General 100,000 Miles in a Multijet.

[colstown]

My son in his 159,,,,wifey in Panda,,,,,,,,,me in Seicento Abarth and not a one of them washed
The odd one out is an SX4 and its "a nearly there"

 

[Wee Smurf]

My son in his 159,,,,wifey in Panda,,,,,,,,,me in Seicento Abarth and not a one of them washed
The odd one out is an SX4 and its "a nearly there"

Sounds like a good crowd to me! Bring them down. The more the merrier!

And I'll admit that my Panda isn't the cleanest it's ever been.

 

[seanoo]

hi guys, my 2006 mj is still running great at 128k. has had a clutch and a few odds and sods but not much else. i dont hang around either and it still is hard to get it to do less than 60 mpg on a brim to brim. best i get is 68 if i drive around 55 mph. last week it through up an engine management light though when i went to overtake and lost power briefly but i disconnected the battery when i got home and it cleared the light. temp gauge has been a bit funny since coming down from the middle a little and then going back to normal so i might have to have a look at this. cars been driving fine since though and no more lights.

 

[Wee Smurf]

hi guys, my 2006 mj is still running great at 128k. has had a clutch and a few odds and sods but not much else. i dont hang around either and it still is hard to get it to do less than 60 mpg on a brim to brim. best i get is 68 if i drive around 55 mph. last week it through up an engine management light though when i went to overtake and lost power briefly but i disconnected the battery when i got home and it cleared the light. temp gauge has been a bit funny since coming down from the middle a little and then going back to normal so i might have to have a look at this. cars been driving fine since though and no more lights.

My temperature gauge has been doing that too recently, but I've put it down to it being winter...

 

[A3jeroen]

Check the thermostat. Might not be closing completely.

gr J

 

[ytareh]

My MJ temp gauge started some very gradual 'flutters' from 50% to a little below after a garage changed my oil ( only one of last dozen I didn't do myself) while doing snapped 'fan belt '. I assumed they loosened a wire to thermostat or something having stopped worrying the head gasket might be damaged .( Only drove it for seconds without fan belt initially and then only for a minute or two after a 2-3 hour cool down - after waiting in vain for 123.ie insurance 'free breakdown recovery ' .
Still erratic , might rise and fall by a few millimetres over a minute if easing off throttle on motorway etc , doesn't bother me and I have coolant well below min and half rad blanked off.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

My temperature gauge has been doing that too recently, but I've put it down to it being winter...

Sounds like thermostat is starting to fail, will be more noticeable in the winter for obvious reasons

 

[Wee Smurf]

Sounds like thermostat is starting to fail, will be more noticeable in the winter for obvious reasons

I'll get it checked next week along with the oil leak. And I must remember to order a new side indicator. The driver side one keeps falling out as the catch broke on it. The list just gets longer all the time.

 

[Louie Bee]

Replaced my MJ thermostat back in September. The gauge was dipping quite bad had been getting worse over a few years..

It would rise to the middle OK then drop quite a lot unless I was stood in traffic or heavy accelerating... only then it would go back up.

Had a presentation at work about heat rejection and how bad over cooling is for fuel economy so I decided to change the stat.

Sits just a tad over the middle now no matter how I drive and I started seeing better economy again.

 

[ytareh]

Approx cost ? DIY job? Tricky/easy?

 

[JTD_Liam]

My Mk2 Punto, Stilo and recently, my Alfa MiTo JTD all let the temp gauge drop to somewhere between 1/2 and 1/4 in this weather. The MiTo only drops a couple of mm but the Fiats were more pronounced. However they went on like this for years and nothing bad happened.

Personally I find these engines take a lot of time to warm up, and cool down quickly. If the gauge drops off to 1/4 or less then I'd get it looked at, but I'd not be overly concerned by a little bit of movement at this time of year.

 

[Louie Bee]

Approx cost ? DIY job? Tricky/easy?

Remember being shocked at the cost of the stat... nothing like the FIRE engine stat in cost or ease.

Looks about £40 on euro car parts - can't remember how much I paid.

It's a bugger to get out as there are many coolant connections as it feeds EGR, rad and header tank top hose, maybe the in car heater too, plus a temp sensor.

most of the connections have fit once clips to fight with - new worm drive clips needed... It's quite tricky to move it enough to get all the hoses off and lots of other bits in the way.

I did mine twice as there was a leak after the first time

Better afterwards, but maybe if it's only dropping a touch don't bother as it will take a long time to make back what little extra fuel you'd burn as a consiquence.

Still takes about same time to warm up but stays warm.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

My Mk2 Punto, Stilo and recently, my Alfa MiTo JTD all let the temp gauge drop to somewhere between 1/2 and 1/4 in this weather. The MiTo only drops a couple of mm but the Fiats were more pronounced. However they went on like this for years and nothing bad happened.

Personally I find these engines take a lot of time to warm up, and cool down quickly. If the gauge drops off to 1/4 or less then I'd get it looked at, but I'd not be overly concerned by a little bit of movement at this time of year.

As has been mentioned previously it'll most certainly be having some sort of a negative effect on your MPG!

 

[Wee Smurf]

Sounds like thermostat is starting to fail, will be more noticeable in the winter for obvious reasons

Apparently the thermostat checked out fine so I'll keep an eye on things. Good news was that the oil leak was from the filter housing rather than the sump so thankfully not as expensive as first thought.

The courtesy car this time was an overgrown 500 with the same 1.3 Multijet engine. It wouldn't be my choice for my next car but it was a pleasant enough drive in a forward direction. It was however lacking in rear parking sensors or camera and with the rear window being so high, it made it difficult to see anything which was relatively close to the back. I took the abandon approach and only went for drive through spaces to make it easy. I have a habit of driving with my elbow resting on the driver side door. Annoyingly I had to lean over to do so in the overgrown one.

 

[seanoo]

Update. I now have an issue that when on the motorway doing 70ish in 5 gear if I put my foot down to accelerate heavily the power drops into limp mode and engine mngment light comes on. If I turn the ignition off and then restart the engine the power is normal. If I leave the car for a while the management light stays off. Seems fine on hard acceleration through the gears though, any ideas?

 

[Wee Smurf]

Any unusual noises? Engine running louder than normal?

 

[seanoo]

No nothing, Power just drops. Turn the engine off and then back on and all is normal again? Seems to be when under heavy load

 

[A3jeroen]

Should have faultcodes stored.
Might be MAF or Turbo actuatorrod or even EGR.

gr J

 

[colstown]

Wastegate stuck gives similar symptoms. . .
Usually wont happen in lower gears as the over pressure is not present for long enough for the ECU to pick it up and go to limp mode
I've seen it happen in 3rd gear on a 1.3MJ when really giving it some up a very steep hill from a cross roads
More often a 4th or 5th gear problem
The wastegate sticks closed which will mostly bring on the engine light and put the ECU in limp mode. . . Too high boost pressure
Wastegates dont usually stick but can stick if the car has been sitting around or driven quite easy for some time

This is not a new complaint by no means

Find the wastegate actuator and see if it'll move with a lever. . .if you dont know how the waste gate works I'm sure there someone who has written loads about them on here somewhere so no point in writing it all again

 

[jaywalk]

I recently replaced my petrol 4x4 with a multijet diesel 4x4 and after only 2000 km of driving (aquired it at 90k km) I got a MIL, and my OBD adapter read P0401 "Exhaust Gas Recirculation Flow Insufficient Detected". EGR it is!

My car will loose power mostly in 4th gear, sometime in third or fifth. Can the EGR be cleaned or does it have to be replaced? I have yet to find time to physically look at it to see what state it is in.