Hi all
New to forum. I have had a problem with my 2009 panda dynamic, brought second hand from a fiat dealer we have used for years, have had same model previously and also now have a 2010 500 from new. 8 months into owning this panda intermittent stalling occurred with engine management light coming on, contacted dealer and booked in, as is normal in these situations dealer could not replicate problem returned car and told to come back when getting more regular, 3 months later problem very regular and very frustrating, engine stalling at any time and at any speed, back to dealer ( still within 12 month warranty) this time they replicated fault, ran diagnostics, nothing came up so they updated software and checked other bits, told hopefully problem solved, picked up car, on way home stalled, booked car back in but date was after warranty expired, garage phoned to say bad news you need new throttle body and complete wiring loom total £1950.00 but fiat willing to contribute £400 as good will gesture, no other contribution as warranty expired, I argued this to no avail, this was not a viable repair for me on the cost of car although the car had only done 25000 miles, so time to investigate calls to local garages advice and quotes this was still going to cost several hundred pounds with no guarantee of success, all this on the dealers diagnosis, so one helpful garage said look at fiat forum, here I found one post with exactly same problem but with no successful outcome, then while in Halfords for new number plate saw a variety of engine/fuel system cleaners so a little advice later left with a bottle of wins dry fuel, added to full tank, 500 miles later problem gone......... will I ever put my trust in a main dealer again? never, will seek out independent garages and research first, I could easily have paid hundreds needlessly.

This is why main dealers are usually referred to as stealers. It's unreal how two dealers can be world's apart

Hi,
I genuinely hope you have solved the problem, but I must confess I doubt it very much.
IF the problem was in the fuel system /. injector / mixture area then problems would have been logged in the engine ecu. From what you say, they were not, or, they would not tell you. Throttle body and wiring loom sounds like a total con job also - I would ask them on what fault EXACTLY do they base that diagnosis. Also the problem started when the car was almost new. Clogged fuel systems are again HIGHLY unlikely.
The system (If a fiat dealer) is called Inspector, the details fo your tests on your car will be logged on the system so they have no excuse for not giving you them.

Again, I SERIOUSLY hope you are lucky, but somehow I suspect the issue will happen again in short time. I do not, as said, believe that a loom and throttle body is the answer either... get them to give you ALL the fault codes. They MUST have them, how could they tell you what you needed without them unless they just made it up (Likely)
I think the reality is you have a set of total muppets masquerading as a Fiat main dealer. !!

I have not updated this yet as I am know I am now tempting fate but my car kept stalling and would appear to go into limp mode. My local indie could not find much wrong but changed the spark plugs as one of them was slightly black. He also suggested running it on premium petrol and reving the pants of it. Somebody on an internet forum also suggested the same.

The last week I have been driving like an Italian and it feels so much smoother now, I notice when driving properly (e.g smoothly) I am having to change gear less and it sounds healthier at idle.

I also released my city driving meant my car never really got above 2000 revs. Now it might be just one big coincidence.

As for your FIAT diagnostics I would threaten to take FIAT to to the small claims court and say you are rejecting the car because it is not fit for purpose. If it has full service history a car should last longer than 3 years before needing a major repair. The law states that an item has to be fit for purpose, a brand new car with a list price of at least £7000 should be expected to last more than three years.

I hope you have cured it too. I have a similar story too re main dealer diagnosis. I had a frustrating central locking problem were the rear doors locks were clicking away at the same time something behind the dashboard clicked. I spent a lot of money in labour charges having them investigate. They eliminated the door wiring up to the body computer and diagnosed it must be a fault with body computer itself. Cost to replace £800 or so. While I pondered what to do, I thought I'd take a look. When I prodded the wiring to the back of the body computer it clicked. I decided to unplug the loom from the back of the body computer. The block connector was very stiff to remove, however it looked fine. When I put it back, it slid into position very easily. When I prodded the wiring again, there was no clicking and the problem has not reoccurred since. It made me think, was dealer's diagnosis routine so poor that they did not even disconnect the wiring to body computer?. Where they guessing the body computer was the problem?. They had spent 5 hours (with associated labour charges) coming up with the diagnosis. I fixed it myself in 20 mins. I'm no mechanic, but pure frustration made me do it. I too, will not trust main dealers again.

Think this is the first thread I've read on any forum (and I use a few) that doesn't slag off Halfords!!!! Hope you've done it.
Never trust what Main dealers say. In my book, they are up there with estate agents......

I did not had re-occurrence of stalling for 2 weeks 400 miles but now have noticed much lesser lunge in the car at speed which is very intermittent, there is no drop in revs no illumination of engine light or loss of performance, tickover is constant and smooth and I achieve average 49.7 mpg I am now approaching 30000 miles if it stays as it is I can live with it but would love to get to bottom of problem. as for garage, have written letter of complaint ( I have had numerous other problems with them) and logged this direct with fiat. I will update as time and miles go by.

So it is not 'cured' then?

not cured but not so severe and not so frequent, has not had the full stall for over 1000 miles before adding additive, still investigating. fiat garage from which I brought it said it needed throttle body and wiring loom when I pressed them on weather it would cure problem they said reluctantly that they had had dealt with similar problem before and this had worked, there is no way I would spend money on this basis, and frankly find the garages attitude frightening. have not had any other garage think the same. as problem not sot bad will continue quest for permanent solution.

i guess they wanted to change the whole engine loom and throttle body then
you couldnt make it up and i now have little faith in fiat sorting the british dealers out as they said they would
my localish dealer is only interested in selling 500's, really dont know why they bother having a parts desk ,guess fiat uk insist
dick turpin would turn on his rope if he shopped in mine

im sure an independant garage that knows how to use a scope would find your problem in a couple of hours

I find it hard to believe they never had an error logged in Examiner -
I agree with you they are a robbin' set of barstewards for the most of them.
I am extremely lucky that my local FIat dealer (franchised) - in Portugal, is absolutely superb, I struggle to give him money - I kid you not.
We have been away from the UK now for 9 years more or less, and I never want to return full time. Great people - the public ! - **** everything else business or government.

I could be wrong, but I thought that a problem that was raised within the warranty period and not properly fixed is STILL a warranty issue, even though the warranty has meanwhile expired. I would be going back to the selling garage to demand it's fixed under waranty.