Technical Stop Start On An Automatic Panda 64

[badbackbilly]

Hi Guys

Please help, we have a Fiat Panda 64 plate Petrol Automatic 1000cc. How on earth do you get the stop/start to work, its turned on as it says it on the display. Its new to us and as we do long trips often as yet its never kicked in but then we are not 100% how to either eg foot on brake and so on.

Also none of our cups fit the dam holders any ideas to get round it, a mod maybe?

Thanks guys really appreciate any help given

 

[FiatMatt94]

These cars do take some getting used to if you're new to them, it took me a few months to get fully used to mine when I first brought it. If it is a 64 plate It will be the twinair dualogic which is semi automatic as they were the only engines in 319 Panda range to get dualogic gearbox



This is a picture of the Panda interior with dualogic. The start/stop on off button is on the switch panel on the end nearest the steering wheel as the red arrow in the picture shows. To be honest your probably better just having it switched off as having a car stopping and starting everytime you pull up to a junction or traffic lights would wear the starter motor & battery out quicker. Any car I have driven with this function on has never worked properly anyway, including a brand new Hyundai I30 which was a courtesy car when I crashed my old Cinquecento.

 

[chris3234]

These cars do take some getting used to if you're new to them, it took me a few months to get fully used to mine when I first brought it. If it is a 64 plate It will be the twinair dualogic which is semi automatic as they were the only engines in 319 Panda range to get dualogic gearbox

View attachment 219590

This is a picture of the Panda interior with dualogic. The start/stop on off button is on the switch panel on the end nearest the steering wheel as the red arrow in the picture shows. To be honest your probably better just having it switched off as having a car stopping and starting everytime you pull up to a junction or traffic lights would wear the starter motor & battery out quicker. Any car I have driven with this function on has never worked properly anyway, including a brand new Hyundai I30 which was a courtesy car when I crashed my old Cinquecento.

While it takes a strain on the battery there's no wear on the starter motor

I've seen very few starter motors faults reported on here on modern Cars with start stop

 

[Marcus Daly]

The anecdotal evidence on here is that stop/start is one of the first things to fail as the battery ages. A new battery might fix it. It seems to fix nearly everything on the Panda.

The square cup-holders are hilarious. An elaborate practical joke by Fiat.

 

[Jerseywurzel]

The start stop engine in my 1.2 manual works perfectly since new 2 years ago.

Compared with my old 2011 panda 1.2, I'm getting around 5 miles per gallon extra. So worth using from my point of view

 

[murphyv310]

The start stop in my 2017 city cross workwd for a short time after purchase then was temperamental. The battery was OK but eventually a code came up saying brake booster vacuum switch failure. Replacement cured the issue, then a month later I had a further catastrophic failure..... Leading to parting company with the car unfortunately.

 

[badbackbilly]

Hi Guys

Thank you a few things to look at maybe the battery is the problem after all. What is the way that starts off the stop/start mode. In neutral with foot on brake, or in gear and hand brake on, Its this part I'm unsure about. Thanks again

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

The stop/start system is turned on (ie it will try to stop/start) when the light in the switch is off. If the light in the switch is on, it shows the system has been disabled. The digital display on the dash should say 'stop.start connected' when the button is pressed and the light turned off. The system monitors battery voltage, and will not operate if the voltage is low. It continues to monitor the voltage after the engine has stopped, and can choose to restart the car 'early' to stop the voltage dropping so far that it can't start again. I believe the system also monitors the brake servo vacuum, and can restart the engine if the vacuum 'pressure' drops too. Mine has been faultless over the past three years, but the car is used regularly (every other day and at least 20 miles round) so the battery remains in good health. However, it won't always stop the engine if lots of short trips, or if there's a high load on the battery (eg lights all on, wipers going, blower on full etc)

On the manual cars, the engine stops if the car is stationary, in neutral and the clutch is fully up (ie foot off the pedal). Pressing the clutch restarts the car. My car's handbook doesn't mention stop/start with dualogic (automatic) transmission... but I'd expect it to need the footbrake to be pressed as a minimum, but might not need to be in neutral.

 

[WitleyPanda]

As for cup holders, try buying a McFlurry, the cups are a proper fit. Maybe this was the stable of the designer?

 

[richie17]

With Dualogic, the engine stops whenever you come to a rest with the foot brake. For longer stops, engine stays off when you apply handbrake, move into neutral and release foot brake. Then starts again when you press foot brake and put it in gear.