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Home Forums Ask Alfonso Car went into limp mode on the highway – no code stored?

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    Josh
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    This happened yesterday and I’m still confused. I was cruising at 120 on the way back from Dubai and suddenly my 2011 BMW 535i lost power, wouldn’t rev past 3000 rpm, and the yellow half engine light came on. I pulled over, turned the car off, waited a couple of minutes, and when I restarted it was fine again. No check engine light, no stored codes on my basic scanner. The car drove normally the rest of the way home. I’ve heard these N55 engines can have intermittent VANOS or boost leaks that cause limp mode without leaving a permanent code. Now I’m paranoid to drive it far until I figure out what happened. I’ve been looking for a place that does efficient malfunction diagnosis with dealer level software that can read shadow codes or pending faults, not just the basic P codes. Has anyone experienced an intermittent limp mode with no stored code? What did it end up being? I’m worried it could be the high pressure fuel pump starting to fail but I’d rather not guess and throw parts at it. Any ideas what to check first?