Became Victim to Reduced Power

[gajagfan]

Originally Posted by Moto-Mojo

Ah, the perils of hanging on forums where your products are cussed, discussed, praised and worshiped. I hear over at Martha Stewart.com they're really pissed at that new, high performance, .05 HP food processor upgrade!

That bitch throws codes all the time!

[Visago]

It's a very short lapse of communication between the throttle position sensor & the accelerator pedal sensor which causes a lag in throttle and then you get the service stabilitrak/reduced engine power situation. I'm running the stock throttle body so no VTC or tune but it was happening to me constantly. I put up a thread on it too. Honestly I think after I replaced both sensors this fixed the issue once the computer relearned after driving for awhile. I'm not having any more issues. Thing that sucks is the TPS is inside the throttle body so you have to buy a whole new TB to replace just the sensor.

Also be sure to check your spark plug wires and don't just look at them to see if one is disconnected...pull them all off the plugs & coils and reattach to make sure they all snap back in place properly. I had a bad plug wire...connection between one of my wires and the coil itself which wasn't snapping back in. Never would have known it by just looking at it. This issue was a major PITA to deal with and stumped me for awhile. My ECM was also loose and was moving around under hard acceleration. Also buttoned that back up tight. Anyway...food for thought...good luck!

[Jasper]

I'm on the "glad I got one" for now list. 7months on and no issue thus far. In storage till spring. Thing is, the guys that are happy won't be posting typcially. It's the guys with issues you're hearing from the most.

I'd be pissed too to be honest if it was affecting me. So I hope things continue good since i really love it and it sucks when i put it back to the zero setting.

[MrChrisLS3]

Originally Posted by Jasper

It still seems to me that MOST of the people complaining about this have a ported throttle body. So there is likely some link there. It annoys me when people call it a "piece of junk" and "I'm glad I never bought one" when they don't even know the cause of the failure. I ran it all last season with no issue but I only have an intake and tune and perhaps my time will come. But I have the feeling there are way more guys running this successfully than not. .

Could someone set-up a poll so we can get a better picture of what the failure rate is? I guess initially we should get a picture of VTC working v.s. VTC failed. But ideally we'd also like to capture how many of the failures had ported TB v.s. Not. So maybe two polls are needed.

J

It really depends on what the definition of "failed" is. I mean a sensor glitch causing the code to get thrown is not necessarily a "failure". If it can be simply recalibrated in under a minute, how is that really a "failure" of the VTC? Keep in mind that many of the sensors on the cars need to fail the test protocol 3 or 4 times before an actual code is tripped and the ECU reacts to it. The throttle sensor seems to be a one and done kind of thing due to the very nature of the safety factors involved, as in runaway engines never end well.

The other question would be how many of these are because of an issue with the car itself? A loose wire in the TB harness, or mechanical sticking of the TB blade? Or the even the TPS not reading correctly? I would guess that any one of these things would be even more prone to happen with a ported TB just by the very nature of what's involved.

I'm not touting the VTC as fail proof, I'm sure there have been failed modules. I'm just suggesting that bashing the product because a code was thrown once, which ay not have been due to the device itself, is a very shallow view. Throttle controllers have been around as long as DBW, and Viteese is not the first, nor the only game in town. I just think it is important to understand what it is, what it does, and how it does it. Along with understanding the systems and sensors involved before jumping to conclusions.

I for one am glad to have it. Apparently the factory mapping, when starting from a stop opens the throttle blade at 15% while the pedal is pressed 50%, that's far less than a linear throttle response. I have found the controller makes my car easier to drive in traffic, passing on the highway and such situations.

[jeff657756]

im tuned, ported tb and have vtc. got educed engine power a bunch. was about ready to ready to sell vtc, but recalibrated and havent had a single issue in almost a year. might be worth a try.

[Ace0751]

I loved it when it was installed, it gave that extra jump before the tune. But when I got the ported tb and tune it was only a matter of time that it was going to happen. It's a great product if the person doesn't do a lot of modding and wants a little something for quicker accel. If it wasn't for me that wants to make my car loud and fast I would've kept this on the car. No negative feedback on this end, the VTC did what it needed to do.

[ghosted]

5,000 miles with my VTC and Ported TB, no issues.

[cyjugi]

Good Idea--Let someone else deal with that POS

[MrChrisLS3]

Originally Posted by jeff657756

im tuned, ported tb and have vtc. got educed engine power a bunch. was about ready to ready to sell vtc, but recalibrated and havent had a single issue in almost a year. might be worth a try.

Just out of curiosity, did you remove it to add the tune and tb, then reinstall, or leave it on? If you left it in, did you recalibrate after the tune, or after the issues started happening?

I simply ask the question to help others going down this road. Perhaps the new TB and tune changed parameters, thus requiring a recalibration, is my thought.

[GetYouOne]

I had my VTC on for about 8 months before my turbo and also a ported TB never had an issue. I still think besides the turbo its the best mod I did to the car. Sucks that some of you werent able to enjoy it.