General Sudden loss of power

[Gerryf]

Hi all,

I hope someone can advise me on a problem that's just happened with my 1.2Panda (Engine code 188A4.000).

I was out driving today, I went over a bump in the road and suddenly the power plummeted to almost nothing,
the engine management light flashed and the car stalled. I managed to get it started but it ran very lumpy as though it was running on two cylinders.

I managed to crawl the mile left to home. When I got out The car smelt very fumey (unburnt petrol perhaps?).
I left it a while and tried to start it upagain, took a lot of 'churning' but eventually started. It will tick over but very roughly.
There is very little power. No engine management light showing. Strangely I noticed a lot of water gurgling sounds in the car - this might be just incidental but
I recently had a cam belt and water pump changed during a a service so wonder if something might have gone awry there?

Has anyone had a similar problem with their car?
I imagine it may be electrical but I am lost these days with all the sensors that could be at fault, can anyone advise me of a good ODB2 cable/device
to get to investigate this?

Many thanks for any advice.

Gerry.

 

[jrkitching]

The symptoms you describe sound suspiciously like a problem with one of the coil packs.

I'd start by checking the security of the electrical connections - going over that bump might have jarred something loose.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Need to get the fault code read

 

[Fiatseicento2002]

Check your connections/earthing points

 

[Gerryf]

SOLVED! It was a very strange problem. It happened because I had the cam belt and water pump changed. The new water pump ws faulty and so was causing the cambelt to ride up on the pulley. this caused the new cambelt to fail (taking out the top cam sensor too!) Luckily the 1.2 engine is not an 'interference' variant so no damage was done. Got Panda relayed to my garage and all parts were changed at their cost. Not sure of the moral here, always insist on genuine Fiat parts I suppose, it wasn't OEM, but it was a reputable brand (I forget which) and the cost was listed as £49 - I do know that garages always bump up the cost of parts, but my guy has always been pretty straight with me so I expect it wasn't rubbish he fitted. I'm just glad it got sorted out.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

SOLVED! It was a very strange problem. It happened because I had the cam belt and water pump changed. The new water pump ws faulty and so was causing the cambelt to ride up on the pulley. this caused the new cambelt to fail (taking out the top cam sensor too!) Luckily the 1.2 engine is not an 'interference' variant so no damage was done. Got Panda relayed to my garage and all parts were changed at their cost. Not sure of the moral here, always insist on genuine Fiat parts I suppose, it wasn't OEM, but it was a reputable brand (I forget which) and the cost was listed as £49 - I do know that garages always bump up the cost of parts, but my guy has always been pretty straight with me so I expect it wasn't rubbish he fitted. I'm just glad it got sorted out.

What year Panda have you got out of interest?

And random question, but on the rocker cover, the oil filler cap, is it a round screw in type, or a square push in and pull off filler cap?

 

[Gerryf]

What year Panda have you got out of interest?

And random question, but on the rocker cover, the oil filler cap, is it a round screw in type, or a square push in and pull off filler cap?

It is a bought new in 2008 (but maybe made in 2007) 1.2 Dynamic (360 edition) and the filler cap is round, black with yellow min/max info on it.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

It is a bought new in 2008 (but maybe made in 2007) 1.2 Dynamic (360 edition) and the filler cap is round, black with yellow min/max info on it.

Great, thanks for confirming that, you've just helped settle the discussion we were having on this thread https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/339057-what-do-you-think-chaps-5.html?p=3378596