06GT4me

Who wants to "limp home" with their 2006 Mustang GT with 650 miles on it?

So, this morning I'm coming into work and I've been going easy on her these first 650 miles... I get on it when I need to... but nothing major.
So I need to get around this goof going way to slow... I drop it to 4th and hammer down the gas... starts to go for a sec and then felt like the "Hulk" grab the back end of my car. Clutch in and move to neutral... thinking did it just shut off... no, RPMS are not at zero... but I see the nasty "wrench" light... Ah crap.. what'd I just do. Throw the hazards on and pull over to the right. Shut her down all the way, key out, fire her backup... warning lights cycle on and off... wrench light goes out... she seems o.k.
Go into work just fine the rest of the way. Look in the manual, says light is for the Throttle Control and I got switched into "limp home" mode... call my local dealer service department... guy says Ford has this "fly by wire" or fly without wire as he calls it in a lot of their cars. Said the computer couldnt do what I asked of it so it did that to me. He said just watch it and if it does it again under "normal" load to get it in for service.

So can this be our excuse when we loose at the stoplight to a ricer..."my computer made me loose!!" "Really... I can smoke you but my dang computer just doesn't want to race today"

That extended warranty is starting to look good...

Thanks Ford... I should have gotten a Dell....

TomServo92

I guess I'm missing something here. The computer saw what turned out to be a transitory condition and decided to shut things things down instead of possibly causing some serious damage to your car and it also gives you the ability to drive the car albeit in a limited fashion so that you aren't stranded. You consider that a bad a thing? :scratch:

06GT4me

Point well taken... I was being a little silly with my post. Just strange that something like this would happen on such a new car.
Just hate knowing I've already had a "trouble" light come on this early in the game.
Plus I am taking a small road trip this weekend...

Let me add... I LOVE this car...

TomServo92

Let's just hope it was a one time event.

I do understand the frustration. My '85 Mustang had a tendency to stall on occasion when it was brand new. The dealer took care of it and I had several years of fun burning rubber!

tw0scoops123

Sometihng sounds wierd there. There's no way you can really hurt the engine just from stomping on it. The rev limiter will shut the car down before it hits redline, so what else is there that could possibly do damage? I'd take it somewhere else and get another Ford dealer to look at it.

06GT4me

After doing some more searching... I found other forums where some 05's were getting this but mainly from doing custom tunes. Running rich or lean I guess...
Sounds like this Electronic throttle control can be a little touchy.
I'll keep an eye on it and I am planning to do an oil change very soon... I'll just have the service guys plug up and see if it recorded a message of why.

If anyone else has gotten this light yet... please share !!!
Thanks.

Ranger

Have "hit" the rev limiter but no light

Ripstang

I'm not positive but there might be also a break in program as well for the motor and it might not let you go too hard on here untill a certain milage .
I noticed myself that after a few thousand miles the car could chirp the tires in 1st ,2nd and 3rd and after the first thousand only it could just do first (all with traction control on) .
plus the tone was much deeper after about 3 thousand miles ,a few members have noticed this on there mustangs .
So this might be a part of the program in the computer but this is just a guess on my part and I talked to my local speed shop about this and GM had something like this in ther cars where a fuse like break in circut after so much use would cut out/or pop and then allow the regular one in its place.

clockworks

Whoa, this is scary. I only have 350 miles and I've hit the rev limiter twice already! I also drive it very hard in general...=/ Ha, hopefully the hard driving will cause it to fail sooner than later and I'll still be under warranty...

Ripstang

I hit the rev limiter a few times when new it didn't seem to bother it but I don't think the motors at its full potential when new sort of being held back in some repects.

Mongoose

They call this new car abuse where I am from.
Car did not leave you stranded on the road after you abused it and you still crab.
I have a real difficult time understanding this.

TomServo92

I don't think there's anything wrong since his car is apparantely running right now. IMO, the computer got a spurious signal.

06GT4Me - Good idea about letting the techs check the codes when you have the oil change. That'll answer the question.

Mxyzptlk

I have driven the **** outta my car from day one. I have never seen the limp mode no matter how hard I push it. Hopefully for you its just a glitch and one time thing. Oh yeah and the manual says theres not break in required so I dont agree with the new car abuse comment.

GhostGT

Break in shouldn't always be followed word for word. I took it easy on my baby until about 1000....that doesn't mean I didn't go over 60mph or 4000rpm, but that doesn't mean I drove it 10mph either. I gave it some nice, healthy pushes once in a while... Never WOT'd the car for more than 3-4 seconds.

Now, its running great.

Theres a TON of arguments for both following and NOT following break in... I do what I think is best: Stay in between.

clockworks

Agreed.

Boltzman

From what he wrote ,he doesn't seem to abuse it. If stomping on the gas once in a while is abuse,then I'm gonna be in trouble when I get mine

06GT4me

Correct - I would hardly say I "abuse" this car... I'm close to 750 miles now, and I have only gotten "on it" a few times. It was just a strange feeling to have the car do that. And I want others to be aware of it in case it happens to them.
And it has driven fine since this happened.

ManEHawke

This sounds exactly what would happen if you downshifted and maybe hammered it after releasing the clutch pedal(sychros were working hard here perhaps). Maybe the timing was a hair off, because we know you need to leave some room for the hesitant drive by wire throttle.
Just an educated guess