Picture this: you’ve just started a 2500 mile road trip from Albuquerque to Philadelphia. You’ve driven a short few hundred miles and made it to Colorado. It’s 8pm and you just want to take a break. You head to dinner a few miles down the highway. You’re driving about 55mph when all of a sudden your power steering goes. Just before you’re slammed by an 18 wheeler you make it across two lanes of traffic over to the right hand shoulder.
Ok so this happened to me. But here’s whats weird: the radio, lights, blinkers, etc. were all working (so it clearly wasn’t a battery issue) but the car just died. Right there in the middle of the road. I had it towed to a dealership that night. The next morning when I called they said the car was starting and they couldn’t find any problems. They ultimately said the car went into what they call “limp mode” (an overhaul shut-down safety mechanism). They said they thought the computer might have misread a signal or received a false signal that triggered this to occur. They also said perhaps the increase in altitude (we had increased maybe 1000 feet while driving) had affected the ethanol ratio in my gas tank and that had falsely triggered the limp mode. They also said that frequently, when a car goes into limp mode, it reboots and then is able to start some hours later (3-4).
I very cautiously drove the car the rest of the way to Philadelphia, over 2000 miles. Nothing has happened since then, but I’m curious to know if this “limp mode” has occurred for any other Hyundai owners? If so, will it likely happen again? (I have to drive back out to NM in a few weeks and am worried it could die). Why does it happen and should I be asking the Hyundai dealership to change the computer in my car?
Thanks for any feedback.
*Side note: I know literally nothing about cars.