Limp mode, no breakdown cover and 125 miles from home

Car was driving at 65mph up the A9 when I went to overtake and it dropped into limp mode.

Got to campsite, car won’t go over 2k revs, so about 30mph tops.

Have left it overnight in the hope it is better, but if not, how ridiculous would it be to drive it back? Will be a nuisance to other drivers so I’d be pulling into every layby, but is it likely to do even more damage?

Just gone 10 year old Peugeot Partner Teepee diesel.

Cheers.

Leave it with a local garage and get the train home?

It won’t reset, from my experience of diesel Peugeot estates. It was a DPF failure on mine which eventually made me get rid. What warning code are you getting? I assume you can google it.

Dunno, could you get a code reader delivered to the camp site? Obviously check all the hoses are intact.

No code, just says engine fault…I’ve no code reader and will take a nosey for local garages.
It has happened once before and after sitting with engine off, it was fine. I did go to garage after and they couldn’t find any fault. Hoping it does the same this morning…however, if not, a train home then back with another car to collect stuff!

You could try disconnecting the battery for a few minutes, see if that resets it.

Could also be EGR valve. Do you have enough tools with you to clear some of the shite out of there?

I don’t know where that is located…the egr valve, I mean.

I had this driving home from Aberdeen once. Would start normally but could barely get it above 1500 rpm so couldn’t get out of first gear. Turned out to be a small vacuum hose that had split just enough to pop off a connection somewhere once the pressure inside built up – no idea what it was for but obviously something crucial. Zip tie fixed it long enough to get home and replace the hose. Would be worth looking under the bonnet to see if there’s any pipes loose or open-ended fittings that look like they should have something connected to them.

some breakdown cover starts immediately – can buy it and then immediately use it. You won’t get it cheap, you have to call them rather than buy online.

Has it hit 120k miles by any chance?

Just have a cursory check of hoses if it has an intercooler or similar. If one is punctured or has come loose then it would lose boost and may trigger limp mode…

Having said that, two cars that did exactly what you describe would reset if switched off and then restarted… VAG group, not Peugeot.

What he said.. You can just call the AA or Rac.. They might charge you £150 for your trouble if you are really stuck, and insist you sign up for 12 months…

Alternative.. Get a hotel/b&b if it’s cheaper.

exactly what were you doing when it happened?
Did you drop it a gear and rev it out under full boost?
or just pull out maintaining speed in gear and overtake? This would have a bearing on the fault.

96k on the clock…once we all wake up I’ll get the bonnet opened and check all the hoses I can get to.

As others say, it’ll most likely be the DPF or the EGR, both there for emissions so no issues with the engine or car, just puts you in limp mode as the DPF/EGR sensors are triggering it.

If it’s DPF you can usually smell if it’s blocked or partially blocked with the car turned on, travelling back in limp mode will just be slow and tedious, not sure it’s a good idea as if it goes red then the car stops, meaning you need assistance, it’s a long and costly tow though, doubt any garage around where you are would fix it quickly!

see of the campsite knows a local mobile mechanic. i expect.they get a few issues every season so probably have the number of someone half decent

Was doing 65mph and nudged cruise control up to 68mph…indicated to move out and just as I moved over the line, it went beep and it jumped out of cruise control and carried on driving, but slowing down. No noises or judders or jolts, just the beep to report the fault.

Could be anything then! Sorry! It’s code reader time (not sure if normal Obd readers will work – my 2004 Pug Partner can only be read by Citroen Lexia / Peugeot Planet factory/grey cloned full diagnostic dongle and PC)

Get yourself on the UK Berlingo forum if you aren’t already. Someone might have Lexia nearby.

https://www.berlingoforum.com/index.php

If it’s the 1.6 turbo diesel then have a very good listen to the turbo while someone revs it. You’re listening for a slightly harsh bearing noise (these turbos commonly suffer from oil starvation and die early). Driving with a knackered turbo will end very badly and quite spectacularly. While you’re there listen for any whooshing/hissing noises. These would indicate a spilt/loose hose in the boost system, driving with an air leak is not such a big deal.

Oil is changed every year and garage sat they do a wee check and it is ok…suspect the check might be what you have suggested.

I hadn’t heard any different noises whilst driving, will check that again though.

Paging Trail_rat to the discussion, he has this era of Blingno.

I was driving down to the alps a weeks or so ago and my engine warning light came on, was driving fine at 80 on the motorway (France so legal). Then as we hit a hill it started limiting revs, so slow to climb the hills, otherwise would cruise along nicely at 80. Its booked in at the garage to have a check next week, but I drove about 1500 miles like that! Merc Viano not Berlingo btw.

Hoping its nothing major….

How much are code readers?

I’d be going for the mobile/local mechanic route rather than the AA/RAC/whatever. You just want it sorted enough to confidently get home, using a relay service to get it taken home can be a major pain

Last time I checked AA had a surcharge of 40 quid or something to join up once you’d broken down.

Might be worthing checking a few breakdown places.

Checked the engine – no hoses or plugs loose – I’m not really aware of how engines goes together so my knowledge is limited to what I can see and get my hand to…pipes with jubilee clips are all tight. Engine turns and it isn’t making any odd noises…however, it revved ok once and then doesn’t rev over 2k when driving. Took it for a wee drive and same.as.last night.
When I switched the engine off the engine fan was on and it stayed on for almost 10 minutes (the drive was 5 minutes)…
Going to attempt a wee bike ride then a slow drive home!

Should be relatively easy to pull the air intake off the front of the turbo and check for end float.
Are they variable vane units in these? My guess would be gummed up actuator causing airflow to go out of parameters.
Then your playing guess the fault from a list of MAF failed , crankshaft positioning sensors failed , dpf blocked , egr blocked , fuel pump failing ,

Squeeze some of the pipes you can reach. They may not have come loose, but they may have split only revealing themselves under pressure.

Head gasket or water pump if your fan is deffo the radiator and not the Aircon.
Try a drive with the cabin heater on full chat , only short mind . Or does the top hose go rock hard within a minute or two of a cold start?
Temp guage reading Normal,?

I guess with the fans coming on and staying on it might be a temperature sensor.
The sensor for the dash display is separate from the sensor(s) to the ECU on the cars I own.
That said our old shitboxes also have totally separate fan switches.

I had similar issues with a Citroen 10 years ago in a rural part of Scotland.  In my experience going to small local garage with cash in your hand and a sob story will get some attention.  That might just be to reset the error code in the box or in my case reset the code – take egr off and gives it some good whacks to remove some crap.

My experience of Peugot’s going into limp mode is down to various sensor failures, and you might get lucky when you tr yto restart

Where do you normally get the car Serviced/MOT’d ?

Ours have a low loader and would come and collect the car (within reason). We had to no end of problems getting a car recovered last year, and wish I had known this at the time.

Im lucky that Ive found a garage where they appear to be quite genuine and want to do their best for the customer (obviously it means they get to do any work on the car too)

We drove home from Reims a few years ago in my Saab when it went into limp home mode. It was fine, if rather slow. The big problem was it got stuck getting onto the ferry as it didn’t have the power to get up the ramp to the car deck so they had to back everyone off so I could reverse and park on the lorry deck. That was a bit embarrassing

It was fine, if rather slow.

And dangerous !

I think I’d be finding a local garage rather than going for a ride.

Don’t be buggering about with turbos on a campsite unless you really really know what you are doing.

It *could* be EGR or turbo vane related, but that tends to happen on short trip cars and I wouldn’t expect it to happen in the middle of a long trip unless something is causing it to smoke.  Don’t automatically assume that it is.  On my Passat the issue was in the wiring to the boost sensor, the EGR was squeaky clean for its whole life.

Limp mode is there to protect the engine, so IMO it’s unlikely to cause damage.  The only possible issue is that if there’s a boost leak or something like it could cause smoke that you wouldn’t see and it might block up the DPF.  However, the fact it’s in limp mode suggests the car has realised something is wrong and is taking precautions so I’m guessing that won’t happen.  Driving in limp mode could be pretty hairy though. The Passat would do 40mph in limp mode on a flat road, but it was the power that was capped not the speed, so on any hill it would slow to a crawl and you could end up doing 20mph or less. Not nice. The Merc on the other hand was perfectly driveable in limp mode.

Haven’t taken anything off, just made sure all cables were firmly attached. Car goes to 2k and no more so I can drive up to about 50…I think the drive home will be ok if I can keep that kind of speed and use all the lay-bys along the way.
Car going into garage tomorrow…

Drove back from East Sussex to Manchester in a Vectra with a faulty turbo many years ago. Any more than 2200 revs would knock it into limp mode. Middle of the night and 60 mph with no acceleration for 6 hours.

Got rid of the hateful pile of junk straight afterwards.

I can drive up to about 50

Borrow a caravan to make it legit 🙂

“Borrow a caravan to make it legit 🙂”

How to make yourself popular on the A9 😂