help please!!! p38

Hi
I am new to this so not sure if this is in the right place,
anyway just bought a p38 this morning 2.5dhse on an R plate mint condition,
as i was driving it home 10 mins into the jurney it kept loosing power every so often and the message desplay said " max speed 35mph" and air suspention lights were flashing, also on the message display it said abs fault, Its like tempting to think the ECU has failed but when the car is at a stand still it all works perfectly.
could this be the input from the ABS system to the EAS ECU telling it to shut down, a faulty brake switch or something like that ?
please help much appreciated.

Thanks Jack

Check the battery voltage - a low battery/alternator problem can cause strange messages to be displayed. I would expect it to be just as bad when stationary though.

Still, worth a try.

Guy

are you at home now? has it droped at the back? sounds like air bag

j the range said:

are you at home now? has it droped at the back? sounds like air bag

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Why would that make it lose power though?

Don't know much about diesels but losing power and weird messages could be a battery problem (lift pump?).

Have you had a gearbox fault message come up? That's usually one of the first ones to come up with a bad battery along with abs fault.

the 35mph will cut power??????? maybe

its the anti-wobble valve restrictor plate, probably broke the gudeon pin clean off!!!

Problems with a bad earth connection??

try the battery first, i had wierd msg shown and afetr a lot of tinkering i just bought a new battery and hey presto, i must admit my p38 did not go into limp mode, do some more searching here as this has popped up a few times,
good luck

gavbriggs said:

its the anti-wobble valve restrictor plate, probably broke the gudeon pin clean off!!!

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Coming to think of that before anything happened the steering wheel was wobbling when hitting around 50-60mph and slightly tapping brakes and coming off the accelerator.
what is the anti wobble valve restrictor and is it big to fix
also after having to pull over on the hard shoulder of the M1 it struggled to start again and didnt take long at all for the battery to sound flat but managed to start
many thanks

johnnyafrica said:

try the battery first, i had wierd msg shown and afetr a lot of tinkering i just bought a new battery and hey presto, i must admit my p38 did not go into limp mode, do some more searching here as this has popped up a few times,
good luck

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limp mode thats it, thats what it went into as my mate described it, he has had a few p38's but conveniently gone away for 3 weeks this afternoon !

If the fault message is clearing then it shouldn't be an actual EAS ECU fault, as you'd have to reset ECU to clear it, sounds more like an electrical/earth fault. Can't think of a reason for the ABS ECU to talk to the EAS ECU either. Are there any signs of overheating or loss of oil pressure, when my rad blew the ECU cut engine power to protect it as much as poss from further damage?

no theres no signs of overheating or low oil pressure, but when coming to start it back up when hot it took ages to start and a small orange light come up on the right hand side of the dash looked like a pin with dotted lines coming out of it, injectors im guessing, cant get my head around all this !
thanks for help so far any way guys

j the range said:

the 35mph will cut power??????? maybe

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The 35mph message does not cut power on the diesel, at least it does not on mine

Loss of power, maybe fuel filter, lift pump, and a number of other things. A poor battery might just cause the engine to go into limp home mode, but so could a faulty temperature sensor for instance

lil_gibbo89 said:

no theres no signs of overheating or low oil pressure, but when coming to start it back up when hot it took ages to start and a small orange light come up on the right hand side of the dash looked like a pin with dotted lines coming out of it, injectors im guessing, cant get my head around all this !
thanks for help so far any way guys

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Check the leak off pipes on the injectors, common starting problem fault. Get the fault codes read, could be a needle lift injector fault

kernowdragon said:

If the fault message is clearing then it shouldn't be an actual EAS ECU fault, as you'd have to reset ECU to clear it, sounds more like an electrical/earth fault. Can't think of a reason for the ABS ECU to talk to the EAS ECU either. Are there any signs of overheating or loss of oil pressure, when my rad blew the ECU cut engine power to protect it as much as poss from further damage?

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I have an idea that the ABS ECU does talk to the EAS ECU, something to do with speed info I think. Eart faults are a good line to look at and battery connections.

Datatek said:

The 35mph message does not cut power on the diesel, at least it does not on mine

Loss of power, maybe fuel filter, lift pump, and a number of other things. A poor battery might just cause the engine to go into limp home mode, but so could a faulty temperature sensor for instance

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The 35mph message doesn't in itself trigger a cut in power, nor does an EAS fault (I've certainly gone faster with the message showing), but a potentially damaging engine condition (eg. overheating/low oil pressure) or one that the ECU percives could cause damage (such as certain battery/earth faults giving false sensor readings) could lead to a limp-home state.

doesnt it drop to the bump stops when max 35 comes up? it did on mine and i wudnt wanna go faster than 10 never mind 35 on bump stops

Just another thing with my range rover which might help you guys figure out what is up with it, the front end is much higher than the back but when i play around with the settigns for air suspension levels everything is fine and all same hight, it will level itself perfectly but when start moving the front end goes up very high !

Appreciate everything from you people thanks give this forum 10 / 10

thnaks

still sounds like airbag to me. but ithink you have more than one fault.you will need to get under it to hear air leeking or do soppy water test

j the range said:

still sounds like airbag to me. but ithink you have more than one fault.you will need to get under it to hear air leeking or do soppy water test

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its been parked up over night and still same positions though