So i've heard about this so called "limp mode," where the service light, VDC off light and slip light come on and you lose throttle response. My question is what causes this and how can it be fixed?

For the last month this has happened 8 times. Yes 8. A month ago I was driving about 50 on a country road and it went into "limp mode." I pulled off the road turned the car off for a bit and then turned it back on and carried on, the service light was now on. The first time this happened to me was about a year ago and i was told that it wasn't anything and the light would go away. Sure enough after 3 days the light had turned off. A couple days after that I was driving on the freeway going home and it happened when I was going ~65. Had to hit the hazards and roll over 2 lanes and roll down the next exit to pull over and turn the car off. After waiting for a while I turned it back on and the service light was now on again.

I got seriously worried about it after this because it was now on the freeway. So since the light was on I thought I would take it in and get it checked out. There is no Infiniti dealer in my area so I took my car to Nissan. They checked the code and said some P12something sensor was malfunctioning. They said there was something wrong with the accelerator pedal. I have an extended warranty for my car since I bought it used so I called them and asked if i was covered to get this sorted out. I was covered, so I went back to Nissan and had them replace the pedal. After that it drove just fine with no problems or hint of problems until last week Wednesday. I was in the very left lane driving ~ 60 and it happened once again. Had to go over 4 lanes of traffic without being able to give it gas. Now I was really starting to become uneasy about this. So last Friday I went back to Nissan and told them it still happened. They checked the code and the same thing came up. The mechanic decided to erase all codes and let the computer learn the idle position for the accelerator pedal. Then he said that he use to work at the Infititi dealer that is about 40 minutes away and that their powertrain warranty is long and I might be covered. The service advisor called them right away and asked if I was still covered. I was. Phew!! That Friday night I was heading to a friends house and when I took the exit off the freeway it happened again and the off ramp was a circle that ramped up. I had about 3 cars behind me and I rolled up the whole thing at ~10 mph since there was no where to pullover. Had to roll for quite a bit then found a place to pull in and had to turn the car off and on again.

Saturday my mom had to drive to San Fran Airport to pick my dad up, she decided to take my car. She drives all the way there with the service light on and nothing happened. On the way back my dad drives and it cuts off twice while in the far let lane and doing 55+. On Tuesday I made an appointment totake my car to the Infiniti dealer. It did it again when I was going ~55 on the freeway. When I got there they told me that they would handle it. Today I got the call that it was ready and the problem was the throttle body. My family and I were headed to San Fran today so we went and picked it up on the way. All the way there, no problems. On the way back driving at ~30 on Van Ness it happens. And then about 5 mins after getting over the bridge it happened again. This time at ~60. Ater I pulled over and turned it off and on I decided to go home using cruise control as much as possible and I managed to get all the way home without it cutting off again.

Sorry for making this so long but I thought that it would be better to get the entire story out there.

If this were you....what would you do? Sell it? Keep trying different stuff and putting money into it to get it fixed?

Also if anyone knows exactly what causes this or has an idea of what type of stuff would cause this then please let me know and I could pass the word onto the mechanics at Nissan and Infitini and maybe they can get my car fixed.

It isn't anything that I can't handle but it does get a bit sketch at times and it always freaks my passengers out and I definitely don't want to make them feel unsafe when they are in my car.

Thanks for your time and any input on a solution is much appreciated.

 

First things first; don't sell the car.

Second get the exact error code from a nearby Autozone and post here.
there are several members here that may have had the same problem you are facing.
If anything we can help you narrow down the problem to a few components if we have the exact error code from the OBDII scanner which an Autozone should do free of cost for you.

Thirdly, Don't drive the car again and again if the lights keep coming on.
Letting your parents use it when they aren't familiar with the issue at all is a bad idea in itself.
Use another vehicle as it clearly isn't safe to keep driving this one.

The good thing is you have warranty coverage through the dealership so you can go to ANY infiniti dealership to get it fixed.
It seems that the one you're going to aren't that good. Give them another try or two if they cant fix it I'd take it to another Infiniti dealership.

Try not to take it to the Nissan one as your issue seems complicated.

Plus we need to know what year, mileage and model of your infiniti is.

 

BCM
you said no dealer next bet is to pull one from the junk yard however there is a need of some key work I think.
Find a dealer Nissan or infiniti and take it there sorry but thats the best bet! I wouldn't trust any other mechanic when its a compute issue!

 

Today my 05 G35 AT out of nowhere while waiting for a friend in neutral the car shut down all by itself, when i went to turn it on it kind of takes long to crank up and get going... on the way back i was waiting again in neutral and the car did the exact same thing, the only thing this time vdc off, service engine soon and slip lights came on, when im going really slow the car accelerates itself, the car looks like its vtec now, it wont go 100% until reaching around 4k 4.5k rpms, the transmission wont rev match now, when im going by a speed bump it sort of accelerates itself... i dont understand what happened to the car, there a tad bit less of a quarter of a tank, im using 93 octane gas, the car has 66k miles. Does anyone know if its the gas that im using? spark plugs? a sensor or what? all i have in my car is a ztube combined with a ebay cone filter, someone help please, im terrified lol!

 

but seriously, please help, im seriously worried, i adore my car and really want to know whats happening to fix it quickly!

 

Hey guys im sorry for taking so long to reply. I've been in Florida. But to answer some questions....when Nissan checked the code they said that the sensor that is malfunctioning is sensor P2138.

And i read over my original post I saw that I didn't mention that when I got the call to say my car was done the guy told me that when they double checked to see if i still had my power train warranty it showed that it had ended a year and a half ago. They found some way for me to be covered so I don't know if they will do it again. If they say they cant then what should my move be? Im going to be in Florida for the next week and a half so i can only go get this done after i get back to cali. but please if anyone knows what is going on then let me know for sure.

 

If you do a search you'd find that this is most likely caused by a bad cam positioning sensor. I would have someone run a diagnostic and get the OBD2 codes so you can know exactly what is wrong.

 

i searched the code and read through some of the threads and lots of them said that it is the accelerator pedal sensor. I have gotten that fixed and it still happened. Then when i took my car to the infiniti dealer they said it was the throttle body and they fixed that and it still happened. do i ask them to check the cam positioning sensor?

 

i forgot what was the code of mine but the problem was that i apparently had malfunctioning cranks sensors, i changed all of them and the problem is gone!

 

taking my car back to the infiniti dealer today. gonna give them one last try to get this right.

this guy i know said that it could possibly that the fuel filters are not clean...could this be the issue or part of the issue? my car has 57xxx miles on it and im not sure if the fuel filters have been replaced. :/

 

Doubt it.

 

i had same problem n my 03 g and it was caused by my throttle body.. if u ever clean it or remove it they r very sensitive