CRC throttlebody cleaner (spray) purchased at "the zone". I have to admit I am getting REALLY nervous with these "limp home mode" posts. I have 2 small children that ride in ours, (mostly highway miles). I am starting to second guess our purchase, although it is one of the nicest vehicles I have driven/owned. If Joyce would ever read these posts, I think A) we would spend the $1,400 and have everything replaced (out of pocket we have no warranty) or B) sell a very nice automobile before anything happens with the children in the backseat or Joyce at the helm. I may have to consult with the wifey about this "epidemic"

 

I completely understand your concern, but I do think on some models/years theres are some TSB's on this problem. I would ask your local Jag dealer, and if they are unresponsive, go to another one. This CAN be prevented by making sure the harness and all connections are sealed thoroughly, i.e. silicone or whatever they use. Anything to prevent moisture to get into the throttle body. I highly recommend doing this, and if need be, print out these posts and bring it to the service manager. Good luck.

 

Before you get too scared by the jag limp home, try a google search for other makes, e.g. in google look for:
"limp home" lexus

 

I fully understand your concern. I wish the Limp Mode incident had happened to me instead of my wife. Guys deal with the problem at hand and do the necessary investigative work to find the best solution to minimize the chances of this happening again. But gals get scared sh*tless and are instantly ready to push the car over a cliff, never wanting to set foot in it again. Add small kids to the equation and it becomes an even more difficult issue....

I believe that there are things that you can do (or NOT do) in order to minimize your chances of experiencing the dreaded Limp Mode monster:

1. Never hose off your engine bay regardless of how dirty or greasy it gets. When you need to clean it, suck it up and get in there with nothing more than old rags, a can of silicone spray, and a lot of good old-fashioned elbow grease.

2. Keep the rubber seals around your hood in good condition. Clean up the leaf litter that collects on your cowl on a weekly basis, and keep those rubber seals pliable with a product made to do just that (such as a tube of Sil-Glyde).

3. Check the electrical connections under your hood from time to time and make certain they are plugged in and secured properly.

4. Park in a garage or carport or covered parking deck whenever you can, especially during periods of heavy rain. It just makes sense that the more you can do to prevent rain from getting into your engine compartment, the lesser your chances are of your car deciding to throw itself into Limp Mode.


I'm sure there are other good tips we all can follow. Hopefully other owners will add some of them here....

 

Those would probably be wise with any modern car

 

I've repeatedly cleaned off under the hood of my 05. Spray it down with gunk and hit it with the hose. I have also checked and sprayed all the connections with contact cleaner then silicone and or die electric grease. My car sees heavy duty commuting. I've put 13k on her in 10 months. Not a hiccup.
The point: If you check the parts and keep them clean then they should be fine.
I would ask that the dealer check on TSB's since if there is an issue with the parts on your car, they could check by VIN.
I also would have to ditto JagV8, most luxury cars now have a limp mode. If the wife gets scared, just search for forums where "normal" cars that don't have the sophistication of "limp" mode just shut off when it has a throttle issue. While both are scary, I'd rather be in the car that will crawl to the side of the road with brakes and steering than be in one that just dies.

 

I agree with you Jeff (JOsworth). I am having my throttle body replaced tomorrow because of the limp mode scenario posted last week. Thanks again to Bull27 for help. As I understand it the part in cost has come down in price. I am based in the UK and the part was £900 now its £426. Maybe for those conerned you need to shop around and get a cheaper $. Equally as per the advice here if the unit has not gone yet for you then get some silicon on there to protect it.

 

Sorry to say but I would tell them that you figured it out and it the throttle body. I am 99 percent sure of this and your experience mirrors mine to the tee. Let me know how it goes. Good luck!

 

RDS: Hows it going, status? What did your mechanic have to say when you told them it was DEFINATELY the throttle body?

 

I had a similar situation happen with my 2002 x-type, came out of work and thought I had a dead battery, a freind and I managed to get it jump started and it went to immediate limp mode. I limped it to the dealer, where they checked the code, my starter was almost gone! New starter and an hour later and we were all good again. Oddly when I lost a nipple on the coolant reserve tank the car continued to run happily till I got home, although it left a trail of coolant behind it.

 

Lots of cars now have this limp mode. The equivalent in the past was that the engine cut out, which could be scary, too. At least now you can keep moving, even if it's without the performance you're used to.

 

Yes, scary when you don't expect it. But WAY better than the "old" way. If one of the systems failed on a computer controlled vehicle back then, it just died... No power, no power brakes, no power steering, just dead! I'm passionate because I've had one die on me before... YIKES! I certainly hope Jen's Caravan has limp mode... But I doubt it. If it ever suffers a failure I certainly hope she can limp to the side of the road instead of loosing steering and brakes.... She's a little thing and don't think she'd handle the loss of steering and brakes too well. OK, rant over.....

 

People! Don't panic about the limp mode, it is designed into these and other cars to protect from further, more expensive damage. You don't just go dead in the middle of traffic, the car will still move, just slowly. When my Jag did it, the cause was a bent raw wire touching the starter. I "limped" in the slow lane to the dealer who replaced it and the starter in less than an hour. Someone had apparently leaned on the part to reach something else and had caused the problem. I didn't even have to pay for the repair and my car is fine now! Many new cars now have this feature so getting rid of your pet Jag is a silly idea. These things just happen to us all and Jag isn't any more bothered by it than any other auto, this forum is for discussion of such issues, so yeah it may seem like a lot, but then you aren't going to post here if you are one of the many thousands who have never had a problem.

 

Thank god others had this problem. Happened to me now about 4 times. Twice on the highway, lucky I put the flashers on and creeped to the side safely. I too got the limp mode and warning lights like crazy.1st time- I had a code reader and tried to clear them but they kept coming back. I creeped to a auto parts store and disconnected the battery for 10 mins and problem temp solved-was raining very hard that day. Second time happened once I crossed over railroad tracks-shut car off and restarted and it was fine. 3rd time was on a highway crusing and it shut off, pulled over and disconnected battery again and then reset it was fine-no rain that day. 4th time driving about 15mph and it shut off again-no rain-restarted and it cleared. I was waiting till it happened again to get some codes to take it to the dealer but now I will bring up the stuff in this post. As a sidenote my audio system seems to loose its settings randomly-just the bass, treble and sub settings-all radio presets and other things stay...weird.

 

I just had this happen to me two days ago. I was going about 20 mph, and then as I was pulling out of a driveway, I saw the displays previously mentioned. I pulled over, turned the car off, waited about 2-3 minutes, and turned the car back on. It went away, but the red engine symbol was present, but nothing else. Then about 5 minutes later it came back.

I took it to the dealer right then, and then the service manager hooked it up to their computer. It showed the code 2135, but he didn't know what that meant, so he just reset it. It hasn't happened since, but now I am worried that it may happen again at a worse time than before.

I love being able to pull out of a parking lot/driveway and not having to worry about any car catching up to me, but now I am worried that it will go into safe mode.

Does anyone know the likelihood of this happening again since it occurred once already?

 

"Limp home mode" is often caused by moisture getting into the throttle body, and it doesn't take much to set it off. Check the hoses and seals all around your throttle body area. If the problem isn't corrected, you can expect it to happen again....

 

Does anyone know what the code 2135 means?

 

P2135?