[Zorba22]

Was riding to the dealership this morning and suddenly the check engine light came on, the bike lost power, wouldn’t go above 2000 rpm or above 20 mph. Came here for the gear indicator switch recall. Hopefully no major problems. Anyone else experience this?
2018 Chieftan Classic

 

[BOBBYP]

Please keep us informed as to resolution!

 

[Dr.Shifty]

What you are describing is the limp mode. It happens if the ECM picks up something wrong with the engine and thinks it needs to half shut it down but give you time to get off the road. It's happened twice with my bike that I can remember.

The typical error that causes it is a timing or misfire error that is picked up by the knock sensor. It might also be a hesitation caused by a bit of grit in the fuel and an injector hiccups for a moment. Another situation is heavy acceleration in first or second gear and it hits the rev limiter and causes a 'throttle position out of range' error or similar - I forget the exact wording. Some people say they've gone into limp mode but there is no code showing up.

If the error continues after you've stopped, you can clear it by cycling the ignition on/off and motor start/stop four or five times.

The dealer should be able to read historic codes and see what caused it.

 

[Zorba22]

What you are describing is the limp mode. It happens if the ECM picks up something wrong with the engine and thinks it needs to half shut it down but give you time to get off the road. It's happened twice with my bike that I can remember.

The typical error that causes it is a timing or misfire error that is picked up by the knock sensor. It might also be a hesitation caused by a bit of grit in the fuel and an injector hiccups for a moment. Another situation is heavy acceleration in first or second gear and it hits the rev limiter and causes a 'throttle position out of range' error or similar - I forget the exact wording. Some people say they've gone into limp mode but there is no code showing up.

If the error continues after you've stopped, you can clear it by cycling the ignition on/off and motor start/stop four or five times.

The dealer should be able to read historic codes and see what caused it.

 

[Zorba22]

Turns out Dr. Shifty was right. The shut down was caused by a combination of quick acceleration and gearshifting. I was coming off the highway to a yield onto a street where I gunned it and shifted which caused the engine to shut down into the limp mode. Once the dealership cleared the error code, no problems.

 

[Chief Signguru]

So! What happened at the dealer? Sorry. I spoke too soon. Lol!

 

[Dr.Shifty]

Turns out Dr. Shifty was right. The shut down was caused by a combination of quick acceleration and gearshifting. I was coming off the highway to a yield onto a street where I gunned it and shifted which caused the engine to shut down into the limp mode. Once the dealership cleared the error code, no problems.

I don't know if you have a PVCX or PV3 but it's possible to adjust the throttle demand and ceiling tables so the computer doesn't do the 'out of range' thing so easily. @CraigB1960 is the guy to speak with about this.

Otherwise, keep in mind that sometimes it doesn't really like wide open throttle to full revs in the lower gears.

 

[BOBBYP]

There was no Question that Dr. Shifty was right, the question was why? did it go into limp mode? So if you hammer it in the lower gears it can do this , all 111's or what years, configurations?

 

[Dr.Shifty]

There was no Question that Dr. Shifty was right, the question was why? did it go into limp mode? So if you hammer it in the lower gears it can do this , all 111's or what years, configurations?

We know that it's not an "all bikes all the time" thing. But they probably all have the capacity to do it under the right circumstances. The "throttle position out of range" message means it did it at high revs and wasn't happy with something. Working out that "something" is the tricky part. That's why I mentioned throttle demand and ceiling tables in an earlier post.

A bike shop I know had a problem with one Springfield doing it very often. They were trying to dyno tune the bike and it kept going into limp mode. The owner also has a Springfield which was never a problem, so they were surprised that this one bike would not behave itself. The shop uses a PVCX on each Indian they tune so they have consistency across bikes.

Knowing that it's a possibility after mine did it means I don't rev it so high in lower gears. However, it only happened once to me under heavy acceleration so perhaps I'm unnecessarily careful. It's the Schroedinger's Cat of bike management.

 

[BeerDad]

Had this scenario happen last summer. It was scorching hot and was entering the highway. Got it to a dealer and they indicated the throttle out of range was most likely the rear tire started spinning and threw the error sending it to limp mode.

No further issues. I am glad it protected itself and still let me limo it up to a safe spot to pull out of traffic.

 

[FetalEcho]

It's happened with my "16 Vintage, I was riding it a little harder than usual but nothing crazy. But since then I avoid shifting at higher RPMs and ride it like it's sedated.

It's unsettling and unsafe that something like this would happen, especially if one was merging into traffic and depending on certain amount of speed and acceleration.

Does this happen with HD or other brands? I can tell you my HD fellow riders ride their bikes hard and accelerate with no issues. I never heard of "limp" mode in other bikes. I always thought "limp" mode was something that happened to men after 40 (or 50)!