I’m going through this process with my Panda. Not sure yet if it’s the coil pack or the crank sensor. I’m waiting for a Fiat compatible diagnostic tester to arrive in the post because my generic one isn’t picking anything up. However, the air box can be moved to the left and rotated to the side, completely away from the engine. You need to reach under and carefully pull off the smaller of the two rubber pipes, which allows more movement. The larger one has crimped on steel bands holding it in place so it’s not easily removed or replaced.
We had to change the crankcase sensor in the end too. That was an easy job. A crank sensor is £16.00, surely it is cheaper just to replace this and see what happens. For the sake of £16.00, if it does not work you do not need a DT to know it is the coil pack if there is no improvement.
@@PaulBriden We have another Fiat in the family so the DT will be useful, especially as it can reset the service light, which, unlike most cars, can’t be done in any other way. We also have an Alfa Romeo which this particular DT will diagnose. I actually suspect the coil pack or a plug lead is the issue because of the way this car is acting up. It’s really not a good idea to bolt a vulnerable coil pack onto the hottest part of the engine and cover it with the air box - no surprise that it’s a common failure point on these cars. Seeing that I’ve already paid for the DT I have no intention of fitting other new parts just to try and pre-diagnose the fault!
@@wheater5 Fair enough, it is like all stories, passing an opinion without the full facts or on the facts released, can make an opinion wrong. We bought two new Fiat Pandas. GU12 UFA and GU12 UFB. The problem we had is they were the last of the old shape with the new FIRE engine that cost £30.00 a year to tax. The reason it was a problem is to get the emissions right for the low tax, the car would hit a flat spot if you floored it in first out of a junction. Not much fun in London. In the end a guy came down from Fiat and reset the engine management to another setting. The car was a lot faster and ran a lot smoother afterwards. The only fault we had with them is for the size of car, the heater took ages to get red hot, a Vauxhall 1.8 Zafira heater works a lot faster. Normally the smaller the engine the faster the heater takes to work.
@@PaulBriden Mine is the latest version, but also ‘12 reg. The heater works very well indeed and it also has aircon. A great little car, but quite underpowered (my 993cc, year 2000 Suzuki Swift actually pulls better and runs far more smoothly in traffic - and has never gone wrong in the eight years I’ve owned it). The other Panda in our family is an ‘09 diesel version, which is actually a faster car but has a heavier clutch. Overall, I think these are really good little cars.
Why didn't you remove the air filter? It's just one hose clamp to undo.. Now it's in the way all the time 😂 Note that it concerns a 69 hp 1.2 litre engine (drive-by-wire), so not the more common 60 hp..
@@PaulBriden Yes i understand :-) However, i'm also not a mechanic but know that the hose on the air filter housing is prone to cracking and leaking. Bending it back and forth could really hurt it. If it does have a leak you'll know; You'll smell exhaust gasses in the interior when the engine is idling.
It turned out I changed it for nothing, at the time we had two Pandas, the other one misfired in exactly the same way, we put it into the dealers, £300.00 later and a new coil pack it was fine. It turned out it was the Crankshaft sensor, £80.00 later and easy to fix in 5 minutes job done. I had a friend plug in a diagnostic hand held and it said Crankshaft sensor, so no guessing.
Similar but it could be a number of things, my view, change the coil pack and the crankshaft sensor, you can always rob them off a car at the breakers. Or, the best bet is get it plugged into a diagnostic scanner. It should tell you the fault straight away if any of the afore mentioned are the problem.
