No power no throttle response.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

2 weeks ago my Wife's mitsubishi outlander phev heater system stopped working, basically no heat coming through, so we took the car to our local mechanic who said there's a possibility the heater matrix is not working, but later that day he phoned us back and said it looks like its the heater matrix valve was the problem and replaced it, and that the heater was now working fine.

We went to pick the car up later that day from the garage and the heater was back to normal as promised.
Then the following day when she went out in the car she phoned me to say the car as just stopped working.
The car was fully charged and had half of tank of fuel so that eliminated fuel problems, she said the throttle peddle felt strange just before it happened and it switched from electric to engine power by its self just before loss of power, even though she presses the throttle peddle down there's no drive even though the engine is running.
So she switched the car off and waited and then the car works as normal for a couple of minutes and then it happens again, and when she repeated the process the same thing started to happen more frequently as she tried to get the car home.

We have managed to get the car back to the garage and he's done a full diagnostic and checked all the systems he can think of that may be affecting the car to act in this way and as now admitted that in his 20+ years of been a mechanic he can not find out why it is doing this, he's said that it keeps doing it to him while he's test driving it after performing different checks.

So as a recap the car starts OK and then drives OK for about 10 minutes and then there's a strange feeling in the throttle peddle as if there's a drop in power and then there's no power at all been delivered to the wheel or drive system.
Just before this happens the car switches from electric to engine.
When you switch the car off and restart minutes later the car will drive OK for a few minutes and then the same problem starts again and then gets more frequent.

Sorry for the long paragraphs but I'm trying to give as much info as possible.
Any help would be appreciated.

Your mechanic should be collecting 'error codes' from the car's systems.

If they are not able to do that, they should not be touching your car.

I imagine he's thought of that, but it's not generating any :roll:

Is he able to at least datalog the accelerator *PEDAL position feedback? It could be a problem with that. The switch to engine could be because it has detected a sudden change in position as it brings in the engine to cope with a rapid change to support acceleration in an emergency, and then perhaps it's detecting a zero position so is not providing any forward drive. That would be my first suspicion.

@ AndyinOz
He's had no error codes showing up, he also managed to get a friend to call in from a Mitsubishi dealer that also connected there diagnostic machine and that also showed no Codes.

@ littlescrote
Thank you for your reply I have forwarded that info you have given me on to the mechanic so he can check that out.

He said yesterday he was waiting on some relay to be delivered to try and change that because they have been know to fault.
Also this Mechanic as said he isn't going to charge us for this work with him been a good friend of ours, but all the same we are going to give him something for is dedication of trying to find the problem.

But he says this car as got him baffled as he's worked on many hybrid and electric cars before and normally had no major issues with fixing them.

Thank you again for the responses and I will keep updates on this forum so others will be able to see this for incase anyone else as the same issue.

This is the final report, fix and solution to what happened, hopefully if anyone else as a similar problem this may help.

So as quoted in my previous post the mechanic changed the valve to the heater matrix and also changed the coolant in the system, the damage to the valve was caused by a blockage from muck or that clogged up the valve.
However as I previously stated in my original post the Phev then started with a secondary problem where the vehicle would just suddenly stop, and even though it was fully charged it would switch from over from electric to engine power and then there was no throttle response even though the engine was running.

The problem was caused by the muck that had originally gathered in the valve causing it to fault and it then moving and gathering into a different section of the coolant circulation of the system near the radiator and causing a blockage there.

There were no faults showing up because mechanically all the systems including the pump were working perfectly but the coolant wasn't circulating causing the car to oveheat resulting in the car basically shutting down to protect its self.

The mechanic ran pressurised water at force through the system which identified the problem when it kicked out all the blockage.

The Phev Outlander is now working perfectly fine.

Jason7323 said:

This is the final report, fix and solution to what happened, hopefully if anyone else as a similar problem this may help.

So as quoted in my previous post the mechanic changed the valve to the heater matrix and also changed the coolant in the system, the damage to the valve was caused by a blockage from muck or that clogged up the valve.
However as I previously stated in my original post the Phev then started with a secondary problem where the vehicle would just suddenly stop, and even though it was fully charged it would switch from over from electric to engine power and then there was no throttle response even though the engine was running.

The problem was caused by the muck that had originally gathered in the valve causing it to fault and it then moving and gathering into a different section of the coolant circulation of the system near the radiator and causing a blockage there.

There were no faults showing up because mechanically all the systems including the pump were working perfectly but the coolant wasn't circulating causing the car to oveheat resulting in the car basically shutting down to protect its self.

The mechanic ran pressurised water at force through the system which identified the problem when it kicked out all the blockage.

The Phev Outlander is now working perfectly fine.

Click to expand...

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience and for helping to contribute to the knowledge base of the community! It's information like this that can be really valuable to other users.

It's great to hear that your Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is now working perfectly fine. It's always frustrating when a vehicle has problems, but it's rewarding to be able to find the root cause and fix it.

How old was the coolant in your Outlander?

Wish manufacturers would always have engine and battery temperature displayed! Nissan put a battery temperature gauge in the Leaf that was as big as the speedometer.

So, my Outlander was with Mitsubishi for 3 weeks give or take and they weren't able to find anything wrong with it as there were no error codes. Took it to a garage I found via HEVRA on Monday, got a diagnosis Monday evening, authorised the part on Tuesday, part arrived on Thursday, got fixed car back on Thursday. It was the low pressure fuel pump that was the issue. Not a cheap repair, as the part was £975 incl. VAT but I now have a working car again. Very happy.