So I was driving on the freeway about 65mph in 6th gear and all of the sudden the SERVICE ENGINE SOON, VDC OFF and SLIP lights all turn on and stay on. I exit and on the off ramp stop light the accelerator is barely working. It was limiting how much I can accelerate and my idle dropped about 200 rpm. I finally get to pull over, turn my car off and wait for about 30 seconds. I start the car up, the accelerator works normal, idle seems fine but the SERVICE ENGNIE SOON light is still on. I don't think this anything to do with the gas cap tightening situation. Also I installed a grounding kit about 4 days ago but I'm pretty sure that has nothing do with it. I did run a twin turbo Supra the day before but that would a huge delayed response. Any ideas? I will drop off my car at the dealer to see what codes come up on Tues after the long weekend.

 

I would ditch the grounding kit before you take it into the dealer. Since this is definitely a ECU issue (I am guessing) and the grounding kit effects ECH indirectly, you may have warranty issues if the dealer is a *****, which they can be.

 

Bet you it's a throttle position sensor problem.

 

yup, the dealer hooked up consult and came up with a throttle position sensor problem code. he ordered the parts and as soon as it comes back, i gotta bring it back in. hopefully this solves the problem. currently it is running fine.

 

car went into failsafe mode again on the freeway a week ago. the new throttle body chamber came in last week and just got my car back today. I was told that there was a batch of bad throttle body chambers.

 

Had this exact problem crop up on my z last weekend. Thanks to this board I knew what the problem was before the dealer. Got the car back today with a new throttle assembly. Car's build date was Feb' 03.

 

Thanks guys I'll keep an eye out.

 

Unfortunately the new throttle assembly did not fix the problem. Car goes back Monday. Is the throttle position sensor part of the throttle assembly, or is it a different part?

 

The dealer is replacing the ECU. Perhaps there never was a throttle problem in my case.

 

My Z just did that today as well.. i'm a little reluctant to bring it to the dealer though because I have the procharger installed..

 

My Engine light came on shortly after doing an aggresive start in my 6SP with my friend Audi A4 some time ago....I disconnected the batter that evening to rest it...and never appeared again -- even after aggressive driving again..

 

The engine light is not a big issue. Failsafe mode is the problem. Engine will not rev past 2k rpm, even with full throttle. Not a good thing in fast traffic.

Bad news. No replacement ECUs are available, and no ETA on the part. Car remains parked at the dealer until repaired. This sucks. I understand more cars have been showing up with the same problem.

 

YEP!

Happened to me yesterday. Went to start the car and get slip and check engine light, can't drive more than 10 mph. This sucks!!

I guess I will have to have it towed to the dealer monday. Hopefully it is an easy fix, but my trust in the Z and it's reliability has been changed forever by this. Electronic this and that, drive by wire, networked electrical system.... TO MUCH TO GO WRONG!!

Silverstone Performance
Phoenix AZ

 

I've not had any problems with check engine lights but my car has been a little hard to start recently. Has that happened to anyone? It almost seemed like I didn't have the clutch pushed in far enough, but it was all the way to the floor.

 

After a week of driving the car it appears the new ECU has fixed the failsafe mode problems.