I cleaned, checked, replaced battery connections, terminals and wires yesterday. I've been losing voltage slowly everyday and figured battery or connections. Everything on the wiring end is more than perfect. Added a grounding kit also. New battery terminals as well. All chassis grounds are on bare metal and tight. Nothing changed. At idle my car is seeing 12.7 to 13.1 volts. 13.1 on the freeway.

Drove about 50 miles with no issues.

Today started the car and throwing sel light, vdc, slip. Code is P1121 Throttle Control Acuator. Tried doing all the resets, Throttle, Pedal, Idle and ecu reset but for the life of me nothing will re-learn. I've read a ton of guides, used a timer, etc. Can't get any of them to follow through.

I never unplugged the TPS or anything. So what to do now? I just got the car and paid 1 payment but it's been a nightmare for me. Trying to fix one problem and I find another problem. Aside from my a/c won't turn on to add. Car will go slowly to any speed but throttle and acceleration feels at most 25% at WOT.

 

Sounds like you have a charging issue. Have you checked the alternator?

The head unit is a known issue for battery drain but that shouldn't affect it when the car is running.

 

Test your battery with a battery hydrometer



You may have a weak/shorted cell?

13.1v from the alternator is not normal

Should be 14.4v

Telcoman

 

I know I have a charging issue. Battery is shot but something caused it unless it's one of those things where a perfectly good less than a year old battery crapped out. I'm used to getting 5+ years out of car batteries. Tried with head unit unplugged. What has me worried is I clear the code, turn the car off and back on and everything is good. Turn car off longer than 5 minutes the TPS code is back. I'm just making sure I don't have another underlying issue. Besides parasitic drain, etc. Battery/Alternator tests are easy peazy. Im new to Infiniti cars. I would assume low voltage would throw other codes, but not put a car into limp mode.

 

You can try cleaning the throttle body. You might just need a new one though.

I attempted to do the pedal dance once after I cleaned the throttle body. It literally took me about 50 tries to get it working.

Big steps I had to add that were not in any of the guides I saw:

Make the steering wheel is centered
All electronics off
Headlights in off not auto setting
After the idle settled down I had to stop and it start it a few extra times immediately for the ECU to remember it.

I think the car naturally has a parasitic draw (At one point I went through two or three batteries when I first had the car. I had to fight with the dealer to replace it, since they tried saying I had an aftermarket ground wire, lol.). I have a one year old battery in my 06 that was down to 75% charge, which I was kind of shocked about. I don't usually take small trips with my car either, so I hooked it up to my battery charger to get it back to a 100% with a trickle charge. I was trying to track down a starting issue, which ended up being my starter. The bendix gear was flopping around and causing an intermittent start issue.

I bought two tools from Harbor Freight my battery charge which I have used twice so far for my Audi and G. Also, a cigarette light plugin that tells you the output voltage of the battery and alternator when the car is running.

 

Return/and replace the battery

It is not unheard of to have a defective battery after one year

Was this a Walmart battery?

Yes you will with shorted battery cells

Replace the battery with a good one and then measure alternator output voltage.

Telcoman

 

The G's stereo has been known to go bad and become a parasitic drain on your battery. My G threw those codes when I was lucky enough to get to deal with that. But then again, there were many instances where I saw those lights. Anyways, if it's the same case for you, you can find a service to refurbish your stereo for something like $50 on ebay.

 

Update

Took car to AutoZone to have battery and alternator checked in car with key off and car running.

Battery voltage with car running is 14.4. Key off he said battery was reading 89% charged prior to starting the car.

Voltage readings I have are at the obd2 port which are reading 13.1 or so with car running. Maybe 13.3 at a fast idle.

Car still throws the TB acuator code 1121 every time I start the car. Once cleared and I turn car off and back on vdc and slip lights go off and car is out of limp mode.

So what we know is battery and alternator are fine. If obd2 port voltage is accurate than there is a voltage drop. This damn TB code is what's killing me. If the car is off longer than 5 minutes the code will pop up again. If I wait 30 seconds or 1-2 minutes after cutting car off to turn the car back on the code will not pop up.

I decided it's time to clean the mag and TB. TB butterfly is not 90 degrees closed with the car off. It looks open about 10-15 degrees just gueasing.

Here are pics and I have never unplugged the TB or touched the butterfly, not even came close.


Car off immediately after removed air intake.

 

If you clean it don't turn it on, but put the pedal all the way to floor. It should open it up and then you can clean it with a toothbrush or something. I wouldn't mess with it by hand they are real finicky. You'll probably have to redo all the relearn procedures and good luck with that!

 

I unhooked the battery. So explain how to get it to open with engine off. Key on and put pedal to floor and it will stay fully open? Looks like somebody used the wrong alan wrench and somewhat rounded a hole in the top right bolt as you can see in the pic. So I'm gonna have to try to clean it with it still installed. Its filthy black coated inside when I put my head in there and look up. Its bad bad coated with carbon. I really hope this is the issue for the P1121 Code that always comes back when I start the car up. But stays off as long as I don't turn the car off. So its baffling me. The issue has no impact on idle or driveability. Its perfect with the code cleared. My gas mileage is horendous. Highway average is 14.5 and thats 60-65 MPH.

So if anyone else has any other ideas at all please help me. I've been trying to track this thing down for like 2 weeks now. Its worrying me that at the alternator and battery voltage is dead on with a perfect 14.4 at idle but voltage at the OBD2 port is 13.1 at idle. Lights, etc flicker. I have a 7 piece grounding kit installed along with 2 guage Battery Ground 2 of 3 in the Big 3 upgrade. Things get complicated when there is more than 1 thing wrong with a car vs just 1 thing. Makes it complicated like a domino effect.

 

Well, I'd hook the battery back up and turn it to the on position and then put something to hold the pedal down. That way it's WOT and you can get in there with a toothbrush or something, I cleaned my throttle body once on my G by manually moving it and my idle got all jacked up and took forever to fix. Some people have broken their throttle bodies doing it that way as well.


I used the method I told you to clean the RAV I'm working on for my brother and didn't have any problems. It also fixed a fluctuating idle problem I was having.

It could just be you have a bad throttle body already and that's why the code won't go away. I know if the throttle body is bad it disables a lot of stuff for safety measures. Try looking into remanufactured or used throttle bodies as well.

Try using some vice grips or see if you can hammer the next size allen wrench in to the bolt.

 

Update - Drove car around today to run errands the usual weekend thing. Now I have high idle. I decided to do the battery disconnect overnight to reset ECU if I could.

Since battery ECU reset - It will now throw the High idle code can't remember the number right off the bat. The relearn procedures are what I'm having trouble with. I can't seem to get it down, I can never get the light to blink or stay on or anything. So I guess I'm gonna have to keep trying. I got some extra tools in case I can't get the 1 bolt that rounded off the TB. So here in a minute I'm gonna pull the TB since its throwing a code anyway. Needs a good cleaning.

Running OBD2 software on my phone the Short Term Fuel Trim 1 and 2 was running 11-15% and my base timing at idle is down to 2-3 instead of factory 15 degrees. So the ECU is definitely compensating. I'm trying to avoid just going to the dealer. They want $120 for the Consult 2 hookup/procedure thing. I'll know after the TB clean if I need to replace the TB I guess. I really wished these Accelerator, TB, Idle relearn procedures were easier. The directions seem simple as can be but definitely something to it that makes it hard for some reason

 

I don't think the fuel trims are reset when you do the ECU reset you need to drive it around. Easy way to reset everything is to disconnect both battery cables and hold them together.

You're also waiting for the car to get to operating temperature before monitoring the trim right? Try revving the engine to 1500-2000 RPM and see if the fuel trims get closer to 0 or lower. If they do you can have a vacuum leak somewhere. I'd also try cleaning the MAF sensor just in case.

You're probably just not getting the time correct if you can't even get the lights to flash. I would use a stop watch. I had to do a few additional steps to get my idle to take:

Make the steering wheel is centered
All electronics off
Headlights in off not auto setting
After the idle settled down I had to stop and it start it a few extra times immediately for the ECU to remember it.

 

Yes all the above statements were made after a 25-30 mile freeway trip and 30-60 minutes worth of in town driving. I have an alarm set that tells me when the car goes from open to closed loop, etc etc. I have a 6 inch tablet mounted on my dash using Torque Pro and Dash Command. Even before this issue I've just always monitored the car. Coolant Temp, Voltage, Fuel Trims, O2 voltage, Maf, Intake Temps and a few others. These gauges stay on my home screen.

Thanks for all the help. I'm jumping on the TB removal now. And I will update. The only thing about the starting stopping thing to get ECU to remember idle and whatnot. Is that's when the code for TB pops up. I can clear the code and drive for 2 hours straight and it will not come on or give me issue. Only when I turn the car off and back. Anything longer than 10 seconds it looks like.

 

I did the 3 relearns but the cel light flashes when Im finished with the idle relearn. It keeps flashing like I was doing the ecu reset. They both are similar in steps so am I an idiot and I need to do the ecu reset first? Or is doesn't matter.

When finished with accelerator and throttle relearn and I finish the steps for idle. The sel light flashes I think at the end where you turn the car on for 20 seconds the sel light will come on when I rev the car and turn off when I let off idle.

So don't know what's up with that. I did the supposed ecu reset by battery left unhooked 12 hrs over night but I will try anything at this point.

Car runs great, part throttle and WOT is strong but it's pulling 10 degrees of timing at idle now even when the code 1121 is cleared.