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Panda 2012+  Pan

2014 1.2 Pop

Introduction

Pan is my late mum's car, inhereted in early 2025 (along with a couple of minor scuffs).
Gets to stretch his legs a bit more now he's with me.

~47k. Service history is best described as mixed ... but it's getting better.
▪ Timing renewed in summer 2025, along with repalcement oil and filter.
▪ Replacement brakes and suspension / bushes next. As tempting as it is to swap out the rear drums for discs I almost certaly will retain drums (lots of work for no real gain). Suspension is just showing it's age, but might get upgraded with something a bit more responsive than stock units.

▪ Just (as in yesterday) replaced the air filter and MAP sensor (following a CEL & DTC P0101). 'Twas an interesting experience trying to make sense of a choice of multiple part numbers and repeated incompatabilties listed on parts websites despite simply replacing like for like. (Which assumes the part I was replacing was correct to start with 😉). Probably not helped by coming from owning a 110 Defender 200TDi for ~20 years, where pretty much anything from most other LRs of a roughly similar is either interchangable or can be made to fit.

Lives with his younger, much larger (and almost impossible to work on) sibling - George, the Transit.
This was the exiting MAP sensor.
I replaced rather than cleaned it (given it unknown age / history).
Its a lot gungy. Search Panda Catch can. I find its stoped enarly all the muck accumulating and getting on the map. £20 well spent as fat as Im concerned.
 
So, new MAP sensor / air filter / DTC reset. Easy job, simple reassembly.
Pan was driving ok, no CEL, but at the back of my mind he was possibly ever-so-slightly still not-quite-right. Still doing the very slight, very occasional pause at about 2K (feels like a tiny misfire), but he's due a new coil-pack & plugs so that lines up ok.

TL: DR - Fixed, then not fixed - big clean up of breather, much happier little car so hopefully fixed again.


However ...
Two more CEL / P0101 errors in recent days didn't exacly help the ever-so-slightly not quite right feeling. Both times the MAP was fouled with dirty, aerated emulsion - not by much, but clearly enough to trip the ECU.

A super quick clean of both the sensor and the port it plugged into had to suffice during the week, but today I had time to pull it apart for a proper look, given that oil and water emulsion is rarely a good sign.

1. No obvious signs of a failing head-gasket. Nothing out of the exhaust, no overheating, no loss of power. A quick check via the dipstick and the filler cap gave no concerns, all just oil.
2. Throttle body was a little bit grubby, but not especially so ...
3. The air box was bone dry and very clean.
4. The outlet port on the rocker-cover (are they even still called that?) was kinda grubby, but again only oil, no emulsion.
5. Then I looked in the breather hose ...

Outside of photos of atherosclerosis I don't think I've ever seen a 'hose' with anything even remotely close to what I cleaned out of this one.
:oops:

I'll spare you the details, but having cleaned everything very carefully, I put him back together, reset the code and took it easy for a few miles.
Pan felt much better, much quicker / responsive picking the revs up (emphasis on much too ;)) - almost certainly cuz' the mixture going in now is predominately just hydrocarbons (ansd E5 too, to maintain a healthy diet (as recommended for atherosclerosis) - and not the prior sloppy, watered down mix.

So, next steps:
1. Watch for a repeat.
2. Replace the airbox to intake 'seal'
3. Pay careful attention to any hint of failing head gaskget symptoms.
4. Get into the habit of driving the long way around a bit more often to get the temperature up enough to clear the condensation. (Not only short drives in cold wet weather).
5. Possibly an oil change.

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Reactions: rmjbn1 and boozyjay
You think that's bad ?

Anyways mums shopping trolley once a week, take dog to park a mile away once a day, trip to petrol station half a mile away once a month and the occasional day out......patchy servicing as it only does 2k miles a year, next service due September 2030 according to miles driven per year....

How are the brakes ?


Nice little car.....how many miles ?
 
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