I accidentally shifted from 3rd to 2nd when I was messing around with my buddy in his civic. He said he saw some smoke from the exhaust and my car went in to limp mode. I pulled off the road and my car shut off. After several attempts to start it and then waiting a few minutes and trying again I got it to run. My car came out of limp mode but the CEL is now on. I live about 1/2 mile away from where I pulled off so I drove it home. It's too late to take to auto zone to get the codes checked so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do that.


I've read that sometimes letting it sit, disconnecting the battery or going through a few drive cycles will clear the codes.


I'm basically interested in knowing other people's experiences with problems like this. I'm freaking out juuuuust a little bit.

 

You can disconnect the battery, and yes it will clear the code, but.... the code may still come back.

Edit: Limp Mode can be many things. In my case it was a bad fuel pump.

 

Yeah I figured that about the battery. I suppose that'll be a last resort before going to get the codes checked.

 

Don't clear the code until you check it. See what the car says happened. If I had done a bad mis-shift like that in my Evo it would have destroyed the motor. Count yourself lucky

 

I wouldn't say I'm lucky yet. I still don't know what codes I threw and if there is any damage I havn't seen yet.

So far though, it looks like I'll be good. I'm at a family function right now. I'll see if the CEL is still on when I get back home. If it is I'll go to auto zone in the morning and have the codes checked if its nothing big I'll run through a couple cycles and then disconnect the batter

 

Just got home. Started the car and the CEL was off. Drove it around for a few minutes and everything seems to be working properly.