'Get me home' mode

Just a quick question.

A few weeks ago I put up a post about a friend of mine that has killed his '99 V70 2.5D. I now have some extra info and wondered if it sheds any light on his problem - apart from him being stupid that is.

It seems that he only has a problem after 600km's on the autobahns of Germany.

What I was wondering is..... Would the V70 be noting that it's been running foot to the floor and that things are approaching breaking point and just shutting the car into get me home mode (hence not going over 160kmph), and if so would this show up in the diagnostics?

Sound reasonable?

Stu

[liuleichan]

>Just a quick question.
>
>A few weeks ago I put up a post about a friend of mine that
>has killed his '99 V70 2.5D. I now have some extra info and
>wondered if it sheds any light on his problem - apart from
>him being stupid that is.
>
>It seems that he only has a problem after 600km's on the
>autobahns of Germany.
>
>What I was wondering is..... Would the V70 be noting that
>it's been running foot to the floor and that things are
>approaching breaking point and just shutting the car into
>get me home mode (hence not going over 160kmph), and if so
>would this show up in the diagnostics?
>
>Sound reasonable?

I don't think it would be programed to be proactive.

If it is doing it for these reasons, I would guess it's because some condition is being tripped.

Presumably this model was sold in Germany, and so should be up to the rigors of this sort of driving (from what I understand, most European mid-to-large cars are).

Lei Chan

It's a Ducth freind, and a Dutch car, it was on the way to some country or other at the time. And as much as the car should be up to long haul trips (what cars aren't these days?) He has a saying that if you foot isn't on the floor then you are driving too slowly (and hence this would be 600km's of foot to floor motoring) and there isn't a car in the world that would live up to foot to floor driving constantly!

Stu

[liuleichan]

>It's a Ducth freind, and a Dutch car, it was on the way to
>some country or other at the time. And as much as the car
>should be up to long haul trips (what cars aren't these
>days?) He has a saying that if you foot isn't on the floor
>then you are driving too slowly (and hence this would be
>600km's of foot to floor motoring) and there isn't a car in
>the world that would live up to foot to floor driving
>constantly!

Not sure whether you mean general lead-footedness, or true driving at maximum speed on the autobahns, for hours at a time.

I suspect that if it was truly being pushed to the maximum - truly throttle to the floor - completely - for hours on the motorway, then I can see your point - that's quite harsh.

But if it's merely high speed driving, but with some consideration as to the max revs, in top, then I think the car should be up to the job.

Lei Chan

I did mean foot to the floor, he steps on the gas and his speed is determined by when the car stops accelerating, not when he reaches a nice speed. Hence me calling him stupid (he aslo did this knowing that he required a major service..)

I agree that the cars should be able to run at 'high speeds', although it's also worth noting that if you run the car 5000rpm it won't last as long as when you run at 4000 rpm.......

Stu

I don't think there is much likelihood of the car 'shutting down' during high speed runs. I recently drove from Wolverhampton to Stuttgart and back. From entering Belgium on the way out the speed was pretty much in the 100 to 110 mph area and my TDi lapped it up (even returned about 42mpg). BTW a TDi will happily get up to around 120, measured with satellite navigation, about 7 - 10 mph more on the clock.

FYI, mine is now at 105,000 miles and 3 years old.

Problem here is the 110 - 120. That would not be fast enough for this guy (unless your foot was to the floor and wouldn't go any faster that is.....

I have nothing against the car (and would buy it off him if he gave me enough of a discount to replace the drivetrain........)

Stu

Modern car engines really are quite robust - a typical Industry "quick" durability indicator test is the 100 hour 55/5 test.
This is 100hours on a test alternating between FULL LOAD for 55 mins, then rapid shut down to idle for 5 mins then rapid transient back to full volume - repeat 100 times ! This gets the oil stinking hot and generally shows up anything that's going to break ...
The Thermal Shock Test is a good one - get the engine stinking hot (20 mins at high speed and load) then flush the cooling system with CHILLED water - a very aggresive test of the head gasket !
I could go on .... but the point is, it probably wasnt the autobahn that killed it ... something else muat've been going on also .

All the best

Dr D