Limp Mode - Turbo or Exhaust leak?

[Hernandooo]

I decided to do a pull in a tunnel (beacuse it sounds and feel cool), double clutched from 6th to 5th, and again to 4th, and attempted my pull....

Well lets just say, it wasn't pulling to good. Felt slow and sluggish, the rpms took forever to to get to redline. It showed i was getting boost, and turbo speed was going up, but the acceleration was not there. I hear the turbos spooling, the intake sucking, exhaust roaring, but nothing is happening, the only thing im not really hearing is the swoosh from the diverter valve

I'm going to do a check of the intakes, turbos, diverter valves and downpipes again first thing tomorrow. I'm really scratching my head as to why this is happening.

 

[staying_tuned]

Check your charge pipes, have someone rev it while you’re looking down at the engine and see if you’re gushing air to atmosphere.

You didn’t hear any knocking and oil pressure looked good? If so yeah, hopefully just blew a coupler loose/pipe end off.

 

[Hernandooo]

No knocking or oil pressure loss, still running normal. I noticed the car runs normally sometimes, then it does the same thing again. Which is giving me a ECU problem as a symptom. Other then that still going to check for exhaust leaks

By charge pipes I assume you mean these?

They're on pretty snug, the only other thing I can really think of is the throttle body to intake manifold

 

[staying_tuned]

No audible leaks if someone is revving?

 

[Hernandooo]

No audible leaks if someone is revving?

No, but a hiss coming from under, which is also leading me to believe exhaust leak from the turbo to downpipes

 

[Hernandooo]

Took it for a test drive this morning, everything seems to be back to normal. 3rd and 4th gear pulls, are pulling

I'm stumped? Either way I had ordered new V Clamps from Z1. So I'll be installing those now, hopefully it'll get rid of the hiss

 

[staying_tuned]

Hit the grooves and threads with antisieze, I use a q-tip. They seat so easily and won’t bind up.

 

[Hernandooo]

I think I found the culprit, my gas cap was loose...

Tighten that up, now no more hints of power issues...

This car is really sensitive ? ?

 

[Duffman]

I have a similar issue but for me it happens after about 30 minutes of driving and in start-stop traffic.
Best way to describe it is laggy rev's, full throttle in 1st and the car is very slow taking off.

Seems to happen a lot on hot days, after idling waiting for the lights to go green/in traffic.
I have noticed does this when engine oil is 101C and water goes from 95C to 102C then back to 95C and after I get it going and air flows over the car the problem goes away until the next set of lights I stop at.

Turning the car off, waiting 10 seconds then turning back on will sometimes help but not always.

Only mod I have done is AMS Intakes but this issue 1st happened on stock intakes.

I have been back and forward with Nissan and after many attempts of them trying to replicate the issue and they couldn't, I had to take an afternoon off so I could show them first hand.

After all this it's booked in with them next week, I was told they will be back and forward with head office to investigate.

 

[dogunbound]

I have a similar issue but for me it happens after about 30 minutes of driving and in start-stop traffic.
Best way to describe it is laggy rev's, full throttle in 1st and the car is very slow taking off.

Seems to happen a lot on hot days, after idling waiting for the lights to go green/in traffic.
I have noticed does this when engine oil is 101C and water goes from 95C to 102C then back to 95C and after I get it going and air flows over the car the problem goes away until the next set of lights I stop at.

Turning the car off, waiting 10 seconds then turning back on will sometimes help but not always.

Only mod I have done is AMS Intakes but this issue 1st happened on stock intakes.

I have been back and forward with Nissan and after many attempts of them trying to replicate the issue and they couldn't, I had to take an afternoon off so I could show them first hand.

After all this it's booked in with them next week, I was told they will be back and forward with head office to investigate.

Fascinating. I had an issue a year ago or so where I just got into the car, drove around and noticed a huge lack of power. After I let the engine warm up, I full throttled in 3rd gear and got basically no torque. Looked at my boost gauge and the engine was refusing to built boost, yet my turbines were whizzing away (~200k RPM). I think the re-circulation valve got stuck open in my case? Simply turning the car off and back on fixed it. Try looking at your boost, and turbine speeds the next time it happens. It might show some more interesting data.

 

[Hernandooo]

Temps where fine.

Water was at 84°c, engine oil at 91°c, it was a hot 40°c day.

I have a AMS Heat Exchanger and Intercooler upgrade, and Z1 expanded aluminum oil pan.

So heat soak wasn't the issue for me. I'm still yet to change the V-clamps. It's been known that they get loose sometimes.

I'm such an idiot for not tightening up the gas cap. Soo far that could've been the issue

Edit*

I'll probably add the conceptZ oil cooler in the future, that'll keep the Australia heat at bay

 

[Duffman]

Fascinating. I had an issue a year ago or so where I just got into the car, drove around and noticed a huge lack of power. After I let the engine warm up, I full throttled in 3rd gear and got basically no torque. Looked at my boost gauge and the engine was refusing to built boost, yet my turbines were whizzing away (~200k RPM). I think the re-circulation valve got stuck open in my case? Simply turning the car off and back on fixed it. Try looking at your boost, and turbine speeds the next time it happens. It might show some more interesting data.

Nissan asked me to get video footage of the dash when this happens, now in a video of a 1st gear pull I can see the boost gauge gets to a touch over 0 at 3.5k rpm while the revs are slowing increasing. I back off at 4k rpm (short/narrow streets) with the gauge sill showing a touch over 0, only got to 40 kph.

I'll keep an eye on this the next time it happens.

Another weird thing is when the car does this and I take off normally "Launch Control" displays for like half a second then disappears, this even happens when not in S Mode which Launch Control shouldn't be able to activate.

This problem never showed its face in winter last year and it wasn't until the warmer days when I realized heat may be sending something haywire.

Anyway I'm pushing Nissan for a fix to this very strange issue that's been doing my head in and according to Nissan this is the first known case.

 

[Who.Am.Eye.2716]

The best way to test for exhaust leak is soapy water in a spray bottle. Way better than sitting under the hot exhaust listening for a noise

2 step process since metal expands and contracts under cold and hot temps. Exhaust leak can happen when hot and the metal changes when it cools down and the exhaust leak is gone. And the other way around

On cold exhaust. Start the car and spray at all flanges. If there is a leak, the soapy water will bubble up

Hot exhaust, same steps with cold exhaust steps

 

[AshwinSan]

Dude I just had the same thing happen to me. I was doing a 3rd gear pull and it would go to 14-15 psi then shoot back down to 8 psi and I was barely accelerating. I think it is a safety feature. I wanna say I had bad gas because I’ve never had that issue again and it must’ve pulled timing to compensate for knock and that’s why it put it in limp mode. I waited 2 hours for the car to cool a little and I tried it again and I was full boost again, super weird.

 

[dogunbound]

My case was definitely a software bug or hardware issue. I say that because my car was cold, and I didn't have boost until I restarted it. Yours might be something different...