No Acceleration From 3rd Gear After Being Stuck In Motorway Jam for 20 Mins

[rowdyangel]

Hi all,

I really hope that someone will read this and be able to help me out.

Tonight I was driving home on the motorway, no problems at all. Traffic came to a stop for about 20 mins due to an accident and lane closure. Just before they let the traffic start moving again, it was a case of moving forward a few feet every few seconds, so the usual first gear, up to second, then back down to first, into neutral. While traffic was stationary I put her into neutral, handbrake on, no issues. I don't have the auto stop-start but was in half a mind about turning off the ignition until the traffic started moving again but I didn't bother.

When traffic started moving again, I set off in 1st, accelerated OK up to 2nd, accelerated OK up to 3rd but then I had no acceleration at that point. I pulled over to the hard-shoulder, hazards on. Decided to try again while on the hard-shoulder to see if I could accelerate but the same thing happened again, no acceleration once in 3rd. There were no warning lights.

Rang hubby who was about 25 mins away, told him where I was and he came. By the time he arrived the engine had been switched off for around half an hour, chance to cool down etc. I drove his car home and he said he'd drive mine. He had no problem with it driving home and in fact overtook me on the motorway!!! I'm having a hard job trying to convince him that there was a fault with the car.

Obviously I'm concerned now as I have a 50 mile round trip commute to work and back and tomorrow it is highly likely that I'll get stuck in another traffic jam due to busy motorway with people heading to Blackpool for the fireworks. I'm worried that the same thing will happen again should that be the case. Being a one female on the hard-shoulder of a motorway is my idea of hell and terrifies me.

Has anyone had this issue or have any idea what it could be? My car is a D-Style 1.6 THP Techno 155bhp.

I'm thinking of getting the train to work tomorrow and ringing Citroen to see if I can book it in for some diagnostics on Saturday morning but in the meantime, any help will be much appreciated.

Cheers
Jayne

[BeefMasta]

Sounds like it went into 'limp home mode' which IIRC limits the speed to around 50mph. You'd have to get it checked by the dealer to see if the car registered any fault codes.

[Bryn]

This is a very silly question, so I apologise first! ...there's no chance the speed limiter got switched on by mistake, is there?

[rowdyangel]

It's not a silly question at all....and do you know what? I think it did get switched on by mistake.

I have my phone connected via Bluetooth and as the traffic came to a stop I wanted to ring my husband to let him know I'd be home late. I pressed that end button on the left hand stalk thinking that was the one to change my radio to 'phone' but it didn't work, so I decided to change the function using the radio itself. The limiter was set to 33mph, I know that for a fact as I remember seeing it on the right hand display, so then when traffic started moving again and I hit 33mph while in 3rd gear, that's why there was no acceleration. This would also explain why the car was fine when hubby drove it home as I assume switching off the engine cancels the speed limiter. Hubby confirmed that he set the limiter to 33mph when he was driving it a few months ago.

Have you any idea how totally stupid I feel now??? Where's the nearest hole to swallow me up? But I consider it a lesson learned and a reminder that I need to go away and read the user manual, like NOW!!! I've had the car since March but have only started driving it regularly and some distance since getting a new job. Is that a good enough reason to excuse my total stupidity?? Gah!!!!!

*runs off to find a hole to hide in*

[BeefMasta]

Good news then! Much better than an actual issue.

Now that's sorted, I'm concerned you're not using your THP to its full potential, changing to 3rd before 33mph! 2nd will do 55mph before you need to change

[rowdyangel]

Hahaha! Yes it's a relief and yes I'm not using my lovely THP to it's full potential at all. A pitfall of having had the car for months but only got my hands on it a month ago. I will have a little chuckle to myself while driving to work in the morning and will give my car a thorough wash and polish at the weekend

[Chris_Blue]

don't beat yerself up, we all make mistakes.

Happy days now then :-)

[rowdyangel]

Yes, I hope so

[Kat]

It's easily done! I did it in my courtesy car a few weeks ago!!

Glad it wasn't anything wrong with the car

[FLP]

Ah, another victim of that sneaky limiter! I've been surprised by it too a few times. Mostly when I get on the highway and forget it is on. It does feel very strange when you notice the car "loses power" all of a sudden.. :-D

[lfcrule1972]

I still like it when you set it to the speed limit by a speed camera and then perfectly nail the speed through the marked area

[Jimbob]

Have you any idea how totally stupid I feel now??? Where's the nearest hole to swallow me up?

*runs off to find a hole to hide in*

There's no reason to beat yourself up. After nearly 90,000 miles I still don't know how to set the speed limiter (but the way I drive why would I?)

JB

[ed taylor]

An easy mistake to make. But did you know that if you have the limiter set, and you stamp on the throttle it will still go past the set limit. Ours is an automatic. I set the limit to 40 and showed my wife that stamping on the throttle is kicked down and shot off on second gear overrunning the set limit. Must be a form of safety feature.

[lfcrule1972]

Yeah they do that, I believe it is a safety feature in case so you can accelerate even though the limiter is on

[cyclone]

I think it is a secret emissions override device.