Technical Koalar random thoughts

[Blueboy54123]

Hi koaler success someone had insulated the small thread that fits inside the battery tray with tape presumably to stop it rusting I took the tape off so I could get the bolt off then the gauge instantly went to 3/4 so thanks for your help

 

[ZaphodB]

Hi koaler success someone had insulated the small thread that fits inside the battery tray with tape presumably to stop it rusting I took the tape off so I could get the bolt off then the gauge instantly went to 3/4 so thanks for your help

 

[Blueboy54123]

View attachment 470502

Haha exactly all that pissing about for nothing

 

[koalar]

Earth strap, faulty, replacement or not

Yes I know the pictures aren't great, I borrowed someone to crank the car while I photograph one handed

Do a simple voltage drop testing under load

Can be done with a test light or multimeter makes no difference in this case

Here I am going use a test light, for the last year or so it's been may main electrical diagnostic tool

Yes I have oscilloscopes, fluke meters and multiplexers, but for the majority of car faults a test light is better as it shows some current can pass through a wire rather than just voltage present

Yes this is a Suzuki not a fiat, but the principles are the same

Attach the light to the battery negative

Touch the test light on battery positive, to make sure it's got a good connection and the lamp hasn't blown

Scratch some clean metal and crank or try to

Here the earth strap bolt lights up

But if put the probe on the cable eye and crank the engine it does not light

The problem is the connection between the earth strap and the block not the earth strap itself


Often people say I've measured the ohms and it's okay, no you proved there is continuity not it's able to carry a couple of hundred Amps

Here the same Suzuki before it was fixed

If you are using a multimeter on the volts range. Ideally it should be under 200 millivolts while canking or tying to


There's a video in post 15 of a faulty earth on a panda

 

[koalar]

Rear bush on the front suspension arm is a common failure point, same with a lot of models not just the Panda

There are many symptoms such as

Clunks over speed bumps(also caused by drop links not tightened correctly is very common)
Vibration at the steering wheel
Veering under braking
Veering upon acceleration
Clunk on acceleration
Clunk on braking
Vague steering
Difficulty in maintaining a straight line
Steering goes light, approaching full lock,.parking
Poor straight line stability
Wind/passing cars causing the vehicle to wander
Tendency to follow the grooves in the road
Rubber squeaking noise (also ARB bushes)

Probably missed something out


I normally notice it first when pulling out to overtake and the tyres hit the cats eyes causing a slight input of the steering wheel needed lto correct, you can feel it well before it's a MOT failure

Or on the motorway the need to make many slight corrections to continue in a straight line

There are other causes, but if you have any of these symptoms it's pretty easy to check


In my opinion this is the first part to check

There's several way to diagnose the rear bush

I wiggle the steering, with a light on the bush, you will see the same movement as in the video below an assistant helps, but you can use your phones camera

This also works, better if you leave the wheel on in my opinion, for more leverage, it's basically the same as the first test, except you have to jack the car,


This will find 90% straight off

An alternative method

It's also worth trying to push the arm up and down with a large screwdriver or pry bar

If the sleeve has delaminated from the rubber insert, it will move and stay there, it should always return to the same position, or as in this case it moved easily as the centre has cracked


The bushes are available separately

1.1, 1.2 and 1.3

Or the 100HP

It is not a trivial job to get the old bush out, without a hydraulic press, and usually requires drilling and hammer and chisel to remove


Changing the whole arm, only takes a few minutes though


The arm should be tightened up with the wheels on the ground

4410B40 LOWER WISHBONE (WITH BALLJOINT) OF LEFT OR RIGHT FRONT SUSPENSION (ONE) - R+R -CHECK WHEEL GEOMETRY SEPARATELY - Fiat - PANDA - eLearn - 4CarData

Be carefully with the torque setting for the pinch bolt, some online instructions are wrong too high, and will snap the bolt


Don't try and spin the pinch bolt out. There a good chance it will snap, just undo the nut and drift it out, helps if you have some brass, once it starts to slide you can then put a socket on the bolt head

Couple of failed examples

Here the outer has delaminated, these are easy to change, just collapse the outer shell with a hammer and chisel

And here the inner

Obviously if the bushes test fine, the problems elsewhere, there's no point in changing for changing sake

You need to look elsewhere