Teething

I have an 05 RX8 and it has been sitting in my garage for the past 3 weeks as I broke my right arm and I couldn't drive a stick until I got a little better. I went to pull the car out of the garage and the battery was dead. I think I left a light or stereo or some **** on...no big deal. I jumped it with my rental and left it idle for 30-40 secs then hopped in a drove it around the block.

It ran fine. I went to the grocery store a few miles away. I turned off the engine, shopped, returned and then started the car....The car was idling high at 2K-2.5K RPMs, the usual idle is less than 1K. As I was drviing, whenever I pushed on the accelerator, nothing happened. No push forward, no rev of the engine, nothing. Just a solid 2K idle. I threw it in neutral and stomped and nothing..just a 2K idle. I drove it home getting no more than 10-15 miles per hour and I am now waiting on the tow truck to come and take it to the dealer.

Any ideas?

cleoent

it's broken.

It's not suppose to do that.

Teething

That's funny. Someone said exactly the same thing..I was hoping for more details as I don't want to get shafted by the dealer.

Skythe

That **** is funny. I was thinking the same exact thing.

I was gonna suggest for you to play dumb with the dealer, but **** this is weird one. I've never heard of this happening on any car.

Teething

yeah...I have never seen anything like this before any car I have ever owned... I was thinking the throttle may be stuck, but when I jam on the accelorator and release it I can feel the cable tension...

therm8

Don't think there is a cable. Just spring tension in the throttle pedal position sensor. It's drive by wire.

Go48

Ha, ha ha! What cable? There ain't no stinkin' cable. There's a sensor near the accel pedal that sends the pedal position information to the ECU and the ECU controls the engine rpm and all the systems that are activated at certain rpms.

But to get back to your problem (sorry for the dig), it sounds like your car went into limp mode, i.e., the ECU limiting the engine rpm to prevent damage from some sort of problem. There are a number of problems that can cause the ECU to limit engine rpm. The dealer should be able to find the cause and make repairs or adjustments.

Teething

my last car had a cable :P

Thanks Go48...hopefully the dealer will have good news.

KeithL

With the battery going flat, it might've thrown the ECU for a loop....

Before you have it towed, you could try an ECU reset. Don't remember the exact procedure (search!) but IIRC it involves tapping the brake 20 times in succession after switching on the ignition....

[Edit:] ECU reset is a sticky at the top of this forum. Disconnecting the battery is another method, but, with your battery gradually going down instead of suddenly being disconnected, something weird could've happened...

vwnh

i think it is from the drive by wire system. throttle pedal position sensor. I had it happen to a VW once.