Hi
Today have swapped battery with one less than a year old and fully charged ... so we will see how this works, my original battery was tested and said to be "good under load" I am surprised as was hoping to be told its past its best.

I have done about 30 miles since without any problems (last famous words) we will see only hope its not the torque sensor on the way out, Panda has only done 33K and its just over 8 years old so low mileage .

If I get any further problems I will post back, thanks to all for your thoughts and help its appreciated.

Hope this works out for you.

Tbh... the one thing I do ..through habit..
Is when turnibg on the ignition. Pause for 5 seconds to let the system'self test.
Once all the idiot lights have extinguished.. its at that point I x crank the starter..

No issues doing it this way..as tete are fewer electrics loads... fuel pump has cy led to pressure. Etc.
So the battery can supply max. Power where its needed

Peter034 said:

Hi
Today have swapped battery with one less than a year old and fully charged ... so we will see how this works, my original battery was tested and said to be "good under load" I am surprised as was hoping to be told its past its best.

I have done about 30 miles since without any problems (last famous words) we will see only hope its not the torque sensor on the way out, Panda has only done 33K and its just over 8 years old so low mileage .

If I get any further problems I will post back, thanks to all for your thoughts and help its appreciated.

Click to expand...

Modern electronics need "better" power than older designs. A smple load test is not enough to determine if a battery is good enough. A measurement of the batteries impedance is a better guide to it's health, This test requires more sophisticated equipment. Picotech's Automotive oscilloscopes https://www.picoauto.com are excellent and the software automates the testing. I must confess I'm biased, I've used Pico's electronics products for many years and recently got the automotive kit too.
Hopefully the new battery is a fix. It should be but sometimes a fresh, charged battery can hide an underlying issue with charging or connections.

Robert G8RPI.

A digital voltmeter wired to an ignition live source will tell you a lot about what is going on. Costs are under £10.

Also check the heavy duty leads from starter to battery and battery to earth.

Mine sometimes keeps the battery warning light on for longer than normal which will trip out the steering motor. Battery is new though I suspect old one was ok. there is no alternator belt noise.

I replaced earth lead and cleaned the other connectors but not found the real cause. Alternator maybe but voltage is fine engine running with everything switched on so don't know what causes the issue.

DaveMcT said:

A digital voltmeter wired to an ignition live source will tell you a lot about what is going on. Costs are under £10.

Also check the heavy duty leads from starter to battery and battery to earth.

Mine sometimes keeps the battery warning light on for longer than normal which will trip out the steering motor. Battery is new though I suspect old one was ok. there is no alternator belt noise.

I replaced earth lead and cleaned the other connectors but not found the real cause. Alternator maybe but voltage is fine engine running with everything switched on so don't know what causes the issue.

Click to expand...

Your problem sounds like worn or sticking brushes. Check the model number of the actual alternator fitted and search to see if a brush pack or regulator and brush pack are available for it. Some can be changed without even removing the alternator.
A typical sub £10 multimeter is not likely to be accurate enough to fully check a modern car battery and charging system. It will give an indication of what is going on and indicate gross faults but not much more.

Robert G8RPI.

g8rpi said:

Your problem sounds like worn or sticking brushes. Check the model number of the actual alternator fitted and search to see if a brush pack or regulator and brush pack are available for it. Some can be changed without even removing the alternator.
A typical sub £10 multimeter is not likely to be accurate enough to fully check a modern car battery and charging system. It will give an indication of what is going on and indicate gross faults but not much more.

Robert G8RPI.

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Thanks for that alternator information. I'll have a look.

A cheap digital voltmeter wont be 100% accurate but should be consistent and good enough for the car's dashboard. It allows you to watch the voltage trend especially under heavy loads.

Any of these will do -
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...+voltmeter+.TRS0&_nkw=car+voltmeter+&_sacat=0

I have something similar on the bike - it agrees to 0.1V with the multimeter - enough for the purpose. For total accuracy it could checked against a professional voltmeter. More than 14.2V when charging and less than 10.5V starting (or steering) are cause for concern.

Way of topic as the original poster has fixed his car fingers crossed.

Would like to understand the power steering and battery problem.

Voltmeter is not the way to go. My car has a voltmetre plugged into the cigarette lighter. Always reads between 13.8V to 14V regardless of load. Any drop must be too quick for it to read.

I have two Pandas with faulty batteries.

First mine. Fails occasionally in winter on power steering fine in summer. Yes I have read the codes now on it second winter.

The other the girlfriends which fails to start but turns over okay but doesn't fail on steering.

Both cars charge at 14V-14.1V

girlfriends resting voltage is around 11.70V and drops even lower after a couple of days. Charging amps are quite high at 4 amps and never lowers. Looks like a short in a cell ?


Mine has a resting voltage 12.6V and charges at 2 amps. 12.7V half an hour after a run.


Both cars have a parasitic drain of around 10mA after about 5 seconds and no voltage drop across the main cables.

Wee Smurf said:

Yes get a new battery and turn off the girlie button. It's not needed anyway.

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Haha the girlie button is one of my most essential features! I live in Portsmouth one of the most densely populated cities in Europe and parking is a massive issue. My little Panda can practically slide in sideways to the smallest spaces. My PAS stopped working last night, I'm hoping it's just the battery.