Technical Electronics Problems 2017 Panda

[Dave Sk]

Purchased the Panda (wife’s car) in July 2021, it had an engine management light on during the test drive. Garage said they would fix it. No light showing when we collected it. All OK for 6 months. In Jan 2022 we started getting low tyre warnings when the tyres were OK.
The biggest problem came next and is really dangerous as it happens randomly.
The the car would beep, show warning lights for Hill Assist Unavailable, ESC, low tyre pressure & the engine management light, also the throttle becomes totally unresponsive while the engine revs go up to about 1200.
Turning the ignition on and off again part solved the problem, the car would accelerate and move but engine management light remains on with message CHECK ENGINE. This happened to the wife when she was turning right off a busy A road.
The dealers replaced the EMU in Feb 2022. All OK until this week when the same issues started occurring again.
I used to think the car was going into limp mode but when it happened to me this week, I realised it wasn’t! Not going anywhere at all.
The manager of the garage is contacting us on Mon, but the wife has lost confidence in the car & won’t drive it, but we can’t sell it as it is!
The service manager’s response was, electronics go wrong!!
If it was the EMU surely a new one should last more than a year.
Anyone had simliar issues? Any thoughts?
Thanks for reading.

 

[Marcus Daly]

You need to rule out the battery, the cause of many similar problems (search the forum).

 

[The Panda Nut]

You need to rule out the battery, the cause of many similar problems (search the forum).

This sounds very like a dying battery I agree. Check the main earth wire still has a strong clean connection at both ends as well.

 

[Dave Sk]

Thanks for the replies. Checked the battery yesterday & cleaned connectons, battery OK. My son ran a diagnostic test on it and got faults C1221 and P0101 - not very helpful. He's an ex-mechanic but it didn't help him much. Car is booked into the Fiat garage for the end of the month. Problem is the wife has lost all confidence in the car, so we could well be looking at trading it in for another make.

 

[Marcus Daly]

How old’s the battery? Try a new one. Seriously, we’ve seen this fix the kind of problems you describe time and time again.

 

[Dave Sk]

How old’s the battery? Try a new one. Seriously, we’ve seen this fix the kind of problems you describe time and time again.

Was in the car when we purchased it 18 months ago. Could well be the original battery, car is 2017 & has now done 8500 miles, had done about 2500 when we got it.

 

[Dave Sk]

Was in the car when we purchased it 18 months ago. Could well be the original battery, car is 2017 & has now done 8500 miles, had done about 2500 when we got it.

Sorry should have said, tested battery & it was showing 13.8 volts.

 

[Panda IIs]

Sorry should have said, tested battery & it was showing 13.8 volts.

There will be a date or date code on the battery; if original I would certainly be suspicious of it... I've not experienced the throttle behaviour you report but the variable sensor warnings etc I have. Battery test (unless under load) is not that meaningful.

 

[The Panda Nut]

My two failed batteries both showed a healthy voltage but were failing and went dead still showing 12.9v. If you can substitue a battery from something else to trial this I would do so. Having experienced the battery issue I now believe! Replacement battery dealt with the issues. MES reads the volyage in the ECU. I compared the to the votage across the battery terminals and the ECU was lower than the battery reading. Wizardry.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Fiat parts fitted by a Fiat dealer are warranted for a year and they are quite good at helping if there is a fault in my experience, and yesit B well shoullast more than a year!

 

[Marcus Daly]

Was in the car when we purchased it 18 months ago. Could well be the original battery, car is 2017 & has now done 8500 miles, had done about 2500 when we got it.

Right then. It’s the battery.

 

[AndyRKett]

My son ran a diagnostic test on it and got faults C1221 and P0101 - not very helpful. He's an ex-mechanic but it didn't help him much.

The C code means something is not being read either the signals between the BCM and ECM are not getting through there should be a little more to that Code it should be something like C1221-XX the two extra digits state exactly what the problem is, for example an earth problem or a low voltage. If there is a low voltage then it can mean the signals being passed on the Can network are not making sense as the voltage is too low for the receiving unit to understand.

It could also be a ground fault, I have seen that earth errors in the ABS module or sensors can bring up this error so changing the module could do nothing to repair it if there is a faulty wire somewhere else that is occasionally shorting to ground or going open.

The P0101 is an generic signal out of range from the MAF sensor so this could have been stored at any time and remain until it's cleared. but it could also hint towards a voltage or earth problem.

Basically you need to know the rest of the C1221 code to know what the issue actually is.