hi there, my wife's 2008 panda multijet has started running badly shortly after start up. the car starts ok but after about 50 meters sometimes looses power and is unresponsive to the throttle. after running for a while will suddenly clear and drive normaly. this only started happening after its last service at my local garage. the garage had obviously been using my car to run around as my fuel gauge was on the bottom of the empty mark. I was just wondering if this could be a blocked fuel filter or maybe the fly by wire throttle. any help greatly appreciated as I need to sell the car as we have just bought a 2016 panda cross.

Send it back and tell them to sort it out.

the garage will probably say its a problem unrelated to the service, so i'm just trying to get a bit of info on possible causes before I go back to the garage. when this fault happens the car idles normally but the throttle does not respond, which is why I thought it could be a fly by wire fault.

Tighten the dieselfilter.

gr J

As it starts OK and then dips, have you checked that the screwhole in the centre of the black plastic under the wipers has been sealed. A common problem with the Multijet is that water drips down through this hole and it can then get into the air filter. I can't post any pics of this as I no longer have my Panda but I'm sure I've probably posted one before.

Back in the mists of time a friend ran a diesel Peugeot 205. He always filled at his local garage as he wanted them to stay in business, but he said their slow sales meant he should ALWAYS change the fuel filter at every service. The official routine was every other service.

One day, the filter had not been changed and he got about 500 miles before the car stopped. He had a spare filter with him, swapped them over and it ran fine again. He must have stank of diesel fuel.

See if the fuel filter was changed. If not change it anyway and see what happens. They don't last for ever so no big loss on costs.