Can cold weather cause Limp Mode?

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Clowryy

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Basically it's -2 here, got into the car, got onto a straight and floored it, lost half of the power, first time this ever happened and I knew it was Limp Mode. I got a bit scared so I pulled over and turned it on and off, it was fine then. I was still worrying so I did a little test, left the car parked for a few hours while I slept, got into it without warming it, same straight road, floored it and then Limp Mode again at -1.5. When I thought it was just because its cold, I drove around and let the car warm up a bit, until the temp needle reached 90 I think, got onto a longer straight with it warmed up and floored it like crazy in all gears, no Limp Mode on several tests.

So am I okay? It is actually the cold weather?

I have 2.0 TDI.
 
Very unlikely it's the cold, it's usually caused by a boost leak, dodgy sensor (boost sensor or maf) or could be a problem with the turbo, best to get it scanned with vcds an see what codes are logged.
 
Why are you flooring a diesel when its cold?
 
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The oil takes twice as long (roughly) as the coolant does to get to 90 deg, have some mechanical sympathy, or it will bite you in the ***!
 
Wouldn't floor it whilst the oil is still cold.
 
Engine management light on? (flashing glow plug?) if so then it may be the egr valve, I had this on my 2.0 tdi the other week.. It went in and out of limp mode for a few days then went into limp mode with the emissions light on and the emissions light didn't clear. Its an expensive fix though unfortunately as its a few hours labour plus the part as its at the back of the engine.

Really common fault on these at higher milages..

Ragging it may have cleared some of the crud out temporarily but it will come back again as soon as it builds up.
 
Thanks for the replies, should of said not one light at all came on, I'm actually thinking it was the cold and the engine was just put into Limp Mode as a precaution as it was not heated up yet...
 
Clowryy said:
Thanks for the replies, should of said not one light at all came on, I'm actually thinking it was the cold and the engine was just put into Limp Mode as a precaution as it was not heated up yet...
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Im sorry but you are kidding yourself mate. If the engine goes into limp mode the engine management light comes on. Sounds like your car has a problem and needs some attention asap, id say something wrong with the turbo if it lost all power. Limp mode is triggered by a fault in the engine management system, not just because the engine is cold, i once drove my old A3 up in the highlands when it was -10, it started and drove fine....
 
Dave-S3 said:
Im sorry but you are kidding yourself mate. If the engine goes into limp mode the engine management light comes on. Sounds like your car has a problem and needs some attention asap, id say something wrong with the turbo if it lost all power. Limp mode is triggered by a fault in the engine management system, not just because the engine is cold, i once drove my old A3 up in the highlands when it was -10, it started and drove fine....
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You very well might be right, but it has not happened since, does the light definitely come on? If it does then maybe I didn't go into limp mode as not one light showed up on the dashboard while I was driving or pulled over? :/
 
Dave-S3 said:
Im sorry but you are kidding yourself mate. If the engine goes into limp mode the engine management light comes on. Sounds like your car has a problem and needs some attention asap, id say something wrong with the turbo if it lost all power. Limp mode is triggered by a fault in the engine management system, not just because the engine is cold, i once drove my old A3 up in the highlands when it was -10, it started and drove fine....
Click to expand...

No it doesnt mate, sticking vains or a maf fault wont throw the management light, for sticking vains the ecu would need to see OVERBOOST figure for longer than 10 seconds, it could be lots of things get it plugged in and see what faults are stored

As others have said booting it when cold is not good for the car
 
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