Becky, our Panda 1.2 petrol is doing exactly the same Charlie. Gets up to 1/4 quite quickly then just hangs about. Mostly Mrs Jock drives Becky but last week I had her out, just around the town. Mrs J has no idea if it's been like this for a while - I doubt if she even looks at it, ever - Probably needs a new thermostat but I'll see what happens next week when the weather warms up a wee bit.
UPDATE. Well we took "Becky" (1.2 Panda Eco Dynamic) out to our son's house in Midlothian as we were childminding. This is the first time, since buying her last spring and fitting her new cambelt kit, that she's done anything other than running around the town. For this reason I decided to avoid the motorway/dual carriageway, in case of mishap, so we drove through the city and then on out on the A roads - usually we would go out on the A1 and then round on to the A720. Fast aggressive commercial/commuter type traffic. Going out on the old Lasswade road and cutting across to the A7 was really very pleasant but would have been better if it hadn't been raining!
From cold it took a slow 5+ minutes for the temp needle to get up to the 1/4 mark. We live down near Newhaven so there's a climb, in traffic, up to the middle of town. The temp got up to 1/2 whilst we were doing this but going down the South Bridge and then on to the edge of the city it dropped back to the 1/4 mark. It stayed there as we drove towards Lasswade but on the very steep hill out the other side it climbed rapidly back to the 1/2 way mark. Over the top and going down the other side, back it went to the 1/4! where it stayed 'till the end of the journey. Returning in the early evening saw exactly the same story. Slow warm up then 1/4, or thereabouts when just cruising along (40 to 50 mph in the country 20 or, where permitted 30 in town - Edinburgh is heavily 20 mph'd now) with the needle getting up around the 1/2 way mark when pulling up hills. She did get to about 1/3 once when held for 3 changes at busy lights.
The cooling fan seldom runs but I have heard it a couple of times last summer and it activates with
MES. So, my conclusion is, new thermostat needed. I really can't see it being anything else. Wish I'd known about it before doing that cam belt, would have been a simple thing to do then. By the way the cooling system was thoroughly flushed when refilling after the Cam belt/water pump jobbie. I'll get one ordered (from S4p) along with the other stuff when I do her spring service. I notice the S4p part seems to include the temperature sensor/sender. Renewing this seems to be sensible to me.
Mr Haynes says to remove the battery and battery tray - presumably including the ECU - to gain access, and when you look at it that could be best? You are hard pressed to see it as it's hiding under this lot!
Mind you Mr H did tell me to remove those parts to allow the coil pack and bracket to be removed prior to dismantling the cam cover - so you can lock the cam - when I did the timing belt. I found you could, fairly easily, strip the coil pack and it's bracket without disturbing the battery or ECU (I'm a great believer in, whenever possible letting "sleeping dogs" - or any other troublesome animals - lie.) Anyway, service due around Easter time so not long to wait.
Also noticed out on the country roads, which is not so noticeable in town, is the fact that she is still pulling, very gently, towards the N/S. The steering wheel is also very very slightly off centre when going straight. I suspect someone has incorrectly set the tracking at some time. Another job for the spring.
Also, although there is no misfire, she has a reluctant hesitant manner when asked to accelerate in higher gears. I suspect, maybe, the Oxygen sensor or mapp? Anyway, lots of fun will be had graphing sensor outputs and comparing readout values - but maybe not until the weather warms up a bit - mind you no point in doing any of this until we can achieve full operating temperature, could be that that's all that's wrong (incorrect fueling due to cold running?)
I have to say though that I enjoyed the experience enormously. We cruised along, very peacefully, at around 50 mph most of the time. I didn't feel the urge to overtake anyone, just "went with the flow". I do like driving this wee car. Even the original fit Fiat stereo (do you call it a "stereo" these days?) proves more than adequate for listening to Radio 4 - with the occasional "foray" into the "pop" world for the youngsters!
