[JustinHEMI]

I'm currently in the middle of the mountains of PA having some fun when I suddenly had the car cut power in 3rd gear and limit it to 5-5500 RPM for some reason.

It acted just like it does when you're out of gas, but I have plenty of gas and no messages or lights came up.

I took it out of gear for a few seconds and put it back into 3rd and all was well again.

Any ideas? Fluke?

I was driving spiritedly down a mountain near Renovo PA. Not sure if I tripped a sensor or something maybe but again, no messages.

[Albator_IIII]

Looks like the car went into some sort of limp mode. No error message or warning lights I presume? Odd.

[JustinHEMI]

Odd indeed. No bells, whistles, messages, lights, anything. Just the RPM limit.

[M_Power Rob]

Originally Posted by Albator_IIII

Looks like the car went into some sort of limp mode. No error message or warning lights I presume? Odd.

Thats what I was thinking but don't think it would pull to 5000rpm if it did.

[JustinHEMI]

Originally Posted by M2siast

Can you read codes? Do you have ISTA? (Maybe Bimmerlink can read them too?)

OBDLink can, no codes.

[JustinHEMI]

Originally Posted by M2siast

I was wondering if there were shadow codes that ISTA could see…

Hmmm not sure. I'm not going to worry too much about it unless it becomes a real issue.

[Tag]

JustinHEMI,
How full was your tank? Only thing I can think of is the possibility of your spirited driving causing the fuel to slosh around which could have caused the fuel sensor to momentarily drop thinking it was low and in turn it cut power.

[JustinHEMI]

Originally Posted by Tag

JustinHEMI,
How full was your tank? Only thing I can think of the possibility of your spirited driving causing the fuel to slosh around which could have caused the fuel sensor to momentarily drop thinking it was low and in turn it cut power.

3/4. I also thought that but the one time I got a low gas waring a big warning came up on the screen too.

[Tag]

Originally Posted by JustinHEMI

3/4. I also thought that but the one time I got a low gas waring a big warning came up on the screen too.

Only other thing that comes to mind is maybe you had some bad fuel. I'd fill it up with some quality gas and see if it comes back. I hate issues like these, difficult to diagnose, almost impossible to recreate.

[JustinHEMI]

Originally Posted by Tag

Only other thing that comes to mind is maybe you had some bad fuel. I'd fill it up with some quality gas and see if it comes back. I hate issues like these, difficult to diagnose, almost impossible to recreate.

Maybe but I only use "top tier" fuel so who knows. Like you said, difficult to diagnose.

The only other item of note was taking it out of gear and putting it back into gear cleared the issue. That's strange to me and I can't make rhyme or reason of it.

[aerobod]

There is one potential cause that I ran into yesterday when I accidentally selected the speed limiter button on the steering wheel instead of the cruise control, as they are both next to each other. I was just checking all functions on the car were working before taking it in to service, I thought I had broken something when I had no power when trying to accelerate, then realized the speed limiter was on.

[JustinHEMI]

Originally Posted by aerobod

There is one potential cause that I ran into yesterday when I accidentally selected the speed limiter button on the steering wheel instead of the cruise control, as they are both next to each other. I was just checking all functions on the car were working before taking it in to service, I thought I had broken something when I had no power when trying to accelerate, then realized the speed limiter was on.

Wasn't that, thank you though.

[c1pher]

Maybe altitude affected it? Perhaps sudden atmospheric changes?

[c1pher]

Originally Posted by M2siast

Impossible. Altitude only affects power when going up. And you can’t go up “suddenly”, as it takes a long time to climb places.
Plus, turbocharged engines don’t feel the difference as much as NA, but the difference would’ve been felt throughout the trip anyway, not at a few moments.

I was mainly guessing since you were in the mountains, can’t think of a reason for this issue either.

[JustinHEMI]

I read codes again with bimmerlink, and while there were a few saved errors, they were related to the nav issue I had on delivery vice anything that would indicate what this was.

I'm going to chalk it up to a fluke right now.

[JustinHEMI]

Originally Posted by M2siast

Hope it doesn’t return!

Were your brakes super hot at the time, you think?

Not hotter than anything Jackie does that's for sure.

[RockCrusher]

A little late to the thread but I had something similar happen with my 230i. South of Colorado Springs stopped at a Chevron station and fueled up. 91 octane.

Left the station and after some time the engine lost some power. Not limp mode level of power loss. No warning lights. No CEL. No other signs or symptoms. Then it was gone.

Decided to press on. The car was perfect all the way to Albuquerque then the next day all the way home to Benton County AR.

Never happened again.

Bad gas? That was the first and I think only tank of Chevron gasoline. Have run that brand of gasoline for decades in other cars with no problem.

No signs of overheating. I was not pushing the car hard just driving down the freeway at the posted speed.

If I had to guess I'd guess the low pressure fuel pump suffered a momentary glitch. But this is just a guess.

[Trogster]

Pulling timing...knock sensor.

Bad gas likely.