‘Limp-home’ mode
After getting an MOT carried out at a Nissan dealership, my 2013 Nissan NV200 Combi 1.5 dci went into ‘limphome’ mode. I was told it was the glow plugs and that they needed to be replaced. After a restart it was OK and has been ever since, with no warning lights on the dashboard. Could it just have been a one-off? James Culbert
I am assuming that the dealership read and cleared the codes for you and then informed you it was the glow plugs. It’s possible that the plugs are failing and will need changing, but if this was the case then I would have expected the code to have returned quite quickly, illuminating the engine management light.
It is also possible that while revving the engine to perform the emissions test, the normal parameters of the intercooler system were exceeded. Autodata informs me that a common problem on the NV200 is a leak from the intermediate air pipe between the intercooler outlet hose and throttle control unit. This would be worth checking as such a leak would show itself under the higher throttle settings used during the emission test. If you can find no problems in this area, I would hope that this was a short-term result as a consequence of the extreme throttle settings used during the test.
If there is a reoccurrence of this problem, gaining any engine fault codes will help in establishing the root cause of the failure.