Holden Ute Range

The reason you can’t start the engine in second gear is for safety reasons. Car makers fit what’s called a Neutral or Park switch, which means the engine won’t crank unless the car is in Neutral or Park. That prevents the car starting in gear and taking off.

If the lever’s connection to the transmission has failed or become excessively worn, you can get the symptoms you have because the lever won’t select Neutral or Park. And therefore the engine won’t start.

However, it’s highly questionable that this is connected to the limp-home mode. That’s usually caused by a problem with the driveline that threatens to do more damage if you continue driving. The gear lever problem sounds more like a simple mechanical issue. Did both things happen at the same time? If not, they’re very probably not related.

Those codes are reasonably common ones. The first two (0193 and 0089) generally relate to a problem with the fuel rail, specifically the pressure in that rail. This is obviously critical to how the engine runs.

The third code (0401) is more commonly associated with the flow of the EGR valve. If this valve is damaged or blocked, then this fault code would likely show up. As such, you may find you have two separate problems, rather than a single one.

Low pressure in the fuel rail would certainly explain why the performance is off, and the overheating could easily be associated with an EGR valve failure. A blocked EGR can raise combustion chamber temperatures while a failed EGR can actually leak coolant and allow the engine to overheat that way.

Start with the basics. How old is the battery and what condition is it in? Sometimes you can check a battery’s voltage is at 12 volts with a meter, and have lights on the dashboard, and be tricked into thinking the battery is okay. But if the battery is worn out, when you turn the key to engage the starter motor, the extra load on the battery sees it lose the plot and nothing happens. You might hear a clicking noise, or you might hear nothing.

Modern engines rely heavily on electricity to run and will cut out if they aren’t getting enough voltage from the electrical system and, again, a dud battery can be the cause even if the alternator is working properly. You need to have the battery tested when a load is applied to it. If the voltage plummets when you apply that load, the battery is definitely ready for replacement.

Don’t forget the other basic stuff like the tightness and cleanliness of the battery terminals. Dirty or loose terminals can provide enough power to light up the dashboard, but can fail you when you apply the load of the starter motor.