I was driving home from the movies tonight and wasn't doing any serious driving. A little more out side of what I would consider "normal" driving, but not quite the way I drive if I am on a run. Current mods are Injen Intake, Magnaflow 2.5 Catback, B&M Short Shifter, Progress Technology Springs, and DC Sports Front Tower Strut Bar.

I wasn't paying to much attention to my tach and had music on so I was really unable to hear where I was supposed to shift. Hit my rev-limiter slightly in 2nd... not a real big deal. Shifted into 3rd and continued to carry on about my drive. All of a sudden my car chokes out of no where and I get a msg on the consol that says something about the engine running in low power mode. At this point I am a little freaked out because my car is going nowhere fast. Luckily I was able to pull into where I live. Turned off the car, and removed key. Started back up again. Same error, and car not moving. So I do what any moron would do. HIT ONSTAR. After speaking with the onstar lady... she ran a diagnostic. Said something about Engine & Tran - "ELECTRONIC THROTTLE CONTROL SYSTEM"

The Error code was P0068

Does anyone have any idea what this is about?

I am taking this to the GM garage tomorrow to see what the hell is going on.

I finally limp into my parking space at home. Remove my ground wire from my battery. Wait about 30 seconds, and then get in the car and crank er over. TADA!!!! We got juice again. However, the check engine lite is still on. So I drive around for like 45 minutes. Everything seems fine... stop at a store and get something to drink. Come back out, crank the car over, and the check engine lite is gone....

WTF.... any ideas?

 

Here is what it says about the ETCS: Sounds like the trouble you had to the word lol.

So, what you experienced was the failsafe on the drive by wire system of the cobalts. As far as why, I have no clue... maybe someone else can help there.

 

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums//showthread.php?t=12015

P0068 Throttle Body Airflow Performance ECM, PCM

 

Happened to me once. Basicly your car felt you over did it and kicked out the power so you did not fry the engine. I've heard this system can be a little tempermentle at times but in the end it's a good thing to have. Especially with all the mods we are adding to a still young and unproven platform.

 

They were too busy today to look at it, but I should know more after tomorrow. Made an appointment for 8am.

I figure it just needs a tune... due to the mods.

 

It's hard to say without some scan logs but I would postulate that your injen intake is putting the MAF signal off enough to cause that code.

 

I agree with that.

I figure its just the Injen causing the code.

As far as hitting Low Power Mode... that was just a user error. Trying to eat, shift, and talk on the phone while gagging your car at the same time doesn't work well.

GM told me today that they thought everything was fine, that it was just a failsafe, but would look at it if I really wanted them to. I figured I would scrap the trip to the garage.

I imagine it just needs tuned and some sort of stand alone fuel management system, but I am holding off on the tune. Not sure at this point which way I wanna go. Upgrading the supercharger system or go with a twincharged system.

Speaking of Injen.... how often do you change the filters on those things anyway?

Also... it may be something as stupid as my locking gas cap. I had a Neon a while back and when I tried to install a locking gas cap on it, it threw codes. Took it off and it was fine... go figure... then again... it was a Neon... nuff said.