Well it finally happened, I found out what limp mode is. (i think)

The car was working fine, no problems, I did about 100 miles yesterday stopping and starting, then today took the dog for a walk, got back in the car which started fine but then there was no power in forwards or reverse, no warning lights, just the engine warning light which came on on constantly. I managed to get home cos there was a bit of a downhill slope which assisted the car rolling forwards and then it gradually reluctantly picked up enough speed to get home, my driveway is a gentle slope upwards and there in no way it has enough power to get up. So its in the road until the pick up truck can come for it.

I always thought limp mode enabled you to drive at about 20 mph but there is absolutely minimal power in drive or reverse, in fact the engine almost stalls and it did a stall 4 or 5 times before it could roll down the hill. When I picked up enough speed the kick down worked and i could make it about a mile back home.

Any suggestions as to what happened ? there are no warning lights or flashing lights, just the engine light which is on constantly. In Park or neutral it revs OK.

2010 x type estate, 2.2 diesel

Feeling very glum, Harry

 

Test your battery, and preferably read the codes.

 

Hi Mark, thanks for your reply, Ive been away for a week but put the battery on charge just to make sure, It was reading 13.5 v this morning. So I tried it again, the engine turned once, sparked into life and immediately died. It does this over and over, it won't even start now.

 

Get the code(s) read and post here and/or do a search on here. Chances are there will be other threads where those codes were discussed.

 

13.5 includes the (useless) surface charge.

What does it read during cranking?

 

it reads 9.8v when cranking, it fires up and dies after a few seconds, I can't read the codes on the onboard computer but I have a mechanic friend coming over this morning with his professional diagnostic equipment so ill report back later

 

Your battery is way too low.

 

OK so my friend arrived with his computer. First thing he said was, the battery is low ! he went through all the fault codes and found nothing in particular except the air mass sensor was a little out of range. So he put in a spare battery, cleared all the faults, re booted the ECU and the car fired up.

Before the failure I had been sat in the car waiting for the girlfriend in the shop (yawn) so I had been trying to reset the clock (without success) so the ignition had been on for a while whilst I was pressing buttons. Then we drove about 1/4 mile to walk the dog, then got in and re-started and thats when the power went. So the diagnosis was that I had weakened the battery by keeping the ignition on, followed by two engine starts in a short space of time which together with a fault on the MAF had 'frozen' the ECU.

So the car is back home awaiting a new battery and a new MAF unit. I have ordered a Varta Silver Dynamic battery (which apparently is the same as Bosch with a different label).

 

Thanks very much for all your replies and yes it seems it was a weak battery which caused the problem.