Over your years of Panda ownership, what's been the most expensive repair you've ever had done? Would be interesting / entertaining for fellow Panda owners to share!

Reply something like this..

Cost,
Part,
Your reaction,
Did you do it?
What did you learn?


I've just taken ownership of my Panda so I don't have much to say yet but curious as to what may have stung others wallets and what could sting me in the future quite a bit!

Don't ask!!!

Let's just say that mine cost me much more than it's worth two years ago. It's all logged on here. Let's just say that I never have used a certain Fiat Alfa specialist again.

Cost - £80
Part - Rear shocks
Your reaction- What? After 20000 miles? No way.
Did you do it - Yep
What did you learn - 100HP easily wears rear shock mounts if you don't drive on a Billiard table.

For our old Active.
Cost - £90
Part - Lambda Sensor
Your reaction - not much
Did you do it - yes
What did you learn - Draper's 55540 O2 sensor socket is crap!

Thinking back, the most I've spent on any of my past Fiats is around £140 in one go, that was for a clutch in my old Cinq Sporting years ago.

I did a few jobs on my sisters 54 plate Panda the other year that hit around £450, mainly replacing rusty shocks, springs, sort the brakes and a service.
But it wasn't too bad overall, as that's all it's every had in 11 years of ownership and we're hoping that should be it for another 11 years!

Mine is a long list...

Cost: £500
Part: Timing chain
When: January 2013
Where: Fiat-Alfa specialist.
Why: Fiat-Alfa specialist recommended it.
Did I do it: Regrettably yes.
What did I learn: Timing chain is no greater than a bicycle chain.

Cost: £733
Part: Timing chain
When: End December 2013 / January 2014
Where: Donnelly's. Because Fiat-Alfa specialist said he was closed for another week and a half for Christmas and said he'd understand if I took my car elsewhere!
Why: Because the guides fitted (or perhaps reused) failed. I didn't realise that at the time when I set off. I reckoned it was an oil filter problem as I had just had the car serviced in the previous fortnight.
Did I do it: Donnelly's had my car for near enough a month. It wasn't obvious what exactly was wrong with my car as several codes were stored. They had one man working on it so that it wasn't passed between mechanics and nothing would be missed. I was kept informed about the costs of parts which were being tried and was asked at each stage whether I wanted them to proceed. Obviously I said yes, while worrying myself to death that the car needed the last rites read to it rather than resuscitation. Car somewhat had engine rebuild.
What did I learn: Not to trust that damned Fiat-Alfa specialist.


Bad luck continued as this was followed that week by clutch failure (£425). The following week came brake failure, certainly a brown pant experience but I got stopped safely and the rear brake shoe lining fell out in bits on the ground when the AA man opened it (£100). I then had a full check on the car to see what else the so-called Fiat-Alfa specialist might have missed (£500 in total).

Dez then behaved himself till almost Christmas last year, then a fortnight before Christmas the high pressure fuel pump went. Donnelly's kindly agreed to replace it with a secondhand one I sourced myself as it was going to be another £650 for a new one. This meant it came in around half of that.

I'm hoping that Dez doesn't give me any heart attacks this Christmas! He's tried bankrupting me this past couple of years!

In the grand scheme of things it's cost nothing. But there's a lot of repairs that've cost nothing or have gone not done.

Cost; About £6.
Part; Only a stupid DRL.
Your reaction; Oh this will be easy to solve. Half an hour later, the car is jacked up, wheel is off, lightbulb still won't go in. Not sure if we got it in, or just kinda balanced it.:bang::bang::bang::bang:
Did you do it? Barely. And when the bulb blew again I didn't bother.
What did you learn? Just turn off the DRLs in the menu. It disables the warning light telling you, and the MOT guy has no idea.

I have not had my 4×4 very long but found out very quickly to NOT buy spare parts from Fiat dealers!! Scour the interweb, you will find the parts - most of mine have come from Germany. Would like to keep business within UK but Fiat prices are mental ie Rear diff mounts Fiat £173 each side+ delivery, sourced both from Germany at £126 inc very speedy delivery. Track control arms - Fiat £70ish + vat + delivery, sourced from Germany at £25 delivered.
This obviously applies to older cars outwith warranty period.

Well this has made it into Leisure Lounge so I'll wade in with my Grande Punto experience.

The most expensive was probably the new body computer and battery to sort a CAN BUS issue but that was under warranty at least. So was the breather pipe the first time it split!

Cost - £10.99
Part - Breather pipe
Your reaction - Not again!
Did you do it? - Yes, was out of warranty and you couldn't drive any distance without being fumed out. Bought the part on eBay and fitted it myself following the guide on here.
What did you learn? - The standard breather pipe on a Grande Punto is made of a material that lasts about 2 years if you are lucky.

Colin,

Have you managed to get 40mpg or above in the SS e.g. when cruising on motorways at 70/75?

They are lovely cars to drive and I would consider one.

hub61 said:

I have not had my 4×4 very long but found out very quickly to NOT buy spare parts from Fiat dealers!! Scour the interweb, you will find the parts - most of mine have come from Germany. Would like to keep business within UK but Fiat prices are mental ie Rear diff mounts Fiat £173 each side+ delivery, sourced both from Germany at £126 inc very speedy delivery. Track control arms - Fiat £70ish + vat + delivery, sourced from Germany at £25 delivered.
This obviously applies to older cars outwith warranty period.

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My plan was to buy genuine parts from Fiat when I needed them then pay my mechanic to fit them! Judging by your experience, I don't think I can afford it. Have you found and good sources online for genuine new spares or is it a matter of scouring the internet each time? -thanks

This year my multijet has had:-
A new 3 piece clutch fitted £240 fitted.

Rear brake shoes and a wheel cylinder £144 fitted.

SB1500 said:

My plan was to buy genuine parts from Fiat when I needed them then pay my mechanic to fit them! Judging by your experience, I don't think I can afford it. Have you found and good sources online for genuine new spares or is it a matter of scouring the internet each time? -thanks

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Started off using "buycarparts.co.uk" which is very misleading as they sent parts from Berlin, cheap tho'.
Did some more searching on interweb and found that Fiat parts come under different part no's with different manufacturers. Found "kfzteileprofishop" on eBay who supply Original Imporium parts at about 1/3rd the price of Fiat dealer, helps if you know a bit of German language - which I don't.

Cost: £870
Part: clutch a dmf for Alfa 159
My reaction: luckily I can live with only one kidney
Did I do it? Had little choice but to do it.
What did I learn? That owning an Alfa can be a rollercoaster ride. Although it was far and away the most reliable car I've ever owned

I think mine would be the front suspension top mounts, cost nearly £200 including labour I seem to remember.

2010 Active 1.1 - owned from new, only does stop start city work. Now done 22,300 miles.

In order of costs inc parts and labour:-

Around £200 for two new front top mounts - at around 16,000 miles
£105 for a new (2010) mirror - fitted myself - the dustbin wagon knocked mine off, could never prove it but the timing meant it must have been them. Cost me £105 from the stealers as I could not find any pattern ones.
£80 for rear shock absorbers - replaced at 22,000 miles
£95 for two Rain Expert tyres - around 16,000 miles?
£50 for two new front pads - at 12,000 miles, new ones are now on 10,000 miles but have plenty of life left in them. I am either now a better driver, or the originals were crap!
£45 for a new Bosch battery - fitted myself
£12 for a pair of new Bosch wipers - fitted myself
£0 to clean out the ECU connector - done myself

The rest is just servicing which now costs me around £130 inc the MOT each year including Shell Helix fully synth oil.

I might start to think about replacing the rear tyres next year. Although I don't do most the work myself, I think I have saved at least £1000 by taking the car out of the dealer servicing network and doing some of the simple stuff myself.

OMG, I'm not jinxing my car by answering that lol


Selling my beautiful black 17" alloys, any interest?

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I once repaired the clutch and gearbox on my girlfriends 306 D.Turbo.....she's now my wife....that's been quite expensive.

My then girlfriend had a 127...
30 FIATs later..were still here

And they say romance is dead ?! Looks like Alfa fans aren't only ones with cuore/heart .

got a panda in march 2014.rotten and barely a runner felt sorry for it.managed to buy it for couple of hundred.heres some of the things i bought and price.working on this car kept me going while my dad was ill and after he passed away i made the effort to get it completed.
front shocks £30 each,springs £20 each,top mounts £16 each,brake discs £7.99 each,pads£16.99,160mm clutch £59,rear oil seal £16.99,rear top hat core plug£6.99,thermostat £12,radiator £42,vacumm advance unit under £30,points £6,condensor £11,ignition coil £17,front core plug £1,carb kit £40,radious rod bushes £23,4 new tyres £130,cv boots around £20,rear trailing arms £79 for pair,rear shocks £40,rear springs £50 with assorted bushes,rear back box £22,new sills and reparied floor pan £390,also inner and outer tie rod joints that were a pig to get undone.some other bits that i can remember aswell!.all done myself bar the welding.most stressful was doing clutch i think was just a pig to be fair on the garage floor.car is up for sale at the mo on this site!

wish i had a big garage said:

got a panda in march 2014.rotten and barely a runner felt sorry for it.managed to buy it for couple of hundred.

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Hi, Got any photos of before and after? Hope all your investment sees many joyous miles to come!