So, in the summer I got the Red Lightning Bolt after I fixed my brakes. Test drove around the block, and as soon as I slowed down for the driveway, the red lightning bolt came up and the truck stuttered and died.

Cleaned the throttle body and worked totally fine for maybe 3 weeks then died in the city near a garage luckily... managed to coast into the parking lot.

Mechanic said they couldn't tell if it was the throttle body, or the gas/brake pedal assembly because the assembly on mine has switches in it and if need replaced the entire assembly needs replaced, which in Canada no one makes/sells anymore.

Told him I suspect throttle body because it worked after I cleaned it for weeks... if it were the switches, then my cleaning probably wouldn't have affected it. To save me some money, because they don't deal with refurbished, he stuck one in from an auto wreckers. That was 2-3 months ago. Then tonight outta nowhere, the light's back on again and again, died... got it running enough to get home and literally coasted into the driveway.

Fluke? maybe the throttle body from the wreckers is junk?

or could it still possibly be the switches in the foot pedal assembly?

 

May be the pedal position sensor too. I don't think that's part of the pedal assembly though, but, I haven't had to work on one yet, so, not sure on that.

 

Well, the garage said that for my model and year only, they had a special assembly. Not sure if true or not... I can control the height/depth of the pedals with a switch. I guess so short people can drive big trucks?

Not sure what I have... 2003 Dodge 4x4 5.7l... but beyond that the previous owner repainted it and removed all badges and the inside door stickers. I did a VIN search and sometimes the results differ but most indicate a Laramie (Canada).

 

If I’m not mistaken, the 03 used a pedal assembly with a cable that ran out to the TPS controller, under the hood, for the TB. The later ones, it is all one unit on the pedal assembly itself, like the one on my 08.

 

Unfortunately I have no idea... not much of a mechanic. But if someone says replace a brake, or replace an alternator, etc... once I know what the part is that's the issue, I see what the part looks like, it gets done. Had some back/knee issues this years so used a mechanic, otherwise, I've done my own work for the past 15yrs. But again, bad at diagnostics and the name of parts.

That said... as I said in the OP... does it make sense that if it were the pedal sensor causing issues, that the issues went away after the throttle body was replaced? I would assume that if it was something in the pedal assembly causing the issue, the issue would have immediately presented itself after the throttle body was replaced, not 2 months later.

 

If it's an intermittent problem, it may be the the sensor is just 'marginal', when you were doing the throttle body, but, with the passage of time, it has gotten worse.

Really need to be able to plug in, and see what the various sensors are telling you.

 

Well, garage couldn't tell before with the machine plugged in... which surprised me... was able to get home and coast half down my driveway. I live in the middle of nowhere so, it's what I can do in the driveway in the snow sadly. Tow alone would be about $180, and with the covid, where I worked went outta business so... gotta DIY as cheap as possible. :S

 

Unfortunately, without being able to see what is really going on, all we can do is guess.... and throwing parts at it in the hopes of fixing it, can get real expensive......

 

Yup, I understand... was more wondering if my logic made sense... if the sensor/switch in the gas pedal is at fault, changing/cleaning the throttle body should have made any difference.

Basically, if a light in your house doesn't work and it's the light switch that's broken, then changing the bulb won't make the switch suddenly work.

I wanted the garage to use a refurbished throttle body, but they only deal with new or scrapyard stuff. Scrapper charged almost as much as a refurb. Sucked because super easy to replace, I've cleaned mine before, but that particular time it died in town so, had no real choice. Anyways, concern is the throttle body they used could be potentially older than what I had. So the issues now could be the throttle body again.

I have an ODBII... but probably won't help, it's rather limited.

 

Did the garage offer any warranty on their work?