I'm wondering if the problem that I experienced tonight is one of the common "quirks" associated with our cars, or if it is random to mine.

I was driving down the highway going about 80 mph in 6th gear. I let off the gas to slow down for traffic. When I got back on the gas, I began to slowly speed up, but then it felt like I lost all power. The engine wouldn't rev above 3500 rpm.

I down shifted to 4th and accelerated hard. This fixed the problem. When I shifted back to 5th, the lag and lack of power came back at 3000 rpm.

The engine would do this in all higher gears, but a downshift and hard throttle would fix the situation.

I stopped at a restaraunt, had lunch, and went to fill the car up. No problems. I filled the car up and added an injector cleaner (thinking it might be a fuel flow problem).

Once back on the highway, the loss of power came back. It only did it a couple of times, and then went away for the remainder of the 3 hour trip.


However, when I stopped for a drink, I noticed that the brake lights are on at all times. In gear, parked, even with the car turned off and key out of the ignition, the brake lights and saftey light were on.

So now, here's what I have:

-random loss of engine power
-brakes lights on constantly
-no cruise control
-the hour computer is flashing 2:00h

The car is a 2003 with 30,231 miles.


Thanks for your replies.

 

First, the 2:00h is just your warning to take a break. Nothing to worry about there.

The Cruise & Brake lights are most definitely your brake light switch, that seems to be a common problem recently. The acceleration issue is very likely due to that cause as well. Since the car is 'throttle by wire', the ECU gets confused when it sees brake & gas at the same time and cuts power.

Fix the switch, and all should be well.

 

Power dropouts around 3000-3500 with the brake lights all coming on after the car is off and the key is out of the ignition. Drained the battery overnight and I needed a jump in the morning to get to the dealer. Diagnosed and replaced the brake sensor. Since the accelerator is drive-by-wire a faulty brake sensor will cut power leaving the pedal to just drop out and suddenly come back. Odd thing was it was always ok in the afternoon. In the final stages of quirking out on me the brake lights would lock on w/o the key in and then whacked the battery. Got that replaced too as the deep drains were not good for the cell.

 

Thanks for the answer. I just had my friend, an ASE Master Tech take a look. Without tools, a diagnostic machine, and with the car crammed in my garage, he came out to about the same answer.

Though, fill me in because I'm clueless. What do you mean by the 2:00h meaning I need to take a break?

 

zee germans feel zat it iz nezzecary for you to rest after 2hrs of driving