My van has lost power and gone into limp mode
Short careful distance only
Limp mode means the engine management has detected something out of range and cut power deliberately to prevent damage, usually capping you around 2,500rpm and refusing to boost. You can normally drive a short distance at low speed to somewhere safe or to a garage, but you should not continue a journey, and you should not clear the fault and carry on without knowing why. On a modern van the usual suspects are the turbo and its boost control, the EGR valve, the DPF, air or fuel metering sensors, or AdBlue.
Most likely causes, and what they cost
UK prices at an independent garage for a van up to 3.5 tonnes. Ranges, because anyone quoting a single figure before looking at your van is guessing.
| Cause | How you can tell | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Blocked DPF | Mostly short urban journeys, a DPF light, and it was fine on the motorway last month. | A forced regeneration is often £100 to £250. A replacement DPF is commonly £800 upwards. |
| Turbo or boost control fault | A whistle, a lack of pull from low revs, or a sudden loss of power under load on a hill. | An actuator or hose is often £150 to £450. A turbo is commonly £900 to £2,000 fitted. |
| EGR valve stuck | Rough idle, black smoke, hesitation, and a history of mostly short runs. | A clean is often £120 to £250, a replacement commonly £300 to £700. |
| Air mass or boost pressure sensor | Comes and goes, sometimes clears on a restart, no mechanical noise with it. | Often £120 to £300 including diagnosis, as the sensors themselves are usually cheap. |
| AdBlue system | You have been ignoring an AdBlue warning or a restart countdown for a while. | A top-up and reset may be under £100. An injector or pump fault is commonly £400 to £1,200. |
| Fuel delivery | Been hesitating for weeks, worse under load, worse when the tank is low. | A filter is often £80 to £200. A high pressure pump is a four figure job. |
Check these first, they are free
- Pull over somewhere safe and restart it. Some faults clear on a restart, which tells you something useful either way.
- Check the oil level and the coolant level while you are stopped.
- Note exactly what you were doing when it happened: hill, motorway, cold start, heavy load. That detail narrows it a lot.
- Photograph every warning light on the dash.
- If it has been doing only short local runs for months, assume DPF until proven otherwise.
What kind of help you need
Van-capable garage
The van is drivable, or it is being recovered and you need to name a destination. Every garage we list holds a DVSA Class 7 MOT authorisation, which is the class for vehicles from 3,000kg to 3,500kg, so the ramp and the bay physically take a full-size van. That sounds like a technicality until you have been turned away by a car-only garage.
Cost: Independent van labour rates commonly run £50 to £95 an hour outside London and higher inside the M25, against £120 or more at a franchised dealer. A diagnostic check is typically £50 to £120 and good garages credit it against the repair.
Mobile mechanic
The van is somewhere safe and legal to work on, and the fault has a fair chance of being fixed at the kerb: battery, alternator, starter, glow plugs, sensors, fuel filter, a hose, a belt, a simple electrical fault.
Cost: A mobile call-out is commonly £50 to £90 before any parts or labour, with roadside labour often £50 to £90 an hour. Expect more for evenings, weekends and anything on a motorway, and many will not attend a live motorway lane at all, which is correct and not them being awkward.
Same-day van hire
The repair will take a day or more and there is work in the diary you cannot afford to drop. This is the step most people forget in the panic, and it is usually the one that saves the most money, because a lost day of work and a let-down customer costs far more than a day rate.
Cost: A short-wheelbase van is commonly £45 to £80 a day, a long-wheelbase or Luton £70 to £130, with a deposit held on a card and a mileage cap on top. Same-day and one-day hires carry the worst rates, so if the repair may run on, ask the weekly rate, which is often barely more than three days.
Onward transport
The van is out of action but the load still has a deadline. A wedding, a site, a shop opening, a customer who has booked the day off work. The van is your problem. The delivery is their problem, and they will remember how you handled it far longer than they will remember that you broke down.
Cost: A dedicated same-day courier is priced per mile on a point-to-point basis, usually with a minimum charge, and a small van run tends to work out cheaper per mile over distance than a short hop. Expect a premium for a two-person job, a tail lift, or anything out of hours.
Questions people ask
Can I drive home in limp mode?
A short distance at low speed to somewhere safe or to a garage is usually reasonable. A long motorway run home is not, because you will be sitting at low revs and high load, which is the worst combination for whatever is already wrong, and on a DPF or turbo fault you can turn a few hundred pounds into a few thousand.
Will a long motorway drive clear a blocked DPF?
Sometimes, if the blockage is mild and the van will still attempt a regeneration, which generally needs sustained speed around 40mph or more for twenty minutes or so with a reasonable amount of fuel in the tank. Once it is blocked enough to trigger limp mode, that window has usually closed and it needs a forced regeneration on a machine.
Should I just have the fault code cleared?
Clearing a code without fixing the cause removes the warning, not the fault, and limp mode exists to protect the engine. Any garage willing to just clear it and send you off without a diagnosis is not doing you a favour. Get the code read, which is often free, then decide.
Where are you?
Put your postcode into the console on the home page and we will give you the safety steps for where you are standing, verified van-capable garages near you, and the rest of the options.
This page is general guidance for working vans, not a diagnosis of your vehicle. Costs are typical UK ranges and will vary by van, area and garage. If anyone is in danger, ring 999.