VZ V8 Safety Mode Issues

[VZ5.7]

Bought a second hand air-flow-meter from the wreckers and fitted it, so far all is well... fingers crossed!

 

[VZ5.7]

No reoccurring issues after fitting the new air-flow-meter and now feeling ok passing it on I traded the car for a VE.
I had wanted a VE SS before but couldn't justify the $$ yet after the past months headaches I've lost faith in the VZs, despite loving the look and feel of the model I just wanted to put this saga behind me. Thanks to everyone who offered help and tech info, it was much appreciated.
You'll see me in the VE section from now, over and out!

 

[dgp]

Good luck with new ride mate and well done for having a conscience and fixing the issue before passing it on.

 

[VZ'06]

thanks for the info and the follow ups, i just wanted to clarify that did you just replace the Throttle Body or did you also reset the computer?? because i have heard that after replacing a part you must reset the codes or something like that. I have a 2006 VZ 5.7 as well and i'm having the exact same issues as yours like safety mode and reduced performance.

 

[Josephkhoshy]

For anyone who still researches for the fix it is the accelerator pedal

 

[Ken Howlett]

My vz 05 Crewman would randomly display the reduced power fault alarm, replaced the throttle body, no success, dismantled the throttle sensor and located two wires from the plug to the printed circuit board had no firm connection to the pc board, minimum contact allowed the vehicle to run but frequently fail. It's not hard to remove the sensor, open it up to check.

 

[KAR77]

My 2005 VZ SS manual has a problem where the dash alarm sounds then "Reduced Power" "Safety Mode" is displayed and the engine drops back to near-idle. As my car is a manual this leaves me with not even enough power to keep the car moving or move off from stationery (perhaps an auto trans would slip enough to allow the car to creep along?) I've had this car for about six months now since trading my 2004 VZ SS manual ute for it in Melbourne (a car which ran perfectly every day of the over six years I had her). The first time the "Safety Mode" activated was on the drive back to Adelaide at about 20km from home. I had initially blamed water getting in somewhere it shouldn't have as it was in torrential rain. The second time was about three months later while towing on a fine day when it happened twice, and recently the problem is happening more and more frequently to the point where it has failed at least every second drive (over 10km) for about the past week, three times now at traffic lights where I sat there waiting to be able to restart without fault while cars behind got rather pissed-off, and today three times in the one trip of about 25km. The problem is totally random, sometimes in cold weather sometimes hot and any temp in between, there is no warning as everything operates fine right up to the point the alarm sounds and power is lost simultaneously.
The owners handbook says this mode is due to a fault with the throttle actuator system. I've connected my dads Tech-2 scan tool but the model he has only shows active faults, not those stored in the ECUs memory, and of course the system was not in "Safety Mode" at the time.
I'm a motorcycle mechanic myself so am familiar with similar "fly-by-wire" throttle systems on bikes, however we do not use the Tech-2 code readers as the Japanese manufacturers all have their own diagnostic systems. Money is tight so having a workshop look at it and possible not find the issue, or taking a gamble and replacing parts hoping they've assumed right is out of the question at present. This seems to be a somewhat common issue on these models so I'd love to hear other owners experiences, especially what the cause and fix is for such issues.
Any help would be great, Thanks.

I've had the similar problem, I have a 05 VZ SS 5.7 just recently had xforce 4/1 1 5/8 headers, high flow cat's , 3" , reduced power safety mode kept coming up probably 6 times since the new exhaust , went for a drive today , went into reduced power safety mode I parked turned off ( usually it will just wind straight over ) & run normal , reds came up , engine wanted to crank but just stopped cranking , battery is fine but know won't start at all , any bloody help would be appreciated.

 

[KAR77]

Yeah similar problem here after new exhaust put on 4/1 1 5/8 headers 3" & high flow cat's reduced power safety mode kept coming on know it won't start , honestly don't know what the next move is , reduced power safety mode came on 6 times and usually kicked straight over after turning of for a few minutes know won't even crank , reds up on cluster but won't start .

 

[Fu Manchu]

You need a high end scan tool. The fancy ones. They will be able to poke around and get data and see what in the network is not communicating or has data issues.

Tech2 is the diagnostic platform the car was designed around but there are ones by Snap-On etc. These scan tools come in around the $1k-$2k mark, so the car really needs to get to a diagnostics specialist to solve it.

In regard to the pedal for it, there are now two solutions that allow VE or VF pedals to be used, or even the V6 pedal, which is a good thing because an SS FBW pedal is going for $1k or so and thats second hand!!