Vauxhall Limp Mode: Losing Acceleration (P2282)

For the past couple of months, my Vauxhall Insignia has been going into limp mode.

In case you didn’t already know, limp mode is a feature that protects your engine from further damage. Basically, your car detects that there is a problem and it reacts by shutting down certain functions in your engine. This causes a loss in acceleration and power.

In most cases, a “service vehicle soon” message would appear on my Insignia’s dashboard before the car went into limp mode and I lost acceleration.

After bringing the car into two different mechanics on four separate occasions, it seemed like I was getting nowhere. Essentially, they’d clear the check engine light and then tell me that they couldn’t figure out what the issue was.

So I decided to buy a car code reader (OBD-II device) and check the error myself.

P2282

The error / trouble code that I got for my Vauxhall Insignia was P2282.

The description for P2282 is as follows:

Air Leak Between Throttle Body and Intake Valves.

After doing a quick Google search for the trouble code in question, I came across a number of Youtube videos that focused on the Turbo Intercooler Pipe in the Vauxhall Insignia. In most cases, this particular trouble code will appear whenever there is a tear in the rubber pipe. It is this tear that causes the air leak.

After a few seconds of checking under the bonnet, I noticed a dark line on the the side of the pipe. After prodding it, I could see that it was a large tear:

Note that the particular parts number for this pipe is 23163578. There are a number of Youtube videos showing you how to fix it yourself if you feel confident enough in your own abilities. If you do not feel confident in your own abilities, you can just buy the part yourself and then bring it into a mechanic. Here is a picture of the pipe in question:

Tape.

I asked an experienced mechanic if it would be OK to temporarily fix the issue by masking the tear with tape. I was a bit hesitant to do this because I had read elsewhere that you needed heat resistant tape and that it wasn’t a great idea for a turbo pipe. However, he said that it was OK as long as it was tightly wrapped. Note that you may need to clean the pipe before you attempt to tape over it as the tear may have allowed oil residue to spill over it. As you can see in the picture that I took of my pipe, it was absolutely covered in dry oil.