I have a 2004 1500 5.7 Hemi with 130k miles. Last week it started running rough and the Electronic Throttle Control light (lightning bolt) came on and kept flashing. I limped up the street and parked and when I revved the engine it revved roughly. I turned the engine off and back on and the light didn't come back on and it revved normally. Then it drove normally. I figured it was a glitch. Several days passed and it started running rough again and it cut off on me when I slowed down to stop. The ETC light has yet to come on again.

I tried the following:

I cleaned the Throttle Body and recalibrated the TPS.
I changed all the spark plugs (which was passed due anyway).
I put a new air filter in it, but the old one wasn't too bad.

I test drove after all of this and it was very sluggish still. It feels like it's bogged down and has no power.

I bought a diagnostic scanner tool, but there are no codes found. I did disconnect the negative battery cable before doing the above items though. The scanner says the EGR is fine and I replaced that maybe 50k miles ago. The only thing else I know to do is replace the PCV valve, but I gotta wait till Monday.

What do you guys think is wrong with my truck? All of this happened since getting the ETC light. Now my truck has shut off on me 3 times. I have never ever had my truck shut off on me before this. Please help! I have a long drive to work and no other transportation. I will greatly appreciate any help that you can provide!

Darrell

 

Well the first thing that came to my mind was cleaning the TB. I am assuming you took it off and cleaned the back side of it and the bore and butterfly are both spotless right? Aside from that and with the TB being clean and still getting the issue, I would assume a bad TB. Check the wiring going to the TB also

 

Yes, I removed and cleaned the TB bore front, back and butterfly. Pretty spotless. The wiring seems fine. It just had that one clip and it is connected well. No apparent loose wires or broken wires.

How can I determine for sure if the TB is bad? I'd hate to buy a new one only to find out that the TB is good.

Darrell

 

My truck is still running like crap. The gas mileage sucks! The way it has a loss of power, it feels like I'm towing something or hauling a heavy load. Throttle body is clean. I don't know what to do. I really don't want to spend an arm and a leg at the dealership. I'm considering just buying a new TB. I'm afraid that it won't be that and I will have just wasted that money. I got a price of $227 for a new TB. Anybody have any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!

Darrell

 

I'd suggest replacing the MAP sensor, they're only like $25. If that doesnt help, then it might be your APP sensor. That sensor reads what angle your gas pedal is and relays the info to the PCM which then tells the throttle body where to position the TB blade. The APP sensor will either be a little black module at the top of your gas pedal or you will have a cable from your gas pedal to the APP sensor under your battery tray. You'd probably have to get that sensor from the dealer though.

 

you said you re calibrated the tps. Maybe the sensor is just bad all together.

 

Transmission maybe?

 

I don't think it's the transmission because it doesn't run right even when I'm not driving. I don't know if there's a rev limiter, but one night when I was revving the engine (parked in driveway) it cut out as if there is a limiter. I'm not getting any codes on my code scanner. However, when I scan the system it creates a list that has things like $1, $2, 1a, 2b, etc. Well, everything says OK or has a min/max value that is in range except $72. The reading for $72 says min is 24 and the reading is only 9. I don't know what this is and I cannot find what it's suppose to correlate with. Any ideas?

I want to say there was a MAP sensor indicator on my scanner that said it was fine. I'll investigate some more...

Thanks guys! I hope we can get this figured out. I feel like gas is gushing through my engine at the same rate as oil leaking in the Gulf...

Darrell