HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle pressed

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mikeonb4c
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HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle pressed

Post by mikeonb4c » Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:28 pm

Hi All

I'm wondering if anyone can help with thoughts on this one. My partner Trish bought a a 2005 Rav4 3 door diesel about 3 months ago. A few weeks after buying it, when she put her foot down to accelerate, the engine completely lost power and the engine management light came on. She pulled over, turned the engine off and restarted it a few minutes later. The engine had returned to normal but the engine management light stayed on. I bought her an inexpensive engine diagnostics tool and it gave glow plugs as the cause though this seems unlikely to me and may be a limitation of the tools or the EMS sophistication. Anyway, Trish contacted the dealer (who seem nice people - small family run) who sold it to her and (although she's not had receipts to confirm this) we think they put new glow plugs in (not sure why) and maybe (from Trish's recalling the dealer mentioned something about a 'gate') had the turbo waste gate looked at, all done by the garage they use. All seemed fine until yesterday, when I was driving it on the motorway and went to put my foot down at around 65 mph in top gear. It felt perhaps a little underpowered so, as I don't know the car well and wanted to see if I needed to press the throttle harder, I pressed the accelerator some more to see if it would respond better. I was rewarded by the engine immediately going into limp mode and an interesting attempt to get across to the hard shoulder followed. Switched engine off, restarted after a couple of minutes (although maybe I could have restarted at once and cleared the limp mode?) . After that the EMS light remained on but the engine seemed to run perfectly. I even tried later on flooring the throttle at low engine RPM and it didn't complain.

Obviously we need to get this sorted as the situation is potentially dangerous. Does anyone have any experience of or thoughts on what is happening here? We'd be grateful for any advice or thoughts. Could it be an over-fuelling issue, or fuel starvation maybe? Could it be linked to the turbo? After the first time this happened, Trish did a lot of googling and found references to the cause being associated with protecting the turbocharger, but I've no idea what that means.

Thanks chums.
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by Simon Jones » Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:39 pm

It goes into limp mode to protect the engine when a fault occurs so there could be many reasons for it to occur. One that happened to me on my previous XC70 was a split in the intercooler resulting in a drop in inlet pressure. Always tended to happen if you'd been chugging along steadily & then tried to accelerate quickly & was also usually accompanied by a load of black exhaust smoke. Fairly common issue on Volvo cars due to their relatively high boost pressures but similar problems could affect other vehicles.
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by mikeonb4c » Wed Dec 30, 2015 2:04 pm

Simon Jones wrote:It goes into limp mode to protect the engine when a fault occurs so there could be many reasons for it to occur. One that happened to me on my previous XC70 was a split in the intercooler resulting in a drop in inlet pressure. Always tended to happen if you'd been chugging along steadily & then tried to accelerate quickly & was also usually accompanied by a load of black exhaust smoke. Fairly common issue on Volvo cars due to their relatively high boost pressures but similar problems could affect other vehicles.
Useful info Simon and thanks. I'm guessing we'll probably have to start on a slow process of elimination, starting with cheapest/simplest things first. I've not dealt with EMS diagnostics before but from experience so far with this one, they may not be that useful in guiding us to the root cause? What a pain grrrrrr.
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by stuc » Wed Dec 30, 2015 2:56 pm

Mike, my mate with a Rav experienced something similar recently due to fuel being run low, apparently it limits throttle response to conserve fuel when running low, strange but that's what it was, I think you need to plug it into a proper diagnostic machine and find the fault. It could be linked to this system if it has been run low recently.
Might not be but just a suggestion.
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by helen&tony » Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:43 pm

Hi
I had a Rav4 petrol that did similar. It started doing it in one extraordinary downfall (rain), and I could tell the weather by driving the damn' thing every occasion after that...As soon as the air was damp, it would go "flat" on the accelerator, and I'd pull over and turn the engine off, re-start, and it was fine. No lights, no "nuffink", and the electrics were fine (I'm a fan of renewing the lot when I buy a car). The dealer (who I knew well) got me an appointment with a guy that did nothing but do computer scans on electrics / fault codes for the trade...he found nothing wrong. I took it to Toyotas, and they couldn't find a fault (the service manager came in the car for a test ride)...He said that it's going to be a *** to find, but as it had variable timing, he thought it might possibly be the fault. I never did find the trouble, but PXd it at the garage I bought it for a new Suzuki ...first of the WagonR+to be registered at their showroom...smashing car!...only swapped it for a Bongo because I had an offer of 2 English Bull-Mastiffs, and the Suzi was too small!
Good luck!
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by mikeonb4c » Wed Dec 30, 2015 5:54 pm

Thanks Stuc and Helen. It seems (from lots of toyota forum reading) that this can happen with the D4D engine and the precise cause may take a bit of tracking down. But its a lovely car so I'm sure we'll get there eventually. Keep the thoughts coming and thanks again.
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by Debs and David » Wed Dec 30, 2015 6:53 pm

Hi

We have a diesel Lexus and exactly the same thing happened to our car about a month ago, but when wife was driving down motorway. She managed to get off luckily as all power was lost and wouldn't pick up speed. To cut a long story short it turned out that the EGR valve needed cleaning. Look it up on youtube. Hope this helps. :D
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by mikeonb4c » Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:27 pm

Debs and David wrote:Hi

We have a diesel Lexus and exactly the same thing happened to our car about a month ago, but when wife was driving down motorway. She managed to get off luckily as all power was lost and wouldn't pick up speed. To cut a long story short it turned out that the EGR valve needed cleaning. Look it up on youtube. Hope this helps. :D
Thanks guys, that's strangely reassuring and I'll pass it on to Trish so she can discuss with the garage. A Lexus doing it eh - who'd have thunk it!
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by sotal » Fri Jan 01, 2016 9:45 pm

The VW pd engine has a similar problem. The normal cause of that is overboost. If it detects overboost for more than so many seconds it would go into limp mode to protect the engine.

We got very good at turning the keys off and back on again whilst driving to combat this (be warned it you try this you momentarily lose brakes and steering!). When it happened we would ensure we were on a straight road with no reason to stop, then turn the keys off, then back on but not to the starter motor and it would bump start back in with a few revs. Got it smooth enough that nobody else in the car would notice.

Eventually got round to looking into it was the arm from the wastegate sticking had to lie under the car moving it in and out hundreds of times to free it off. This cured it for about a year, another fix we found was to tow a caravan long distances down the motorway - must have cleaned the deposits off the turbo!
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by Bob » Fri Jan 01, 2016 10:11 pm

Pretty sure Northern Bongolow posted a You Tube vid on cleaning your turbo with oven cleaner.
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by blobber » Fri Jan 01, 2016 11:59 pm

My works vw caddy went into limp mode recently, turned out to be a fault with the egr, and funnily, with it being vw, is a dealer repair only!
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by Northern Bongolow » Sat Jan 02, 2016 12:16 am

what age and engine is the caddy alan.?.

try the oven cleaner mike, or have a little read of this, it mentions a problematic valve.

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/ ... lfunction/.
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by mikeonb4c » Sat Jan 02, 2016 9:39 am

sotal wrote:The VW pd engine has a similar problem. The normal cause of that is overboost. If it detects overboost for more than so many seconds it would go into limp mode to protect the engine.

We got very good at turning the keys off and back on again whilst driving to combat this (be warned it you try this you momentarily lose brakes and steering!). When it happened we would ensure we were on a straight road with no reason to stop, then turn the keys off, then back on but not to the starter motor and it would bump start back in with a few revs. Got it smooth enough that nobody else in the car would notice.

Eventually got round to looking into it was the arm from the wastegate sticking had to lie under the car moving it in and out hundreds of times to free it off. This cured it for about a year, another fix we found was to tow a caravan long distances down the motorway - must have cleaned the deposits off the turbo!
V useful post. I had wondered about trying that and now I will ;-)
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by mikeonb4c » Sat Jan 02, 2016 9:44 am

Northern Bongolow wrote:what age and engine is the caddy alan.?.

try the oven cleaner mike, or have a little read of this, it mentions a problematic valve.

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/ ... lfunction/.
Thanks Ady, will look up the YouTube oven cleaner video. We've spent time looking at rav4 threads and have summarized them for the dealer, who is taking it back today for the garage to have a look at. Will keep all posted - I'm hopeful we'll track it down eventually and its a lovely car otherwise, so well worth it.
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Re: HELP: Rav4 2005 going into limp mode when throttle press

Post by blobber » Sun Jan 03, 2016 12:42 am

Ady..... its a new 1.9td.
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