Lights after hard acceleration

[MtnBiker]

I did a hard acceleration in 1st gear. Felt what I thought was rev limiter but it didn't repeat just hard sort of decel, like the engine shut off. Look down and the CEL is on and a red lightning bolt light is flashing. I pulled over and turned the car off. I restarted and the red flashing light was off but CEL remained on. Did quick research and found that the Gen 4 is sensitive. The red light has to do with the throttle control. What I read suggested the ECL/CEL will go off after it sits for a day.

Can someone let me know what happened. Thanks.

 

[Timnineside]

I had something similar happen. Light shut off the next day. I think it's some sort of limp mode if you didn't shut the car off.

 

[MtnBiker]

Ok. Guess I won't do that again only time I ever hit rev limiter is in 1st.

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

I did a hard acceleration in 1st gear. Felt what I thought was rev limiter but it didn't repeat just hard sort of decel, like the engine shut off. Look down and the CEL is on and a red lightning bolt light is flashing. I pulled over and turned the car off. I restarted and the red flashing light was off but CEL remained on. Did quick research and found that the Gen 4 is sensitive. The red light has to do with the throttle control. What I read suggested the ECL/CEL will go off after it sits for a day.

Can someone let me know what happened. Thanks.

Mods to your Viper?

 

[MtnBiker]

No. Stock. 6000 miles.

 

[viper450]

I have an 09 with lots of mods and I have been experiencing the same issue. When I spoke to the dealer he mentioned it will go into limp mode if you hit the brake while your accelerating as a safety feature???. But I know for a fact I was no where close to the brake as I was on the highway just cruising along. Obviously it resets when you turn the car off, but I too am trying to identify the issue.

I was also told Gen 4 cars are very sensitive, but I still need to fix the issue. One of the codes it thru was:

P2282 air leak between throttle body and intake valves. Not sure how to address this unless it's a bad gasket or loose bolts?
P0116 engine coolant t

Ideas???

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

Send me an email at [email protected] or call me.

I have an 09 with lots of mods and I have been experiencing the same issue. When I spoke to the dealer he mentioned it will go into limp mode if you hit the brake while your accelerating as a safety feature???. But I know for a fact I was no where close to the brake as I was on the highway just cruising along. Obviously it resets when you turn the car off, but I too am trying to identify the issue.

I was also told Gen 4 cars are very sensitive, but I still need to fix the issue. One of the codes it thru was:

P2282 air leak between throttle body and intake valves. Not sure how to address this unless it's a bad gasket or loose bolts?
P0116 engine coolant t

Ideas???

 

[RCC]

My car will throw the check engine light anytime its driven really aggressively and the rev limiter is hit a few times.

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

My car was driven hard all the time and encountered the rev limiter a number of times in 1st and second while running the 3.73 gears and never had an issue. Check for any codes that may be stored from this.

My car will throw the check engine light anytime its driven really aggressively and the rev limiter is hit a few times.

 

[MtnBiker]

My car is at Tomball and Morgan is looking at it. The scan said it happened at 5100 RPMs (well short of the rev limit), and that it has to do with the Cam sensor. We replaced the sensor and took it for another drive and it did the same thing. So, now it may be in the PCM or wiring.

 

[redtanrt10]

MtnBiker, I had a number of similar issues in my '08. Seems like it all started after the first time I hit the rev limiter on the track. Went into limp mode, shut it off them it seemed OK. Then it started having backfires and a loss of power at 5100-5300 rpm. We thought it might be the mopar venom ECU so we swapped it out and it would still miss at 5100-5300. Over the next 24 months Dan Cragin from DC replaced the can sensor twice and the crank sensor too. Here's a picture of Dan changing the crank sensor at the track 18 months ago;




It was a very frustrating 2 years with all those issues, loss of power, backfires, limp mode, etc. etc. (There are some older threads on the board with others who had similar issues). I thought this viper was jinxed, nothing seemed to work. About a year ago Dan replaced both wiring harnesses and all seems to be OK now. This past weekend I was at the track, banged the rev limiter hard in 3rd passing a guy, pop, pop, pop, then shifted to 4th and no issues.

Maybe you'll have an easy fix? Hopefully the Tomball guys will sort it out. If not, or this happens again, reach out to Mark at Woodhouse or Dan Cragen. good luck, Mike

 

[rukcus]

A red lightning bolt light indicates that the electric throttle has some form of an issue. On newer Hemi dodge trucks they use a similar electric throttle system. Sometimes the solution requires that a throttle body relearn be done with a proper scanner. As a Side note the relearn can only be done without any other codes present.

As for an air leak. Brake booster and PCV hoses come to mind.

 

[MtnBiker]

MtnBiker, I had a number of similar issues in my '08. Seems like it all started after the first time I hit the rev limiter on the track. Went into limp mode, shut it off them it seemed OK. Then it started having backfires and a loss of power at 5100-5300 rpm. We thought it might be the mopar venom ECU so we swapped it out and it would still miss at 5100-5300. Over the next 24 months Dan Cragin from DC replaced the can sensor twice and the crank sensor too. Here's a picture of Dan changing the crank sensor at the track 18 months ago;




It was a very frustrating 2 years with all those issues, loss of power, backfires, limp mode, etc. etc. (There are some older threads on the board with others who had similar issues). I thought this viper was jinxed, nothing seemed to work. About a year ago Dan replaced both wiring harnesses and all seems to be OK now. This past weekend I was at the track, banged the rev limiter hard in 3rd passing a guy, pop, pop, pop, then shifted to 4th and no issues.

Maybe you'll have an easy fix? Hopefully the Tomball guys will sort it out. If not, or this happens again, reach out to Mark at Woodhouse or Dan Cragen. good luck, Mike

Mike,

Thanks for the input. Sounds similar indeed. I will keep you posted on the outcome.

John

 

[redtanrt10]

John, I hope it's simple for you. A couple of my Gen IV track buddies always have cam sensor spares with them. Not sure why they fail but they do. If it turns out to be more of an issue reach out to Dan, he and Mark, talked a bunch about my problems and ultimately they decided to replace both wiring harnessess. Another guy from CO sent me a pm years ago and his tech figured out it was the wiring and replaced 1/2 of his harness too. good luck and keep us posted. Mike

 

[redtanrt10]

John I dug up my first post when it happpened to me in 2009, in reviewing it the guy I mentioned above was in Utah, "Utahviper" not CO (see thread).

http://forums.viperclub.org/threads/627066-Gen-IV-ECU-Issue?highlight=backfire

 

[MtnBiker]

6 days later and the car is still in the shop. Replaced cam sensor, checked wiring and now received approval (from SRT) to replace the PCM. Well, what's next if that doesn't work?

 

[redtanrt10]

Is it still in the shop because after the new cam sensor and a check of the wiring it still has an issue? Hopefully the PCM will fix. If not, have them touch base w/Mark or Dan. In my case and with Utahvipers car, the ultimate fix was replacing some or all of the wiring harness.

 

[bluesrt]

cars can throw cam codes from a misfire type condition, so thats what happened- why? who knows, was the battery low on juice? does it sit? clear the code, have a hot battery and try it again.... its something simple

 

[MtnBiker]

Is it still in the shop because after the new cam sensor and a check of the wiring it still has an issue? Hopefully the PCM will fix. If not, have them touch base w/Mark or Dan. In my case and with Utahvipers car, the ultimate fix was replacing some or all of the wiring harness.

Yes, still in the shop after replacing the cam sensor last week and then checking the wiring. They have installed a new pcm and are programming it now.

 

[MtnBiker]

cars can throw cam codes from a misfire type condition, so thats what happened- why? who knows, was the battery low on juice? does it sit? clear the code, have a hot battery and try it again.... its something simple

Car does not sit. Was my daily driver. Never had indications of a low battery. We did clear the code, took it back out and it went limp again at 5100 rpms. Then we replaced the cam sesnsor and same thing. Checked wiring and same thing. I guess the last place is the pcm and that is being replaced right now. Will keep you posted.

 

[MtnBiker]

Installed new PCM. No luck.now what?

 

[redtanrt10]

Wiring, I had both harnessess replaced, Utahviper had 1/2 his replaced. Can Dan Cragin or mark at Woodhouse

 

[bluesrt]

still only the cam code? is that the only code?

 

[KNG SNKE]

Not sure how it applies to your vipers but as said earlier the Ram's have a similar lightning bolt followed by a loss of power. I had to remove my throttle body and clean it with starter fluid. Symptoms were similar, when I would give it power it felt like it was in limp mode.

 

[MtnBiker]

I'm not sure. Morgan at Tomball is working on it (I'm a geophysicist with little knowledge of these things) and I did not have him tell me all the codes.

 

[MtnBiker]

I PM'd Mark. Now I am trying to get Morgan to get with him so they can put their heads together. As you suggest, wiring is all that's left...

 

[bigmack339]

Cam sensor trigger?

 

[utahviper]

I just saw your pm, sorry. Same problem here, everything checked out and they went through the same procedure as you are going through now. The harness looked fine but it wasn't. I actually called dick winkles about my car and he was about to flya tech out from srt until the viper tech locally talked them into cutting the wiring harness right before the cam sensor and presto, all was great. The only reason they didn't replace the entire harness is because they were on intergalactic back order. So they decided to give it a shot. Then they researched the harnesses and found that there was a run of bad harnesses. Good luck. Maybe try to call srt hotline.

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

Another possible remedy would be to replace the cam sensor again. There could have been extreme tolerances in opposite directions between the cam location and the sensors range resulting is a possible incompatible situation. Try another sensor first before cutting the harness. If you do have to cut the harness make sure Star ok's it first because if you do and then later there is a problem they could be sticklers on what is covered because of the alteration.

 

[MtnBiker]

Thanks for the input guys! We are still down, and I believe Morgan is now waiting on Chrysler to respond to request to replace wiring.

Installing a catch can while we wait