Technical Panda 2015 pop

[Gordy1234]

Hello my fellow Panda owners, i was wonder if anyone can help, i have had my Panda Pop 2015 since May this year, 27,000 miles on the clock, in great condition across the board, loving this little car to bits, but last week i thought i would try this new E10 petrol from my usual E5 unleaded, and this caused all sorts of issues, the car dashboard lit up like a xmas tree after about 30 mins of running with this new petrol, i lost everything, hill hold was unavalible, ESC was showing, engine warning light, the car was stalling and sluggish, so i managed to get it home and parked it up for the night, and the next day only the engine warning light stayed on, although on occasion if you sat for a few mins the car dashboard would light up again like a xmas tree, so i went to the nearest petrol station and filled up with super unleaded, and low and behold everything was good again and it has run with no issues for the last few days, so i assume that this new E10 bio fuel is the cause of my only issues with the car to date, so i was wondering is there anything other that stick to the super unleaded(which is about 15p more expensive that the new E5), to make the car run with this E5 stuff without all the dashboard throwing up warnings, any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thank you all and take care.

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Although it might ‘appear’ to relate to the fuel, the symptoms you describe are those of low operating voltage owing to a failing battery. And although the symptoms went away a day later with different fuel again, the weather got warmer too so the battery would have been under less stress? (You don’t say how much fuel went in each time, or how empty it was before the E10 went in - but I have a hunch these we not full to brim fills, so some mixing will have happened). The clue to it being battery is your comment that “although on occasion if you sat for a few mins the car dashboard would light up again”

 

[Gordy1234]

Intresting, i will remove the battery and bring it into the house and charge it then go and try out the E5 fuel once again, but let me just add the engine warnng light went off nstantly after i filled up with super unleaded at the garage, as did any and all issues, this is why i thought it was the E10 causing the issues, but i will run down the super unleaded i have in it until i need petrol, then remove the battery and charge it fully in the house, replace it then go and full up with E5 again and see what happens.

Thank you very much for your suggestions, much appreciated.

 

[Panda IIs]

Have to agree with HH; symptoms seem to be of low voltage @ battery. Possible that you anticipated issues and over diagnosed? Bad fuel I'd expect some emissions related warnings not brake related stuff??

BTW; my TA returns significant better mpg on super unleaded grades which compensates (in fact exceeds) for extra costs. Of course the E10 you used may have been further diluted with something!

Although it might ‘appear’ to relate to the fuel, the symptoms you describe are those of low operating voltage owing to a failing battery. And although the symptoms went away a day later with different fuel again, the weather got warmer too so the battery would have been under less stress? (You don’t say how much fuel went in each time, or how empty it was before the E10 went in - but I have a hunch these we not full to brim fills, so some mixing will have happened). The clue to it being battery is your comment that “although on occasion if you sat for a few mins the car dashboard would light up again”

 

[Gordy1234]

Ok so i charged the battery to about 75% at home then put it back in and took the car for a drive, it was fine for about 20 mins, but as i sat idle for 1 min the car once again displayed a Engine warning light, ESC and started to rev up a little without pressing the acc.....and this was still with the the super unleaded, so i think you were both right and this is not a fuel issue, so i am considering buying a new battery as a last resort to see if that fixes this issues before i take it to the dealer who charges £120 for a diagnose of the issues, whereas i can get a new battery for £50 delivered to the door.

 

[Leroypanda]

Do you have to go to a dealer for diagnostics? im sure your local friendly indy will be far cheaper

 

[Gordy1234]

I am just on the way to grab a new battery for that £50, i will take the gamble that it might possibly be the battery as before all this happened, along with that new e5 fuel, i was doing really short 10min morning trips to and back from work 5 days a week, so this might have killed the battery the more i think about it, so for £50 i am willing to give it a gamble, fingeres crossed.

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

I am just on the way to grab a new battery for that £50, i will take the gamble that it might possibly be the battery as before all this happened, along with that new e5 fuel, i was doing really short 10min morning trips to and back from work 5 days a week, so this might have killed the battery the more i think about it, so for £50 i am willing to give it a gamble, fingeres crossed.

Given that the car is from 2015 and only 27,000 miles, that too is likely to point at the battery. Modern cars really don't like infrequent use and/or low mileage, short journeys. (Actually, that is true of any motor... under-use is not a good thing. We recently bought a 'nearly new' car for Mrs HH, and chose the higher (7700) miles car over the 2000-ish mile one of the same age (12 months old), because that one that was used a bit more over lockdown year was likely to be a better bet)

 

[Gordy1234]

Well this is interesting, so the EWL was still on this morning when i first started up the car, but i decided to drive it anyway to the shop to grab the battery as it seems to run just fine, and it did even with the EWL on, so i got the to the shop, grabbed the battery, stuck it in the boot to bring home, got into the car, turned it on, and everything was fine, no EWL, ran the car home with no issues and then sat for 5 mins with it ticking over in idle waiting for it to light up again like a xmas tree, and nothing, so i think you were right, the battery may be the issue here plus me running it for almost 2 months on such short trips.....i will put in the new battery anyway and if all goes well then i will be more wary of such short trips in the future.

Thank you both for all your help and fingeres crossed over the next week as i run it about and see what happenes.

 

[Leroypanda]

remember to check if you have a radio code before you do it

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

remember to check if you have a radio code before you do it

Standard-fit radio has no code: it’s linked to the body computer and it’s check against the chip in the key.

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Well this is interesting, so the EWL was still on this morning when i first started up the car,

Thank you both for all your help and fingeres crossed over the next week as i run it about and see what happenes.

the engine warning light ‘remembers’ it’s been triggered. It will come on until the issue is solved and the code cleared, OR if the engine is started three times in succession without the fault being detected again. So it may be your battery charge had improved and you started it the third time?

 

[Panda IIs]

I am just on the way to grab a new battery for that £50, i will take the gamble that it might possibly be the battery as before all this happened, along with that new e5 fuel, i was doing really short 10min morning trips to and back from work 5 days a week, so this might have killed the battery the more i think about it, so for £50 i am willing to give it a gamble, fingeres crossed.

I'm assuming no stop/start in your model (Pop), otherwise that's a remarkably cheap battery - good catch sir!

As you pointed out lots of short runs this time of year does no favours to the battery; maybe give it a top up from time to time? There is also a battery voltage monitor that is hung off the negative post (I think - I don't have the car in front of me) which decides whether some car functionality is available (stop start, hill start, 4WD (n/a I know) and various other bits and pieces) this may not be relevant to Pop models but if it is there this can create issues should it fail by triggering the warning lights. And finally its worth checking how much the alternator is contributing, however, I think you would have found starting issues before you started wondering about fuel. Oh the joys of winter motoring!

 

[Gordy1234]

^^^Spot on, so i am awaiting delivery of some battery terminal grease that should be here today, do the whole thing right when i change it over to the new battery, but when i think of it now i did almost 2 plus months of very short 5/10 mins trips in the morning and back from work at night, and never really used the car for anything else at the time as work was all encompassing at over that period, and apart from that it seems to run ok and start ok.
And if that is indeed the problem then i will treat it to a new oil and filter service for being good.

 

[A3jeroen]

Battery terminal grease? Petroleum jelly all the way for me.

gr J

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

...i am awaiting delivery of some battery terminal grease ...

Its interesting to look at all modern cars and see that the battery terminals are not greased in anyway when new... I think the argument is/was that old, non-sealed batteries would off-gas a corrosive mix that could lead to the terminals being corroded. It might be 'one of those things that are done' to make it look like a car got serviced (a quick spray of white lithium grease on the battery, along wit all the hinges etc) - personally I've never bothered and never (yet) had an issue.
[stands back to read the 'pros and cons of greasing' replies]

 

[Gordy1234]

For me it is just force of habit as i have done it with all my cars, plus the tube was only £3 delivered.

 

[Gordy1234]

Ok a bit of a update, so i replaced with a new battery and ran the car for a few hours and all was well, next day the same, no issues, but on the way home stopped at a local McDonald drive through and bingo, it was back, dashboard lit up like a xmas tree, so it was not the battery after all, now this is quite a random issue as it only seems to appear once i stop the car and it is sitting idle for like 30 seconds, and the annoying thing is the car seems to be running perfectly, engine sound fine, runs ok, only this random fault that appears out of nowhere when i have stop.......and just as a test today i did a few hours driving and i made sure that whenever i stopped at any lights i would put on the handbrake, sit in neutral and gently give it some gas, never letting the car truely sit idling, and this issue did not appear at all...........so it is kind of a strange one...........but it is booked into the garage on the 3rd so we shall see what they say.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Search earth strap issues. P.S. I dont like the E10 all our Pandas run much better on the B expensive stuff.

 

[Gordy1234]

^^^Believe it or not due to covid and work i have not yet been able to get the car into the garage to deal with the continuing problem, and as of yesterday the battery was dead, so the issues are mounting up........i am hopefull i can get it in this weekend. lol

But thank's for any and all suggestions.