Limp Mode Help Please

[dougie212]

Hi there

My 2002 2.0 TD grand vitara has had an engine management light on for some time. The garage has scanned it for me and off the top of my head I can remember the exact error code, but the technician explained it was an accelerator air fuel sensor, not to worry about it the car will carry on.

It has for several weeks until yesterday on my way to Swansea. The car was pulling lovely then went up a hill and struggled like sin and wouldn't go any faster than 60 and wouldn't accelerate.

I stopped and at the back of the throttle cable is a plug. My logic was to unplug this, grab a coffee and maybe whatever had thrown the car into limp mode will reset.

Alas it worked for about 40 miles and it seemed to pull better than ever, but then went again. An unplug of the same plug for a few minutes rectified the problem.

Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be that is solved by this please?

Thanks
Dougie

[RickUK]

Possibly the best thing would be get a ODB2 unit from Ebay,they are pretty cheap,well certainly cheaper than getting a garage to do it for you.Then you will have all the info provided for you,then once you have that then we can suggest the best way forward.Its also alot cheaper than trying parts just hoping to find the problem 1st time.

Also once you have one of these units you can use it ongoing after the initial cheap purchase price.

[dougie212]

I've been thinking that a scanner would be a worth while investment.

Is there any particular one you could recommend? There's thousands on eBay.

[D3v1n]

I have this one

http://www.obd2tool.co.uk/wholesale/aut ... eader.html

Its very basic but its cheap and does the job. Dont expect anything fancy, it'll give you the codes and freeze frame data and not much else. But thats usually all you need.