Electronic Throttle Control Light

CBASE · **Posted:** Wed Aug 12, 2009 7:47 pm

I have an 06 CRD with 96,000 miles on it and have had no real problems till now. It has happened twice now that after I wash the car the ETC light will come on, not always right after I wash, and I will lose power. I can still drive but I cannot go very fast and If I press on the peddle it does nothing. The first time it clear up and was fine. I washed it today and same thing. Any thoughts anyone.

Thanks

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 13, 2009 4:49 pm

The most common cause of an ETC light is braking with the left foot while simultaneously applying throttle. Shut-off/restart should take care of it.

DOC

dkenny · **Posted:** Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:48 pm

we're seeing this at times in my wife Jeep..in our case its not caused by left foot braking..we both come from drive sticks.. the left is for the clutch..not the brake.
no power loss or dirving issuses. the light just flashes then goes away..sometimes once sometimes twice..at random.

on a recent trip, think 4k miles. it might flash after starting but only a couple of times..but not again. other times it would flash again.

I starting to think loose dash wiring..any had this before?

this goes along with the random 'gascap' in the OD.

the other odd thing was the LOcool in the OD on cold mornings..but this might be because I unplugged the fuel heater and the morning temp were low enough to have frost.

-dkenny

SC RIGGR · **Posted:** Fri Aug 14, 2009 2:31 pm

Its odd you mention car washing. Twice now a similar situation happened to my and the Libby. Both times, after washing and vacuuming. I had the same light appear. When i stopped and checked. I looked down in footwell at the pedals to see the Husky liner ON TOP of the gas pedal!! After reinstalling the liner correctly no more throttle light. :lol:

vegiH · **Posted:** Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:11 am

yesterday on a family "jaunt" we were blessed with meeting two of the stupidest bikers in the world ,(I am a biker and that says alot about these two)I was turning left at a stop light (from a dead stop),and these two come racing up behind me on these Motard bikes trying to beat the red light coming.Long story short,they were gonna come thru the drivers side back door(where my 2 yearold son was sleeping),so I put my foot in it(go-go pedal) to avoid a crash,when I let off pedal it still accelerated,very odd for a fly by cable throttle.ETC light lit up as I stood on brakes with two feet with engine @ 2,800 rpms,got it to stop 300 yards later,and put it in park killed the ignition.......slowest 5 seconds since my TT wreck.I don't know what happened,but restart "reset" ETC and has driven good ever since.............all and all cost me some mileage off tires,and brakes,and alot of trust in the rig.Anyone else had this happen?I hope not, any and all input needed........H

nursecosmo · **Posted:** Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:37 pm

I've had the accelerator get stuck on my slush mat a couple of times after I stomp it. I never noticed the TPS mis-match signal, but then, I never used the brakes either. Once, I shut the engine off, and once, I just knocked the pedal loose from the mat. Both times it happened while passing another vehicle. If it had happened in traffic, I probably would have had to change my shorts.

gmctd · **Posted:** Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:59 am

Agreed - if you have those plastic drip-pans as floor mats, check the real estate where the throttle pedal meets the metal, as the pedal can bind and hang under the edge of the high-wall mat under pedal-to-the-metal excessive exhiliaration events

Also, turboDiesel engines develop max power when loaded, low-rpm as well as higher rpm - the greater the loading, the greater the power development - (that's why we're addicted to driving the smokey stinky noisy beasties, eh: left foot on the brake, right foot hard into the go pedal, quickly spooling the turbo for a really baaaaad launch as the left foot side-slips the brake pedal, rear of the truck vanishing in blue\white smoke where the suddenly rapidly spinning rubber meets the pavement!) - this includes off-idle situation, where the left foot on the brake pedal is not well-coordinated with the right foot on the go pedal - in accordance with F37 and other torque management scenarios deemed necessary by DCJ managment for this little shaker, including the '06 ESP function, this can and does result in the throttle pedal warning, and, on occasion, Limp Mode - my '05 is extremely sensitive to the right-foot-don't-know-what-the-left-foot-is-doing (who, moi?!?) scenario, usually results in zero power and idle rpm only - so far, no permanent limp-mode situation requiring shut-down and restart

Also, along with the first paragraph above ^, throttle pedal position when ignition is switched ON can result in ETC, as in trying to start the engine like a gasser (patooie!) with the throttle depressed (shudder!)

Also, just fer grins'n'giggles, might check the ECM\TCM harness ground, back in there on the firewall behind the fuel manager head - clean and tighten

dkenny · **Posted:** Thu Sep 03, 2009 5:58 pm

I know ours, the light indicator, IS NOT caused by 2 footed driving..ever been in an auto with someone who's used to driving a clutch??

its not fun..both my wife and are long time manual drivers..so the left is for the clutch only.. no bad left foot brake habits here.

also ever driven in Kansas??? not much need for braking, but we did see the throttle light come on a few times??

no power loss...just the stupid light..

oh and the

check engine
abs
security system -- this jeep doesn't have this feature at all just the light on the dash!! WTF?? if this comes on it tends to stay until the next restart.
gas cap on the mileage display
and tonoght add the low 4x4 light??

execpt for the security light all other are random..

biggest change to cause all this...an electric fuel pump..
at the next oil/fuel filter change I trying removing the pump just to see..if its the problem??then what?

-dkenny

CATCRD · **Posted:** Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:18 pm

dkenny wrote:

I know ours, the light indicator, IS NOT caused by 2 footed driving..ever been in an auto with someone who's used to driving a clutch??

its not fun..both my wife and are long time manual drivers..so the left is for the clutch only.. no bad left foot brake habits here.

also ever driven in Kansas??? not much need for braking, but we did see the throttle light come on a few times??

no power loss...just the stupid light..

oh and the

check engine
abs
security system -- this jeep doesn't have this feature at all just the light on the dash!! WTF?? if this comes on it tends to stay until the next restart.
gas cap on the mileage display

execpt for the security light all other are random..

biggest change to cause all this...an electric fuel pump..
at the next oil/fuel filter change I trying removing the pump just to see..if its the problem??then what?

-dkenny

Bunch of random unrelated electrical failures? Sounds like a chafed wiring harness and shorted wires. It's been known to happen in the CRDs.

dkenny · **Posted:** Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:38 pm

but where to start looking? the biggest change was the fuel pump..after changing the filer soon I'know more..

I've read about the rear wheel ABS sensor causing some of the problems.. not at all

we also live in a non corrosive envrionment..and mostly no snow in the winter..we did buy it used however..so its past is suspect..it had none of these problems for 10K+ miles after we bought it..

-dkenny

nursecosmo · **Posted:** Thu Sep 03, 2009 11:28 pm

Look at the wiring harness which passes above and beside the fuel filter head. The 06s are known to chafe through on the sharp corner of the filter bracket, and cause problems just like this.

gmctd · **Posted:** Fri Sep 04, 2009 12:03 am

In addition, start where you left off: if adding the lift pump initiated the problem(s), retrace your steps thru the installation, looking for nicked wiring, loose connectors, grounding, etc

hokiecb · **Joined:** Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:23 pm **Posts:** 46

Mine has been doing it for several months. Its also not the brake thing. You'll just be driving down highway and it will come on and then the accelerator wont function. After I shut it off it will stay off for a few minutes, hours, or weeks before reappearing. It seems to be happening to a lot of us.

CBASE · **Posted:** Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:14 pm

Since I posted this thread I have not washed the car and everything has been fine it has been running perfect. I am going to try and wash this weekend and see what happens. I have checked the mat looked at wires around injection pump and fuel filter. I guess I will look for water around wires. Interesting problem. Then only one since I have owned it really. I am coming up on a timing belt and read they are not available from mopar so that is going to be nice.

CBASE · **Posted:** Sat Sep 05, 2009 5:20 pm

So I washed the car today and as expected the ETC light came on. I looked under the hood to see if there was any water getting in the engine compartment and found that there was some water getting in on the passenger side on the firewall. There are a lot of wire and what looks like the main computer over there and the wires were wet. The seal does not seem to seal that well and I may get a new one to see if that helps. Also while driving the light was on but no power loss I put on my blinker to change lanes and had the check engine light come on and when I turned the blinker off both the check engine light went off as well as the ETC. Put on the blinker again as a test same thing ETC came on Check engine on and when I turned blinkers off again they both went off. So I am going to try to come up with something to keep water off the wire and will see when I wash again what happens.

Chris

SilGel · **Joined:** Tue Apr 12, 2011 1:54 pm **Posts:** 11

It's been a while since this thread has been updated, but I thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth about water. I have an 05 CRD and today was the first day since ownership that I drove it in the rain. Lo and behold, the ETC light came on and flashed until I stopped the vehicle (about 5 min). Shut down the vehicle and restarted and it was gone, so there maybe something to this water thing.

BlackLibertyCRD · **Posted:** Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:51 am

Could it be that the tires are still wet and your heavy on the go pedal and the tires are really slipping. Yeah I done that. :-)r

sidebrake · **Posted:** Fri Jun 03, 2011 1:14 pm

If it is related to water, my guess is it's probably a wiring/short thing. I've noticed that if you turn the key to "on" with the water temp sensor disconnected, you'll get the throttle warning light. So, I wouldn't be surprised if other seemingly unrelated circuts (if shorted or disconnected) could cause it as well.

CIMARRON13 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 04, 2011 3:03 am

I had the light coming on all the time in the past. Random times. Dealer couldn't find it. No surprise there. They ended up putting new sensors and a pedal in but never checked the wiring but didn't help. I ended up using zip ties to secure the wiring harness under the hood along firewall. Haven't had a problem since so I bet it was a chafed wire somewhere.

PermanentGrin · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2012 12:59 pm

CIMARRON13 wrote:

I had the light coming on all the time in the past. Random times. Dealer couldn't find it. No surprise there. They ended up putting new sensors and a pedal in but never checked the wiring but didn't help. I ended up using zip ties to secure the wiring harness under the hood along firewall. Haven't had a problem since so I bet it was a chafed wire somewhere.

Me too, and it ran for a day, then back in. They found some jacked up wiring under the dash, and fixed that, and same story: ran fine for a day, then same intermittent problem. I looked under the hood at the fuel filter bracket, and I can't tell where it would rub exactly, as everything is wrapped in fabric tape whatever. One day it will run fine. The next, the ETCL will come on, and after some time, it will just lose power and then come back up to speed. Seldom outright dies, just goes to idle RPM. Sometimes, I even get a full up CEL/MIL light to come on, but it always goes away.

Electronic Throttle Control Light

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