VZ5.7
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- Nov 2, 2014
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- Location
- Gawler SA
- Members Ride
- 2006 VE SSV Manual Sedan
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.
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.