Fresh Z owner here. Background - I love cars but I have zero mechanical skills and only very basic mechanical knowledge. I'm 31 female; only other cars I've owned are an MX5 and a Celica.

I've wanted a 350z for 10 years. My dream car. Finally bought one today. During the 10 minute drive home, it went into limp mode. I am fuzzy on the details as I was pretty panicked. I was driving at low-ish speeds (prob around 40km/h) on a residential street, I think in 3rd gear, when the accelerator pedal became completely non responsive.

So I shifted into 2nd gear, still no power. Shifted down into first. Nothing. I was moving at a glacial pace but the car didn't stall. Managed to turn down a side street and pull over. Turned the car off. Called my partner to come and help me figure out what was wrong. He started the car up, no issues, drove it around for a bit and it was fine. I then drove it again, it was fine.

Am I losing my marbles? What could have happened? Obviously I'm new to this car and still getting my bearings with it. I was also very nervous driving it home. Could I have made a stupid mistake to cause the throttle issue? Or could there be something seriously wrong with the car? I'm super freaked out by what happened and I'm scared to drive it again. Not a good start to my Z journey

 

how many km on the car? kinda sounds like classic cam shaft sensors going bad to me.

as info, not everything triggers a check engine light, i would see if there are any stored codes in the ecm

 

Welcome and sorry to hear about your troubles. Z33s are generally stout vehicles, but limp mode is designed to keep you from causing major damage, or the electronic systems detects a safety issue. As Trav says, get this Z scanned and find out what codes are held in memory. did you have the car inspected before you bought it?

 

It has 219,000ks. I had a friend test it with his ECU scanner and turns out it was just the throttle body position sensor. He cleaned it, or something, and cleared the code.

​​​​​​The car only went into limp mode that one time and has been driving fine ever since. If the issue crops up again he said I might need a new throttle body. I'll keep an eye on it 🤞

 

Thanks, it ended up just being the throttle body position sensor. All cleared now (hopefully).
No I didn't have the car inspected 😬 I'm taking it to my mechanic to look over next week and see if there's anything else I need to address right away.

 

Keep in mind that if a throttle position sensor (TPS) is failing, clearing the code that triggered limp mode is only a temporary fix. Changing the TPS sensor itself is usually required, and it's simpler and cheaper than having to replace the throttle body itself. Do a search of this site or a utube DIY for more details.

 

Good to know, thank you. If it happens again I'll start with replacing the sensor.

 

at 220 k miles, it is a great idea to order an obd2 scanner plug from amazon, one that uses a phone app etc.. iirc i paid 29 dollars for mine.. this will allow you to read codes of this car and any others whenever you want.. and can lead you to some forum and google searches that will make owning this car far easier.

There is very little catastrophic failure stuff on this car, everything is simple.