I have been have a high rpm stumble and pinging issues this last week. The pinging had gone away but the stumble is still there. This morning on the way to work I rounded the corner and got on the gas a little to pass a car. The exhaust made a low burble noise and then the SES light and traction control light came on and the car went into limp mode. I pulled in to the gas station. Turned it off and then on. The SES light was still there, the ASC light went off and it was not longer in limp mode. I will be taking it in to the dealership this morning to have the code read. The problem is: I am literally a couple weeks out of my warranty. Are they going to charge me to diagnose the problem?

 

yeah they'll charge you. But my car did the same thing and im pretty sure that your throttle body is bad. at least thats the problem my car had.

 

I have no idea why this happens, BUT before you hit the stealer's door, try a reset of the ECU. Worked wonders for me when I limped into Fireballed here many moons ago. I thought that one or more plugs might be bad, but they looked fine. I replaced them a few K miles later, anyway though. My '04 is having the exact same issue again. I am going to reset it again just as soon as I can look up the button pressing method again. I believe you can use either the button pressing method, (which I can never remember exactly how it goes) or you can disconnect and reconnect the battery to accomplish this. Hubie Fuh guided me through the button pressing reset method when he was still down at Fireballed (for free, since I was a Fireballed tune customer). Come to think of it, I think I will check my plugs again , too, just in case. You know they have been known to back out of their threads on occasion!!

 

They didnt charge me but they really didnt fix it either. They said they put in on the scanner and found no "new" codes but they did find 2 stored old codes (random missfire faults and sporatic charge fault). I asked them how it was possible that I the SES light could come on, the traction control light come on, the car goes into limp mode and there are no codes thrown . They called me and said they cleared the codes and reset the SES light and the car is working fine. I asked them to make sure it was not hesitating or pinging and they said that it wasnt. When I read my serice slip the tech put down on the paper "many aftermarket items installed on engine, possible software changes, proper diagnosis cannot be performed with these changes." He said that my fuel smelled old and to try injector cleaner. I pick up my car, hit the on ramp and it is pinging and hesitating on WOT. Those guys are freaking monkeys! I guess I will check my plugs this weekend and hopefully that helps, will also put my stock bpv on to see if that helps out any.

 

what was the issue with your throttle body and how did you know that was the problem.

Thanks!

 

It's good that they at least didn't charge you!

You are probably experiencing some poor performance, in addition to the limp mode problem and WOT hesitation. All same that I have had (and that I'm having now). However, theoretically, you should not hear any "ping" or knock from detonation. The engine is set up (even with "non-stock" tunes or add-on or piggyback ECU devices such as the Shark or the Unichip) to defeat detonation by sensing conditions that create detonation and retarding the ignition BEFORE any detonation can occur.

The tech's comment that your fuel "smells old" is interesting. WTF?

The throttle body theory is interesting, but, technically, the "throttle body" is a solid metal piece, which, in my opinion, unless it is damaged in some way that prevents the throttle mechanism from functioning (certainly possible, but not likely) is unlikely to be causing the problem.

If you search the forums on "hesitation" and "throttle" you will find some interesting discussions and observations that may be helpful. Also, if you haven't already, try turning off the DSC (in dry road conditions) and see if it makes a significant difference on the throttle response in certain conditions. This is NOT a cure for the problems you have cited, but it might help to minimize the problems under certain conditions.

 

I checked the plugs on Saturday and the #3 and #4 spark plug electrodes were gone ! I replaced with one step colder ngk iridium at .044 and now we are back in business! Smooth running and stronger than ever. Freakin dealership rejects told me that the spark plugs couldnt have been the problem because they were supposed to last 100k miles, whatever they are a bunch of lazy A$$es.

 

You should let that service manager know about that and then let them know you won't be coming back there anymore

 

if the guys been smelling enough gas to tell you its old you have larger issues at hand

 

Yeah. The two issues are:
1) The plugs were so bad that the car wasn't burning the charge
2) The tech is high on gas fumes.