SOLVED - reduced power engine fault codes

[TriX5]

Hi guys,

When I dropped my 35d for the Atlantic crossing end February it ran fine but as I restarted to drive it the 50 yards from the office to the loading area it threw the "Engine Failure, reduced power" message. At the time it was too late in the day to check why it did so but I suspect a vac hose that controls the turbo.

It landed last week and at present I have to retrieve the car from a port terminal 200 miles from home. I don't feel like doing a "road side" hunt for the cause. Nevertheless, I have loaded INPA on my new laptop and modded the DDE selection script for the M57. I'll do a quick check when I get in to the car to try retrieve the fault codes with INPA. If it is not a fuel pressure problem, would it be a problem to drive it home slowly? (I guess it limits speed to 50 mph?)

As a back-up I'm planning to bring a car trailer with my 2016 Tundra 5.7 towing. Anyone towed their E70 on a trailer? Just curious what I should be looking out for?

[Badsmerf]

Sounds like an injector. I drove mine over 200 miles with 2 bad injectors. Usually I could avoid the code by not accelerating too hard. There is a ton of info on this failure.

[TriX5]

Thanks, good point. I'd be a bit wary of driving it with a funky injector. Pretty much decided now to bring the trailer and load it. Once I get the car trailer out there, it is better to just complete the trip (I suspect it'll be dawn to dusk). Once it is in my driveway there will be ample time to diagnose and fix it.

[ard]

You kinda have to bring the trailer- since you really dont know if it will be driveable when your arrive. I mean it could start and run perfectly fine, right? (Q do they hook it to a battery tender, etc, for the trip?)

I have the AAA plan w the max towing package. 200 miles.

GL!

[Badsmerf]

The trailer is the way to go if you don't know what the problem is. I didn't really have a choice at the time, but it also didn't throw the code 100% of the time; before replacing the first injector that is. After the first injector was replaced, it would immediately go into limp mode until the second injector was replaced. Check for cracks on the plastic pieces above the engine. If they are cracked, pretty good indication #5 and/or #6 injectors are bad.

[TriX5]

The bulkhead was already replaced and the car live indoor almost all of its life. So, less likely to be the injectors in this case.

The rules for containerized shipping say that the battery has to be disconnected. While the battery tends to survive the trip, when it arrived in port last June, the suspension had gone in to transport mode. So, yeah, the trailer is pretty much a necessity. Having said that, while I have towed before, this is sort of top of the weight range. The Tundra should be able to handle it but I would probably keep to the double Nickle in terms of speed....

[TriX5]

Picked up a car trailer today. Detouring a bit on the route and expect about 225 miles each way. Hopefully no more than 4 hours there and 5 for the road back. The truck can tow 10k and the trailer is rated 7.5k, so should be relatively straight forward.

However, I did load a tool box, a jack, jumper cables, spare gas and a couple of 4 gallon containers with water. Some other assorted stuff as well. I prefer to over prepare then to be stuck for something silly.

My son is keen on the trip. Will be good training for him to learn to drive with a load attached.

[TriX5]

This trip was a bit easier than I expected. Got to the warehouse a bit after midday and they had it ready to go. They brought it out immediately and left it with the key on the dash so we did not have to be in direct contact with anyone. I am pleased with the services of West Coast Shipping who did the westbound Atlantic shipment.

Loaded and secured the E70 in 20 minutes and ran it home doing about 60mph. Could have done a bit more but didn't seem necessary. The Tundra was very stable towing this trailer and this was the easiest way getting it home. Love my X5s around town and for runs up to 100 miles. But, for anything longer or needing space/carrying capacity the Tundras are superb.

Once I got the E70 on the trailer I realized that it was a tight fit especially the rears.....! I guess for any non-modified vehicle it would have been fine. Admit I did not expect that :-) Also the car was a bit longer at the back than the trailer.

Tomorrow I will connect the computer and see what's up with the engine codes....

EDIT: Engine codes on the E70 (cause of the limp home/reduced power mode), there were nine and I thought a bit overwhelming to make sense of. So, deleted them all and restarted the engine. Only one code immediately reappeared, the turbo pressure. Now the sensor could be bad or the turbo vacuum control hose is toast, the latter seems more likely since the dealer in Portugal was quite intent on having me spend 900 Euros to replace three vacuum hoses. Also will need to check the vac pump is working. Tomorrow have to continue with some drywall work in the basement media room (part of my looooong punch list) but on Monday I plan a day for car work and will probably have a look at this problem.

[josiahg52]

Glad you got it back home.

[ard]

Pretty tight fit....

Looks like you properly secured it with webbing that ‘captures’ the tire/wheel and holds that to the deck.....

Be interesting to see what it winds up being.