I nearly had a big accident yesterday when someone pulled out from a side road without looking or attempting to give way 15m in front of me as I approached at 50mph.  Heavy ABS braking, a massive swerve with tyres squealing and a sigh of relief as I missed the other car (and the ditch) by cm.

 

But, immediately after (within 5 seconds)  the car went into limp mode and I was unable to drive it above 2500 revs and there was no Turbo boost so it struggled to get over 50 mph. There were absolutely no warning lights on the dash or MFD messages (my code reader also shows no flags). Restarting the engine made no difference, so I limped home slowly and was prepared to ring the garage this morning.

 

This morning the car works fine apart from a failed headlight warning, so am completely baffled.

 

Has anyone seen this before ?  Is it some sort of safety device to protect the car in high intensity manoeuvres?

 

 

 

 

Car had a fright   , took a while to get over it! 

Keen to hear an update on this.... and a good reason to have a dash cam.... perhaps get the other party to pay for the visit to the dealer. 

It is very rare to experience limp home mode without the EML (Engine Management Light).

 

Are you sure something didn't get wedged under the accelerator pedal!?

 

I guess if you've activated the ABS, traction control and emergency brake lights (i.e. the car was preparing for impact) then it isn't unreasonable for it to drop into limp home mode, if for no other reason than to prevent you from driving a crashed car too far.

 

I'd imagine had the airbags deployed the fuel cut-off switch would also have been activated.

 

Perhaps limp home mode is a halfway house? If cycling the ignition cured it then I wouldn't worry too much.

I've had limp mode on older VAG cars without an EML before but it did store a code.

 

I'm with Silver on this, given the circumstances and the fact that it has now returned to normal it may have done this by design. I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens again.

After your "robust" use of the brake pedal - did this cause an issue with the brake pedal sensor/switch? Whilst the car thinks the brake pedal is being operated it restricts what the engine can do.

This one continues to be a mystery.  I booked the car in at my local independent who has VCDS and they couldnt find anything wrong with it either as there were no fault codes showing.  As a precaution they fitted a diesel filter in case I had stirred up some crap in the system and it has been as good as gold since. 

 

Their only other comment was that given its 130k miles it is in great nick and runs beautifully, which it does. 

Edited 6 October, 20187 yr by Pesmog