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Malfunction light on, car won't go over 5 mph
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 1:45 am
by toebridge
18,000 miles on a 2010 Kizashi SE with CVT. Malfunction light came on and the car won't go over 5 mph. (Goes faster in reverse) Got it towed home today from Buffalo NY to VA and ready to tow it to the dealer 85 miles away. Any thoughts? Thanks
Re: Malfunction light on, car won't go over 5 mph
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 2:10 am
by KuroNekko
Sounds like it went into Limp Mode which is a mode that some cars will go into when there is a critical sensor or electronic component failure. It's basically so you can get the car to a safe place, but it will prevent you from driving the car to minimize damage.
My guess is that a sensor went bad. If not that, some other critical electrical component.
This should be covered under the powertrain warranty.
Please keep us posted on it. Thanks.
Re: Malfunction light on, car won't go over 5 mph
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:17 am
by sx4rocious
I always thought limp mode locked it on 3rd gear or something. I would think it would do better than 5mph. That alone can be extrememly dangerous depending on where it happened!
Re: Malfunction light on, car won't go over 5 mph
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:22 am
by murcod
I'm guessing you don't have access to an OBDII scanner? It would be interesting to see what codes are logged.
Good luck and keep the updates coming.
Re: Malfunction light on, car won't go over 5 mph
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 10:50 am
by Woodie
toebridge wrote:Got it towed home today from Buffalo NY to VA and ready to tow it to the dealer 85 miles away. Any thoughts?
Yes, my thought is ouch.
Re: Malfunction light on, car won't go over 5 mph
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 6:32 pm
by LPSISRL
Yup, agree that it's either a sensor or something major went wrong with the tranny. What kind of revs were you getting while going only 5 mph? Since there's no "gear" to lock into in a CVT, I'm not sure how the limp mode works. I imagine the pulleys simply both lock in a particular position. I think if the hydraulics failed that squeezes the pulley on the power side (engine) it would have the belt riding very low on the pulley giving a very high ratio and hence not much speed. That's just a guess though. I would think that even in that situation you'd be able to get more than 5 mph out of it.
Tim
Re: Malfunction light on, car won't go over 5 mph
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 10:09 pm
by toebridge
Got it to the dealer - Transmission is shot - under warranty- time to get rid of it -
Re: Malfunction light on, car won't go over 5 mph
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 11:14 pm
by KuroNekko
toebridge wrote:Got it to the dealer - Transmission is shot - under warranty- time to get rid of it -
So you plan to get the transmission replaced under warranty and then sell the car once that's done?
Re: Malfunction light on, car won't go over 5 mph
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 11:27 pm
by bootymac
Yet another CVT failure...
Re: Malfunction light on, car won't go over 5 mph
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 12:16 am
by krell
Wheels peeling, cvt failure and lousy gas mileage what the hell did i get into when i only got a few months to retire.