda which has been hands down the worst car I've ever owned, and I've had 3 Fiats and 4 Rovers. I've only had it 8 months and it's nearly been scrapped at least 3 times, I'm so sick of it.

Distressing to hear that the temp gauge fluctuating is a sign of the ECU, as I've noticed mine go to half way then sit just below the half way mark sometimes lately. The other day it wouldn't reach half despite driving on a dual carriageway for about 20 minutes prior. It's a right pain to start too, and misfires when it fancies. Of course I've had the usual rinsing of the wallet from garages who give you it back with the thumbs up but haven't waited until it's cold to test it and I find it's exactly the same. I can't wait to get my Metro back on the road and the Panda will be going bye-bye. If the ECU packs up then it's getting weighed in. A shame, as it's a very agreeable car otherwise.

smacks of poor a connection to me rather than an actual faulty component,

have you had live data via MES..??

charlie

HHR said:

I hope it's better than my 09 Panda which has been hands down the worst car I've ever owned, and I've had 3 Fiats and 4 Rovers. I've only had it 8 months and it's nearly been scrapped at least 3 times, I'm so sick of it.

Distressing to hear that the temp gauge fluctuating is a sign of the ECU, as I've noticed mine go to half way then sit just below the half way mark sometimes lately. The other day it wouldn't reach half despite driving on a dual carriageway for about 20 minutes prior. It's a right pain to start too, and misfires when it fancies. Of course I've had the usual rinsing of the wallet from garages who give you it back with the thumbs up but haven't waited until it's cold to test it and I find it's exactly the same. I can't wait to get my Metro back on the road and the Panda will be going bye-bye. If the ECU packs up then it's getting weighed in. A shame, as it's a very agreeable car otherwise.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a stuck (open) thermostat to me.

gr J

Apologies for that small rant yesterday, it was misbehaving! Thanks for the suggestions too.

Not sure if it has had mes connected, I just took it to the garage and told em what was wrong. Crank sensor was replaced if I remember rightly. I'm going to attack the ECU and coil pack connectors with some electrical cleaner later. Thermostat is definite possibility too.

The car behaved absolutely impeccably last night, didn't even do the annoying shunting it normally does when you take your foot off the accelerator. Felt like a new car! Wish I could get it sorted out.

Hi everyone been a while since i first posted my problem, but i still have my panda and still have my misfire.
ECU repaired at £330 still no change, everything eles i can think of changed except connections and wires and thermostate sensor so going to focus on them now and i will sort the problem either that or set my car on fire at some point.
Been to auto electrician who told me to get a loom/connectors out of another panda and he would fit that?! But wouldnt replace with new one (not fiat) make as would cause water to get in???
Yeah ok . . Going to find another auto electricain who will help and not talk utter crap.
Got to be a problem in the wiring/ connectors there some where.
Which i said at the start of this problen 2 or 3 year ago and got fobbed off because im a woman.
Determined to get to the problem of it !!!:bang:

P.s Thanks everyone for info and imput and trying to help x x

where are you based?,

as somebody near you may have MES to try..


Charlie

ive had a panda in this week with the issues of this thread
no loom needed
no new ecu needed
just basic tools and common sense and its now perfect
took me a morning to fathom out
you do need fiatecuscan though

s and b said:

ive had a panda in this week with the issues of this thread
no loom needed
no new ecu needed
just basic tools and common sense and its now perfect
took me a morning to fathom out
you do need fiatecuscan though

Click to expand...

I appear to have missed the answer in there somewhere.

portland_bill said:

I appear to have missed the answer in there somewhere.

Click to expand...

I think s and b is trying to hold onto his trade secrets....

homeward said:

I think s and b is trying to hold onto his trade secrets....

Click to expand...

I thought the spirit of the Forum was to share and help each other, not to tease. As his flag suggests he's in Mexico, I doubt many Forum members are about to go visit!

Im based Worksop, nottinghamshire.

portland_bill said:

As his flag suggests he's in Mexico, I doubt many Forum members are about to go visit!

Click to expand...

He's typing whilst sat in an OLD ford Escort

you've gotta be OLD..

Charlie