On Friday afternoon, my family and I drove north from Houston to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for the weekend. Specifically, the purpose was to attend the GTG that texas993 was hosting at his home, and also to visit samiam44 at his home in the DFW area. Had a great time all weekend, but that's a story for another post.
We were traveling north on I-45, about 50 miles south of Dallas, about 80 MPH (in a Texas 75 MPH speed limit zone), and all of the sudden my E500 shuddered and dropped down into limp-home mode, and the ASR light (but not ABS) light went on, on the dashboard. I continued to drive at that speed for about another 10 miles, though it took considerably more pressure to keep the gas pedal pressed to maintain that speed.
Eventually, we got off at a suitable exit, and I pulled over and shut off the car for a few seconds. Turned it back on and the ASR light disappeared, and had no problem the rest of the way. We continued to drive the car all around the DFW area all day on Saturday and Sunday and had no problems. This afternoon we left about 2:30 PM and arrived home around 6:15 PM. Speeds were fairly high during the trip home, ranging from 75-100 MPH over long distances. No ASR light or any other anomalies.
This was the first time in nearly 10.5 years of ownership that the car had dropped into LHM. I checked and cleared codes at texas993's house and will continue to monitor the car. My wife is driving it daily as I'm working on her wagon, so hopefully something else pops up ... or it's just a one-time anomaly.
Couple of notes on the running of the car, though. The temps in Dallas were fairly cold, being in the 37-43F range today for the duration of the trip home. I absolutely could not get the car to go above 85C in coolant temp the entire way home, even driving at 95-100 MPH for 10-20 miles at a time (sustained load). The needle literally never got off the "80" number the entire day.
This is in contrast to when ambient temps are 75F and higher, when the needle ranges 90-105C. It's why when I lived in Portland I never noticed high temps (except on extremely hot summer days, which are fairly few and far between in Portland) -- most days average in the 40s through 60s year round in Portland. It's really amazing how sensitive the .036 is to ambient temps.
Cheers,
Gerry
P.S. This morning I walked the quarter-mile from our hotel in downtown Dallas to Dealey Plaza, in about 34F temperature. Brrr! This was the site where John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November, 1963. You can see the "X" on the pavement in the roadway (left of center in the first photo below) where the actual deadly shot occurred. In the second photo, you get a good overview of the "grassy knoll" where Abraham Zapruder [accidentally and sadly] shot his famous film of the assassination when it occurred. You can also see a small memorial plaque next to the road, in the grass, opposite the marked spot.
I took these photos from under the trees in the very center of this photo:
We were traveling north on I-45, about 50 miles south of Dallas, about 80 MPH (in a Texas 75 MPH speed limit zone), and all of the sudden my E500 shuddered and dropped down into limp-home mode, and the ASR light (but not ABS) light went on, on the dashboard. I continued to drive at that speed for about another 10 miles, though it took considerably more pressure to keep the gas pedal pressed to maintain that speed.
Eventually, we got off at a suitable exit, and I pulled over and shut off the car for a few seconds. Turned it back on and the ASR light disappeared, and had no problem the rest of the way. We continued to drive the car all around the DFW area all day on Saturday and Sunday and had no problems. This afternoon we left about 2:30 PM and arrived home around 6:15 PM. Speeds were fairly high during the trip home, ranging from 75-100 MPH over long distances. No ASR light or any other anomalies.
This was the first time in nearly 10.5 years of ownership that the car had dropped into LHM. I checked and cleared codes at texas993's house and will continue to monitor the car. My wife is driving it daily as I'm working on her wagon, so hopefully something else pops up ... or it's just a one-time anomaly.
Couple of notes on the running of the car, though. The temps in Dallas were fairly cold, being in the 37-43F range today for the duration of the trip home. I absolutely could not get the car to go above 85C in coolant temp the entire way home, even driving at 95-100 MPH for 10-20 miles at a time (sustained load). The needle literally never got off the "80" number the entire day.
This is in contrast to when ambient temps are 75F and higher, when the needle ranges 90-105C. It's why when I lived in Portland I never noticed high temps (except on extremely hot summer days, which are fairly few and far between in Portland) -- most days average in the 40s through 60s year round in Portland. It's really amazing how sensitive the .036 is to ambient temps.
Cheers,
Gerry
P.S. This morning I walked the quarter-mile from our hotel in downtown Dallas to Dealey Plaza, in about 34F temperature. Brrr! This was the site where John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November, 1963. You can see the "X" on the pavement in the roadway (left of center in the first photo below) where the actual deadly shot occurred. In the second photo, you get a good overview of the "grassy knoll" where Abraham Zapruder [accidentally and sadly] shot his famous film of the assassination when it occurred. You can also see a small memorial plaque next to the road, in the grass, opposite the marked spot.
I took these photos from under the trees in the very center of this photo:
