Bah, the reverse parking sensor has stopped coming on when I select reverse. Before I venture out into the freezing sunshine with a multimeter and a screwdriver anyone got any good tips on how to eliminate things without popping open panels?

Its a FIAT fitted parking sensor ( factory I think ) on a 1.2 Panda Emotion ( 2004 ) (same as Eleganza) with Dualogic.

Is it not under warranty?

Standard French warranty period is 2 years. A-holes. Car is JUST past that. I think...

3rd year warranty?

Anyway its not that straightfoward (how good are you with a multimeter?) as the supply for reverse switch comes from body computer then back back into body computer before off to parking module.
More than likely to be a sensor itself,does the system make a continous noise when reverse selcted(fault in system)or nothing at all(check reverse switch/body computer connections)does reverse light work?

Pretty good with a multimeter after having a Spider with its electrical problem-a-day nature.

There is no continuous noise with reverse selected, nothing at all basically. I think it might be the reverse switch itself but being out last night in the Marea I haven't had a chance to check the Panda in the dark. I'll do that in a minute to see if the reverse light is coming on.

On Friday before I had to go out I checked the sensors were actually connected ( check ) and I found what looked like a white connector that fed into the wires which wasn't connected to anything and I couldn't find anything that it should connect to. Without a wiring diagram I'm kind of going blind on this, so I'll get a neighbour to help out tomorrow.

The warranty is 2 years, I'll double check the starting date but I'm pretty sure its out of warranty. If it isn't, I'll take it up there on Tues ( they are a good garage ).

standard French warranty? is it a import or are you in France? If its a component fault chances are it will be covered by 3rd year warranty.

French car, bought in France and used in France.

Is it not covered by third party 3rd year warranty???

T14086 said:

Is it not covered by third party 3rd year warranty???

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:bang:

Fiat warranty is 2 years then a further year through a 3rd party.However if you want wiring info I can supply some pointers to locating the fault.

Our French wasn't great at the time we bought the car. Its 2 years 1 month old.

Check fuse 36 first,what colours are the wires at the white connector you found?

Right. The latest is fuse 36 is fine, the circuit is somehow broken though. I've also checked ( with the help of a neighbour watching the back ) what happens when I select reverse and no reverse light comes on.

So, I'm assuming the reverse light circuit is the same one they have fitted the parking sensor onto and the bulb may have blown thus breaking the circuit. I tried to take the light cluster off but the lowest screw won't budge, at all and the screwdriver is just churning up the inside of the screw. The socket set I've used to shift it is too lightweight. I will have to buy another socket set and use copious amounts of WD-40 to shift it to check the bulb!

Check reverse switch then,next logical step.

T14086 said:

Check reverse switch then,next logical step.

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Not that easy to do it seems, I can't get into the bit of dash that houses the gearstick as it is secured by two what looks like torx screw heads.

Ive tried my spanner set on that pesky bolt/screwhead on the the light assembly to no avail. So tomorrow when I do the other bits of shopping, a non hobby socket set beckons.

Looks like I'll end up taking it to the garage after all!

? reverse switch is at front of gearbox.

Uh huh, so its not actuated by a switch in the gearstick assembly. Fine.

Without some kind of workshop manual, and without being able to trace wires ( like I can do on the Spider ) I'm flying blind.

Now to go look under bonnet. Glad its a sunny day

Uck knows what I'm looking for, its a dualogic semiauto btw, the whole gearbox is obscured by the battery housing, so I'm going to need to shift that to see and I'm out of time for today.

Its even less accessible than the Cinq in there.

Thanks for your help.

Check again it might be mounted on the hydraullics on top of gearbox.

Do you get a audible warning when selecting reverse?

T14086 said:

Check again it might be mounted on the hydraullics on top of gearbox.

Do you get a audible warning when selecting reverse?

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There are quite a few things there mounted with wires on the gearbox and what looks like a temp sensor, one out of the engine and one out of the gearbox.

No longer get an audible warning, just get 'R' appearing on the dash computer screen.

I'll look lunchtime, and if I haven't got enough time then, this evening.