Etc fail safe

[jjcool00]

Question, I did some searching and there was a similar thread I found, but let me describe to ensure. I received a fail safe error today while driving home in the snow, going about 10mph with the TC light constantly blinking. I noticed no failure in power, no hesitation, no rough driving etc. I reset it, turned the car off, turned it back on drove another 10 -15 miles at 10mph in snow and it never came back. I saw previous threads say it could be coil #4, the gas pedal, etc. I have all 8 visteons with less than 25k miles on them. Could this just be a fluke? Or should I replace all of the coils to be safe? Does the snow have anything to do with it?

 

[joegr]

To be clear here, your message center said "ETC failsafe"? You can't reset that, but you can dismiss the message. (Turning the car off and back on will reset failsafe mode.)

ETC failsafe occurs when the PCM thinks that it can't control the throttle or when it can't be sure what position you have the gas pedal in. It goes into failsafe mode where power is greatly limited to insure that there is no unintended or uncontrollable acceleration.

What triggers it?

There are three gas pedal position sensors. If they don't all say the same thing (within reason), ETC failsafe is triggered. Note that RF noise from a bad coil might make the PCM read the wrong value for one or more of these sensors.

There is a throttle position sensor. If it says the throttle is in a different position than the PCM wants it to be in, then ETC failsafe is triggered. Again, RF noise from a bad coil can cause a false position reading.

There is the servo motor that moves the throttle. If it can't move the throttle to where the PCM wants it, then ETC failsafe is triggered. Often with the LS, RF noise is the problem. However, maybe this time the throttle really stuck. It's possible that it froze up in the conditions that you were in. Interestingly, there is actually an OBD code for iced over throttle. I wonder if it would come up if you had the codes read?

 

[jjcool00]

Ok here is exactly what was happening: I was driving, its about 15 degrees out and blizzard conditions, I was behind a plow and driving no more than 10 mph, at one point I hit an upward hill and the car was going VRMMM cut out, VRMM cut out, probably due to the TC limiting the car from slipping. It did this about 5-10 times rapidly and bam ETC FAIL SAFE... I didn't know what to do so I hit the RESET BUTTON and it went away? I had NO loss of power, I tried it when I got off the hill and it was fine. When I stopped I let it sit for a couple of seconds and had NO hesitation or stutter from the engine. So I turned it off. I got back in the car 5 mins later and started driving, same conditions, NO fail safe returned... I have no idea what caused it but I'm 100% sure it said ETC FAIL SAFE. No check engine light is on, but when I can, maybe tomorrow night I'll see if any codes are stored.

 

[msgtusmc]

Etc failsafe

To be clear here, your message center said "ETC failsafe"? You can't reset that, but you can dismiss the message. (Turning the car off and back on will reset failsafe mode.)

ETC failsafe occurs when the PCM thinks that it can't control the throttle or when it can't be sure what position you have the gas pedal in. It goes into failsafe mode where power is greatly limited to insure that there is no unintended or uncontrollable acceleration.

What triggers it?

There are three gas pedal position sensors. If they don't all say the same thing (within reason), ETC failsafe is triggered. Note that RF noise from a bad coil might make the PCM read the wrong value for one or more of these sensors.

There is a throttle position sensor. If it says the throttle is in a different position than the PCM wants it to be in, then ETC failsafe is triggered. Again, RF noise from a bad coil can cause a false position reading.

There is the servo motor that moves the throttle. If it can't move the throttle to where the PCM wants it, then ETC failsafe is triggered. Often with the LS, RF noise is the problem. However, maybe this time the throttle really stuck. It's possible that it froze up in the conditions that you were in. Interestingly, there is actually an OBD code for iced over throttle. I wonder if it would come up if you had the codes read?

Excellent info! Thanks again!

 

[LS_InOK]

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago when we had snow and ice, got about a block from the house and it went into ETC fail safe; so I turned around and rolled back into the garage so I could plug in my scan tool, I did pull two codes which I don't recall exactly but one was related to either the pedal or throttle position sensor. The ETC notice went out when I restarted the car so I deemed that it was a temporary glitch, haven't had a problem since and everything works just fine.

That said, I am pretty certain that my issue was (is) coil related since I just rolled 100k recently and a cursory look under the coil covers revealed 3 no name coils; a pay day and a reasonably warm afternoon is all that stands in the way.

 

[jjcool00]

Just wanted to provide a quick update to close out this thread: Had the codes read today and nothing was stored, maybe it was too late. The ETC FAIL SAFE never returned so I can assume it was as Joe said and just a frozen throttle since it was so cold. Thanks again guys.

 

[1MiC]

To be clear here, your message center said "ETC failsafe"? You can't reset that, but you can dismiss the message. (Turning the car off and back on will reset failsafe mode.)

ETC failsafe occurs when the PCM thinks that it can't control the throttle or when it can't be sure what position you have the gas pedal in. It goes into failsafe mode where power is greatly limited to insure that there is no unintended or uncontrollable acceleration.

What triggers it?

There are three gas pedal position sensors. If they don't all say the same thing (within reason), ETC failsafe is triggered. Note that RF noise from a bad coil might make the PCM read the wrong value for one or more of these sensors.

There is a throttle position sensor. If it says the throttle is in a different position than the PCM wants it to be in, then ETC failsafe is triggered. Again, RF noise from a bad coil can cause a false position reading.

There is the servo motor that moves the throttle. If it can't move the throttle to where the PCM wants it, then ETC failsafe is triggered. Often with the LS, RF noise is the problem. However, maybe this time the throttle really stuck. It's possible that it froze up in the conditions that you were in. Interestingly, there is actually an OBD code for iced over throttle. I wonder if it would come up if you had the codes read?

Thanks alot for the info! My etc fail safe has came up 3-4 times in the last two months or so, and my gas pedal seems to be a little off. Sometimes, in reverse especially, it seems to take a while to act once i apply pressure to the pedal. So i think maybe i should buy a new pedal?

https://www.rockauto.com/dbphp/x,ca....9L_V8_Accelerator_Pedal_Position_Sensor.html

 

[joegr]

Thanks alot for the info! My etc fail safe has came up 3-4 times in the last two months or so, and my gas pedal seems to be a little off. Sometimes, in reverse especially, it seems to take a while to act once i apply pressure to the pedal. So i think maybe i should buy a new pedal?...

What code(s) do you get when this happens? I wouldn't throw parts at it without at least knowing that.

 

[1MiC]

Yeah i thought about it and came to the same conclusion. I'm currently not getting a CEL, so i guess i'll have to wait till something pops up. I want it fixed but like you said, no use rushing to replace parts.