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Strange engine behaviour after stalling

Richard B

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Location
Australia
Car
2006 Tourer
We've all occasionally stalled the engine, right?

I did today, after a 1 hour drive, ending in stop-start urban traffic, I think I misjudged the revs pulling out from a parking space, onto the road, on a slight uphill. The car went cloink and I quickly restarted it before the people in my village noticed the shame I bought upon them.

But the engine refused to rev over 1000. There was no power. And then there was a little bit, allowing me to move the car, and then again it slipped to 1000rpm regardless of throttle position. I barely nursed the car into a car park, using 100% of the single horsepower the engine was giving me, and 150% of my ability to improv apologies in universal mime. (I completely blocked the car park exit for a bit).

I didn't have my code reader with me today, but the dash did not indicate there was a code.

Left the car for 2 hours, started it up, and there were no problems at all. Drove it 80 km home, half expecting it to slump again, but it never did.

This is similar to the symptoms I had that made me replace the fuel filter, but perhaps that was a misdiagnosis. I stalled the car that time as well. The filter is still fairly new.

Does anyone have a plausible explanation for the faux limp mode the car adopted? Did the EGR valve get stuck open? Does the fuel system do something funny on engine stall? Is there some ECU sensor input buffer that overflows with crap data after improper shutdown? Has anyone else had this happen? Is one of my sensors on the way out?

I searched for a few relevant descriptors on old threads, but didn't find anything.
 
It sounds like a limp mode because it is. I had times when a code didn't flag up and switching off and restarting (three times ?) clears whateve may or may not have been on the dasboard.

My guess would be an electrical issue, damp in the fusebox - or any one of a number of connectors seeing it is a very damp winter. Is the car parked up outside when not used ?
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

I thought Limp Mode in the Diesel Accord still allows up to 2000 rpm? Are there different limp modes?

The 3 starts thing does make sense though. I will try that if it ever happens again.

It's not winter where I am though... Yes the car is stored outside, but it was 43 degrees here yesterday and a black car gets to about 70 in full sun at times. Mind you, summer here now has crazy oscillations in temperature and a lot more rain. There still can be corrosion, especially in a 20 year old car. Probably a good idea to re-plug all the connectors and maybe install that direct earth lead.
 
Did you get any warning lights at all? Any flashing glow plug light for example? Did the vsa light appear even momentarily? I would still plug in to retrieve any codes, but near total loss of throttle on these is nearly always down to an induction problem, such as stuck egr, split/disconnected boost hose or even a jammed IMRC. It could also be fuel related, or maybe even a crank sensor if the temps were really hot. The other thing that springs to mind is a dodgy accelerator pedal position sensor..
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

I thought Limp Mode in the Diesel Accord still allows up to 2000 rpm? Are there different limp modes?

The 3 starts thing does make sense though. I will try that if it ever happens again.

It's not winter where I am though... Yes the car is stored outside, but it was 43 degrees here yesterday and a black car gets to about 70 in full sun at times. Mind you, summer here now has crazy oscillations in temperature and a lot more rain. There still can be corrosion, especially in a 20 year old car. Probably a good idea to re-plug all the connectors and maybe install that direct earth lead.
I can't recall the max rpm, but I could get up to slightly over 40MPH in top/fifth gear on a good day.

Farhad suggestion of the TPS could be good though I always got a fault code before replacing mine a couple of years back. I did post images somwhere of the track wear and lived with the fault for years by spraying switch cleaner (Servisol) into the connector, pumping the pedal and leaving for an hour.
 
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