moon928

In the last 2 weeks for one reason or another I have not driven my car all that often, so when I started her up last Saturday and she idled funny, it didn’t seem like too much of a big deal. I knew she needed to be driven and I obliged.

Yesterday- A week of rain and a heavy case of cabin fever later- I took her for another drive. She idled much better than the week before but my goodness the gas gauge was falling quicker than the rain I was driving in, so back to the garage she went.

Today, brought sun and plenty of it so, for a warm up I took her for a quick coffee run first, and then the main event of the day-my son’s last soccer game.

The idle was ok. It wasnt rock solid and it did hesitate a couple of times while I was at Dunkin Donuts, but nothing earth shattering. Sure, it crossed my mind there may be a problem, the MAF came to mind first, but it was sunny, and I don’t have any will power when it comes to not driving this car. Plus, I was only going up one exit to the soccer fields- what could possibly go wrong?

I traveled down my hill and 300 yards up the highway, when I went to take the exit ramp, I gave her a little gas and-whoa!- no power. I mean lose your alternator no power. It was as if someone had taken the engine right out of the car. I first checked to see if the car was even on, but all gauges were working fine. My eyes darted to the location of the central warning light and then back to the cluster and no warning lights were illuminated. I pressed the gas pedal and the car shuttered, but it was moving under some power.

I had two kids in the car, so pulling over on the exit ramp was not an option. I made an effort to get to a parking lot just off the exit and that is when I felt that I might have enough power to make it home on the back roads. What a strange feeling- I was in limp mode. It was like the car knew I had my kids, and it needed to get back to the house. Thankfully I wasn’t too far from my house.

I have heard many speak of the limp mode, but I have never experienced it first hand, and I hope I never have to do it again. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy I made it home, but I have to tell you, for those who haven’t experienced it yet, it is quite an unsettling feeling. It rates right up with the T/B warning light coming on.

I suspect the MAF is a goner. All symptoms point in that direction. If anyone has any other ideas please chime in.

The good new is that I made it to my sons game and he scored a couple of goals.

Daniel Dudley

How old are your plug wires, cap & rotor ? I just ''fixed'' my 80 with a hair dryer to the cap. My 89 suffered limp home, and it was the wires. They looked to be the originals. Car had extensive service records too.

John Speake

How many miles on the car ?

WallyP

Carefully check the coil wires and tops of the coils, especially the left coil wire. Make sure that the coil wires are not touching any metal or any other wire harnesses.

moon928

John- The car has 103k on it.

Wally- I will check the coil wires tonight. I didnt have a chance to look at anything yesterday.

John Speake

Hi
At 103k the MAF could be aged so much that it tells the LH ECU to go to limp home. If you can, monitor the voltage from pin 6 to pin 7 of the LH ECU while the car is at ilde. If it is much below 2.4v then it is telling the LH to go" limp".

Regards

moon928

I haven't had a chance to do much since Sunday, so I rolled up my sleeves tonight to get dirty, but first I thought I would crank her over to see if she dried out a bit, and it idles just as rough as it did before. I noticed a strong smell of raw fuel coming from the tailpipe. Should I pull the MAF and see if it idles smoothly?
I checked my PO records and the Wires were replaced 10/01 @78k. The Ignition rotors were replaced 3/02 @81k and the distributor caps were replaced 11/02 @ 83K.
The car stands with 103k on it now.

moon928

I unplugged the MAF and the car wouldnt crank over at all. I plugged it back in and it took at bit before the car turned over but it did. Once it was started I pulled the lead off the MAF again and the car shut right down. I turned her off and I have been reading past post on "LIMP" moded ever since.

Any help would be appreciated.

John Speake

Hi
If the car won't even run with MAF disconnected, then that appears to rule out MAF as the main problem.

Running very rich, even with engine cold suggests some other problem. Unlikely to be O2 sensor because this is ignored for the first few minutes after cold start.....

It may just be the result of a misfire that you smell unburnt fuel...

Try to get a diagnostic tester on the car, and see what fault codes are stored. If no faults stored then may be something the ECU cannot recognise as a fault code.

I would make quite sure all the ground points are clean... then try a LH ECU swap

Regards

Daniel Dudley

Start with basics. Got spark ? Once a cap or wire goes bad, it creates a path for electricity to follow that is easier than jumping a plug gap. Reread Wally's post and start there. At least half the ''fuel'' related problems I have ever seen are really spark related.
As you must know by now, limp home was created to prevent raw fuel from dumping into the cats. and the raw fuel would be a result of... lack of spark to one side of the engine. Bad wires, bad cap, cracked coil. Check these first. Pull the plugs and look at them. Only after this should you suspect exotic problems.

SharkSkin

Note -- do NOT keep cranking and cranking. If you do, you run the risk of doing damage to rings, cams, etc. so whatever you do, come back to making the car run every so often so you get oil on the cylinder walls, etc.