It's a 2009 Panda 1.2 Dynamic Eco.


While the nice RAC man was diagnosing a battery problem a little while back, I noticed that one of the brackets holding the air filter box to the top of the engine had broken.

It looks like part of the alloy bracket has sheared off. Looking closer this evening, it looks like someone has previously tried gluing it back together, which is surprising since I have had the car from new.

It's the bracket on the right of the air filter box, looking into the engine bay from the front of the car.

Is this a known problem, and is there a known fix (other than trying to glue it back together again)?


Photos at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stokemanor/albums/72157712004230052

I don't know, but JB Weld It is extraordinary for this type of job providing you get the parts really clean. Good luck with it.

There's a bit of the glue on the HT lead, too. Do you do your own servicing? If not, I'd guess that it was broken by the garage (the filter housing comes off to give access to the spark plugs) and rather than own up to it they bodged it and hoped you wouldn't notice.

If you think it's happened recently (and the glue looks pretty clean) you could try complaining to your garage and see what they say?

It looks like the broken lug is part of the coil pack bracket. If JB Weld doesn't work, you should be able to replace the bracket without too much drama.

Hello and greetings from another Dynamic Eco owner! Ours is a 2010 with a retractable glass sunroof! But now I know about all the problems people report regarding them I would rather have had a tin top. All good so far though!



I've just gone out and had a good look at ours and although it could be worth trying a JB Weld repair, the cross sectional area available to get a bond on is not great so I think it very likely it would just shear off again - as seems to have happened to the repair already tried by someone (looks like Araldite to me from your photo?). One option, if you have an engineering works near you, might be to get someone to weld it for you? I'm no good at welding Ally and the engineers I use does this sort of thing for peanuts as long as I leave it with him so he can just do it when working on a bigger job. I've worked on quite a number of Pandas in my time and I've never seen this particular failure before so I would be inclined to say that someone broke it rather than it being a stress induced fracture?

As mentioned above this bracket is an extension from the coil mounting which is fairly easily unbolted from the cylinder head (battery gets in the way a wee bit but I found it easily enough removed, using a 1/4 drive socket set, when I did the Cam Belt on ours). Here's one of several I turned up on eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-PAN...669814?hash=item43e68adff6:g:AJ0AAOSw8-tWYEQ3

I didn't find one on it's own, they all seem to be with coils attached. I enjoy a good rumage around in a scrap yard so that would be my first inclination if faced with this problem.

Good luck. Do let us know how it all pans out won't you?

regards
Jock

It's deffo the ignition coil bracket. They might be ok from Shop4Parts but scrappies should have them by the dozen for 2p each.

JB Weld is good and might even do that job but you will need to prep it carefully and make a jig to hold it while it cures. Going to that much trouble, you might as well solder it with something like Durafix or some such. You will need a butane gas torch, stainless steel wire brush and stainless scratch rod to rub through the oxide layer so the metal can bond. There is loads on You Tube about it.

Just go to a scrap yard with s set of 10mm sockets and you'll have one in 10 minutes.

DaveMcT said:

Going to that much trouble, you might as well solder it with something like Durafix or some such. You will need a butane gas torch, stainless steel wire brush and stainless scratch rod to rub through the oxide layer so the metal can bond. There is loads on You Tube about it.

Just go to a scrap yard with s set of 10mm sockets and you'll have one in 10 minutes.

Click to expand...

I've been meaning to try aluminium brazing for some time now and you've just reminded me. I've got a lawnmower carb with part of the flange nearly cracked off. looks like an ideal candidate to practice on.

Thanks all. I will have a ponder on what to do next.

I assume it broke during a service, and they quietly fixed it back together again without saying anything.

Update:

I bought a stick of J-B Weld Sleelstik epoxy putty. I had planned to apply a nice neat bead of the putty all round the break. But when I came to use it, access round the back of the broken bracket wasn't as easy as I thought it was, and the stuff seemed more interested in sticking to my rubber gloves than to a tatty old bit of aluminium alloy.

So I just squidged most of the stick around the accessible parts of the break and left it to harden. It looks pretty ugly, but is holding so far.

Fingers crossed then?

Why not remove the coils and fit a new coil bracket? It's only about three 10mm AF bolts.