Or they're changing the parts because a good garage will never trust what someone else has supposedly changed.
Currently reading:
Technical Panda 1.2 misfire
varesecrazy: No, haven't had to pay. I'd already impressed upon them *very firmly* that if it wasn't fixed, they could keep the b****y thing, and I'd have my money back!
That did seem to concentrate their minds!
Most Easterly Pandas: Could be! But I suspect that since it was a warranty repair, they used the cheapest parts they could find rather than the official (and undoubtedly more expensive) manufacturers parts.
I fell into that trap myself a few years back when I had a Vauxhall Omega Estate. The Mass Air Sensor failed, and I got a cheap one off Ebay as Vauxhall wanted a ludicrous sum for an original part. Of course, the Ebay one didn't work properly (probably a Chinese copy) and I ended up having to buy the original part anyway.
Lesson well and truly learned!
I suspect my local garage have learned that lesson now, too!
In fairness to them, we've bought 5 or 6 cars off them down the years, and although we've paid slightly over the odds for them, they've all been honest motors that did what they said on the tin. This is the first one that's caused us real aggro!
--
Pete
"Duct tape is like the Force: It has a light side and a dark side, and it binds the Universe together!"
That did seem to concentrate their minds!
Most Easterly Pandas: Could be! But I suspect that since it was a warranty repair, they used the cheapest parts they could find rather than the official (and undoubtedly more expensive) manufacturers parts.
I fell into that trap myself a few years back when I had a Vauxhall Omega Estate. The Mass Air Sensor failed, and I got a cheap one off Ebay as Vauxhall wanted a ludicrous sum for an original part. Of course, the Ebay one didn't work properly (probably a Chinese copy) and I ended up having to buy the original part anyway.
Lesson well and truly learned!
I suspect my local garage have learned that lesson now, too!
In fairness to them, we've bought 5 or 6 cars off them down the years, and although we've paid slightly over the odds for them, they've all been honest motors that did what they said on the tin. This is the first one that's caused us real aggro!
--
Pete
"Duct tape is like the Force: It has a light side and a dark side, and it binds the Universe together!"
Given up!
Well, the night before we were due to move house, the misfire returned with a vengeance. The following day, my wife had to drive it over 200 miles, most of the way on two cylinders. She was struggling to get 25mph out of it on the M3.
Needless to say, the day after the move, the engine light went out, and the car ran on all four again - for a while anyway. All over Xmas, it hiccupped and burped its way around our new location. By now I'd unpacked my own fault-code reader, but it only told me what we'd already been told ie: misfire detected on cylinders 1 & 4, replace coil packs (already done twice!) HT leads (already done twice) and plugs (already done).
At this point my patience snapped. The local Hyundai dealer offered me a *very* good deal on an i10, so the Panda has gone. So far the Hyundai has proven utterly reliable, and is considerably more economical on fuel than the Panda. It also doesn't struggle on the hills around here, and feels altogether more substantial.
God knows what the problem with the Panda was, but whatever, it isn't my problem anymore!
Many thanks to all those here who offered advice. However, my wife is not a car person, and could not tolerate the lack of reliability.
Cheers to all,
--
Pete
Well, the night before we were due to move house, the misfire returned with a vengeance. The following day, my wife had to drive it over 200 miles, most of the way on two cylinders. She was struggling to get 25mph out of it on the M3.
Needless to say, the day after the move, the engine light went out, and the car ran on all four again - for a while anyway. All over Xmas, it hiccupped and burped its way around our new location. By now I'd unpacked my own fault-code reader, but it only told me what we'd already been told ie: misfire detected on cylinders 1 & 4, replace coil packs (already done twice!) HT leads (already done twice) and plugs (already done).
At this point my patience snapped. The local Hyundai dealer offered me a *very* good deal on an i10, so the Panda has gone. So far the Hyundai has proven utterly reliable, and is considerably more economical on fuel than the Panda. It also doesn't struggle on the hills around here, and feels altogether more substantial.
God knows what the problem with the Panda was, but whatever, it isn't my problem anymore!
Many thanks to all those here who offered advice. However, my wife is not a car person, and could not tolerate the lack of reliability.
Cheers to all,
--
Pete
GoodOldDoug
New member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2017
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Hi Pete, I am wondering if you ever got the misfiring problem solved as I am experiencing almost identical problems with a 2007 Panda 1.2 that we have had for at least 7 years, but which started misfiring in the last few months. It has been probably in the garage more than on the road for the last two months. So far they have changed the coils, HT leads, Plugs, sent the EGU away for diagnostic, it was returned no fault found. Still experiencing misfire and engine management light spasmodically on. The garage contacted FIAT main dealer and was advised to take it in to be connected to FIAT Italy to have the EGU reprogrammed as there was an update for that model's firmware/software. They have taken it there 4 times until they deemed that the update was successful. Luckily we were away for two weeks whilst this was going on, so we collected it on our return after waiting for two new Marinello coils to be fitted in place of the other new coils. Apparently recommended by FIAT Italy. Four miles down the road and it misfired again. I am giving up the will to live.
Going to give your suggestions to my garage, but the engine bay is totally dry so I doubt if it is that simple.
Your further comments (or anybody's) would be much appreciated.
GoodOldDoug,
Just a long shot, but I had a Panda that went through a painful misfire/engine-light phase and I did all the things you described, but without success. I thought about it some more and in the end it turned out that the engine was becoming a somewhat heavy 'breather', in that the oily, smelly crankcase fumes that are fed back into the airbox and then re-combusted were causing the lambda sensors to read incorrectly. I disconnected the breather from the cam-cover and vented via a bit of hosepipe to a separate catch-tank. After a few miles the hot exhaust gases - which were now oil-fume free - cleaned up the mess on the lambda's and the engine ran just fine once again. Worth a go I'd say.
Let us know how you get on!
And just to make sure, you could remove both lambda sensors and give them a good clean in proper 'carb cleaner' solvent and do the job properly.
