Battery was tested just before Xmas and was found to be in good order. My feeling about this problem is that there is another sensor somewhere (apart from the MAP) which enriches the fuel air mixture to enable cold starting. I have checked various forums on the internet (mostly USA based) to see if there are any similar type problems that have been identified and sorted. Apparently some of the more up-market vehicles over there (and in UK) can be fitted with anything up to five sensors to determine mixture and ignition settings, any of which can and do give duff info to the ECU and cause cold starting and other issues. The problem I have is trying to identify probably only one! I understand the Panda does have a coolant temp sensor somewhere near the thermostat housing but so far I have been unable to find it. Does anybody know where it is located and could this sensor be the problem.... or part of it?

As stated before, once the engine is fully warmed, there are no problems either running or re-starting.

I had this similar problem on a Fiat Seicento Sport with the 1.2 motor. - check the body and engine earths are making good contact - clean the contact areas are bright metal and smear with silicone grease and reassemble tight.

Yes,your battery is in trouble.Volt drop to 7.5 volts under crank is too low.

I am having the same issues with my 56 plate Panda. Did replacing the battery work?

Well, it's been far too cold to be messing around with cars outside for at least the past 5 weeks so no further investigation was done. However, now the temperatures are on the rise, I decided it was about time to continue trying to find the problem. So, a few days ago I removed the battery from the car and did a major clean up of the main terminals and 'negative' connectors. The battery posts were quite dull with oxide as were the terminals so these were given a good going over with emery paper back to bright metal. As the battery was off the car I thought it might be a good idea to give it a top up charge on the bench. I connected the charger and lo and behold the ammeter went straight up to 5 amps (max) and stayed there for the best part of 5 hours ! After that the charge rate gradually dropped to just under 1 amp at which point it didn't seem to want to take any more. Conclusion for all this.... the battery was almost flat.

Question though...... why was this not picked up on the garage's battery test equipment? All indications were about normal according to them. Also why was the battery capable of cranking a freezing cold engine without failing completely? Very odd in my book.

My own opinion...... Fiat somehow manage to arrange some sort of priority with the distribution of available current during starting and in this case I suspect that although there was just about enough for the starter, there wasn't sufficient volts / amps for the ECU, hence the trip computer and clock resetting. Curious to say the least.

I will be soldiering on for the summer months using this original battery (monitoring it closely) but will be replacing it in the autumn. I will probably look at getting a heavier duty type as most of my driving is short distance and there isn't a lot of time to recharge what's been taken out in a cold start situation.