throttle body motor failure

[jossix]

throttle body failure

on my way home from Toronto -Ottawa last Sunday my check engine light came on and warning messgages appeared saying i was now on reduced engine power and stabilizer track was off or something to that effect. My 2009 yukon could not get past 40km per hour. I had to continually pull to the side of the highway,switch off and switch back on to get back to power based on the advice of On Star.thank goodness for them. I finally made it home and to the dealer next day.They told me that my throttle motor had failed and there was a 5 day wait for replacement.Thankfully its all covered by warranty.
It was a bad experience especially on a snowy highway.

 

[Maccam26]

My 2009 5.3L Tahoe did the same thing last week. Lights came on saying Stabilitrack was Off, Service Traction Control Module and Traction Control Off. All this happenned at temperature below 30 farhenheit (about -1 celcius). The reason I mention the temp is because my truck had been making some weird noise on deceleration during colder and colder days but dealer could not find source and eventually changed the alternator, wasn't it.. They still have my truck, they can't find a throttle body at the moment... frustrating.

Mine started to accelerate on its own when I was parked in a McDonalds drive thru, then would not go anywhere... almost rear ended person in front.. Then eventually went into engine reduced mode so I could limp it to my office and get it towed.

 

[blueflamed03]

wow...these problems on 09's?

 

[jossix]

apparently this throttle body is a most difficult part to find.
my dealer said i need to wait another week,but they have agreed to pickup the cost of my rental vehicle until my yukon is repaired.

 

[Maccam26]

My truck was down on December 2, dealer just received the throttle body today December 10.

 

[jossix]

you are lucky then..We expect a huge snow storm this weekend.and the thought driving a rental impala instead of my Yukon during that is not very appealing.

 

[Maccam26]

Sorry to hear it... I know what you mean on the Storm, I am from Montreal but lived a few years in Barrie, Ontario. Wouldn't want to drive Impala in those 30-40cm storms... Good luck, hope they get yours soon.

 

[raress9596]

I had the same problem 6 weeks ago. On my way to work 10 miles from home at 4:30 a.m. Limped home in "Reduced power mode". My son hooked up his H.P. tuners and found a shitload of comunication codes. By the time he got it to the dealer later that morning it was running fine with a check engine light on. They scannned it and came up with the same info. Dealer diagnosed it as a VCIM Module failure. At first they didn't want to replace it because G.M. has a policy that says they have to visually see what the truck is doing! Took them 21/2 weeks to get a new one in! (Then after they were done they ripped the front bumper on my LT backing over a hard snow pile.They replaced it with a new one off an LTZ (chrome grill and all) so I wasn't complaining!). Anyhow this morning on my way to work again it happens again. I drove it straight to the dealer and proceeded to leave it running. I couldn't bear to listen to it sit and idle sounding like a machine gun so I videoed the error messages on the dash and made them a sound clip of the exhaust! Shut the truck off and 15 minutes later I restarted it and again it was running fine. this time they replaced the throttle body and I'm keeping my fingerss crossed!

 

[knight09]

2009 Throttle Body Failure - What Options

I have a 2009 Tahoe with 29000 miles on it. Just had the throttle body error code for the 3rd time. First time the dealer said they had not heard of the problem so just drive it and see if it happens again or bring it back and leave it with them for a day to see if they could find the problem. Second time I took it to my local dealer. They said it is the throttle body which is on national back order with no delivery date. Just happened again tonight in a busy intersection - very dangerous. What is gm required to do when a vehicle that is under warranty has a safety defect that they cannot fix? The vehicle also lunges forward while it is running in this "low Power" mode. Always been a Chevrolet fan so this is very disappointing. My wife does not feel safe driving the Tahoe with this defect.

 

[chopper269]

I've been having the same exact problem with my '07 burb, though it never shut off while driving until yesterday when of course my wife was driving. Needless to say I got a frantic phone call. Was relieved that it happened while she was pulling into a parking lot. It threw a P1516 code.
About a month before this happened the truck was making a rattling noise coming from the top of the engine. I couldn't pin point where it was at first. It sounded like something was loose and bouncing around in the intake manifold. For the most part it sounded a lot louder on cold startups. A few days later I finally found out what the noise was. I pulled off the air intake hose to the throttle body and saw the butterfly rattling violently. It would quite down a little when the truck warmed up. What was strange was that it would rattle like that for a few seconds when I turned the truck off and when I turned it to the on position. I also had hesitation when I stepped on the gas sometimes, as well as surging at highway speeds.
Checked the wires from the harness on the TB as far back as I could. Also checked the pins in the harness as well. All looked and felt ok. So today I decided to pull the TB off and clean it. It wasn't too dirty for having 94k on it, though I bought the truck with 90k so I don't know if the previous owner ever cleaned it. While I was at it I pulled off the cover on the TB where the harness plugs in just to check it out. The gears worked fine, though a little dusty and there were no teeth missing on them. The circuit board was inclosed so I couldn't look at that. The only other electrical connection I could see were 2 copper pins on the throttle body side that attached to the cover to another set of 2 pins via a metal coupling. When I first pulled the cover off one of the couplings came off one of the pins pretty easily. Not sure if that may have been the reason why the butterfly was chattering. I was able to secure it more tightly before I reattached it......Would have taken pics if I knew I was going this deeply into it. Seeing what I am talking about would make it a lot easier to understand......I was in a time crunch so I wasn't able to blow out all the dust and spray some electrical cleaner on the pins before I put it back together.
I let it sit for a few hours and tested to see if I would get the rattling again. So far so good. It was only 32* out so I'm going to let it sit overnight and check it in the morning to see how it is. In the next few days I'll pull it off again to blow out and clean the dust on the inside of the cover.

---------- Post added at 09:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 PM ----------

My wife does not feel safe driving the Tahoe with this defect.

My wife said the same exact thing. She said until it is fixed then she will never drive it again.

 

[KillerStudio]

My 2009 Tahoe LTZ is having the same problems. I live in California but about a month and half ago we went to the snow and when we got back I noticed a fluttering/rattling noise coming from the top of the engine...I also noticed my idle was more erratic. A week later I was at stoplight and the truck just died out. I restarted it and it drove fine. Took it to the dealer and they said that 2 of my banks were showing my fuel was too rich and told me I had high Ethanol and they even accused me of putting e85 fuel in my truck. But they told me everything was fine. A week later my wife was driving the truck and in went into limp mode (Stabilitrack disabled/engine power reduced)...but luckily she was near a parking lot. About 30 minutes later the truck started back up and she was able to drive it home. Took it to the dealer again. Said that they cleaned out the throttle body and removed some flashing from the intake tube (?? not sure what they meant from this). Truck was running fine for about 2.5 weeks , noise was gone, idle was perfect until yesterday. Feels like my truck is not accelerating properly at times...like a sticky gas pedal...the rattling noise is starting to come back and idle is slightly bouncing now. Worried that if I take it back to the dealer they are going to give me another temporary fix just because they truck hasn't thrown a code. I wonder if this has something to do with cold weather and connections in the throttle body like chopper had. Starting to think if I should try to fix this myself just like chopper did? My wife is at that point where she doesn't want to drive the vehicle anymore. Starting to feel like I bought a $60k POS.

Chopper...how is your fix holding up?

Thanks!

 

[Arpsycho]

I have a 2007 nnbs Yukon slt 4x4 with all the same symptoms. Eagerly awaiting anymore input as I need to fix this myself if possible due to financial limitations. Thanks in advance to all with help and information.

 

[chopper269]

Chopper...how is your fix holding up?

So far I haven't had any problems or rattling sounds like I was having before. It idles fine now and for the most part the hesitation when I step on the gas is gone. I never got a chance to take it back apart and clean the inside like I wanted to do. Gonna try to do it this weekend. I did however order a new throttle body which is backorderd. I didn't want to, but it put my wife's mind at ease knowing there will be a new part in there that will solve the problem since she doesn't trust my fix.

 

[KillerStudio]

How much was the throttlebody?

 

[GM Customer Service]

I have a 2009 Tahoe with 29000 miles on it. Just had the throttle body error code for the 3rd time. First time the dealer said they had not heard of the problem so just drive it and see if it happens again or bring it back and leave it with them for a day to see if they could find the problem. Second time I took it to my local dealer. They said it is the throttle body which is on national back order with no delivery date. Just happened again tonight in a busy intersection - very dangerous. What is gm required to do when a vehicle that is under warranty has a safety defect that they cannot fix? The vehicle also lunges forward while it is running in this "low Power" mode. Always been a Chevrolet fan so this is very disappointing. My wife does not feel safe driving the Tahoe with this defect.

I would like to get more information regarding this concern. I will be sending you a private message shortly. Thank you.

Tricia, GM Customer Service.

---------- Post added at 04:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:33 PM ----------

I've been having the same exact problem with my '07 burb, though it never shut off while driving until yesterday when of course my wife was driving. Needless to say I got a frantic phone call. Was relieved that it happened while she was pulling into a parking lot. It threw a P1516 code.

chopper269,

I will be sending you a private message shortly for more information.

Tricia, GM CUstomer Service.

---------- Post added at 04:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:44 PM ----------

My 2009 Tahoe LTZ is having the same problems.

I will also be sending a private message to you for more information.

Tricia, GM Customer Service.

---------- Post added at 05:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:53 PM ----------

I have a 2007 nnbs Yukon slt 4x4 with all the same symptoms. Eagerly awaiting anymore input as I need to fix this myself if possible due to financial limitations. Thanks in advance to all with help and information.

I will be sending you a private message shortly.

Tricia, GM Customer Service.

 

[KillerStudio]

Tricia,
How do I get a hold of you directly?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[chopper269]

How much was the throttlebody?

Cheapest price I found was from gmpartsdirect.com. It came out to $169.92 total.

 

[Arpsycho]

Hey Tricia, I can't pm you back til I post more per the rules but I am taking the car to a local dealer on Monday (soonest they could get me in) to run a diagnostic and then go from there.

---------- Post added at 07:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:48 PM ----------



---------- Post added at 08:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:58 PM ----------

This is the first gm/American car I have purchased and have had trouble ever since I bought it. Kind of feel like I made a mistake switching to domestic but my patriotism was telling me buy from home and help America be self supportive. Hopefully this can be figured out and fixed quickly and efficiently or I might sell it and try another vehicle out. Sucks!!!

 

[Arpsycho]

Hey chopper did you ever replace the throttle body with the new one?

 

[llllljrlllll]

Same thing happen to me, I was on the freeway couple of weeks ago, when the freeway suddenly came to a stop, I saw the exit, and I gunned it, didn't go nowhere, it just coasted, I thought my engine turned off, so I turned it off then on again, and I looked at all the dials, they were all working, no power, it said "reduced engine power", so I basically coasted off the freeway. I turned it off, waited 5 minutes, turned it on again. Power restored. CEL was on hooked it up to my code reader, and it gave me 2 codes P1516 I think was one of the codes, and another I can't remember, it had to do with the throttle body, thinking it was a sensor, I called the dealer, and spoke to the parts dept., the guy there told me, that you would have to buy the whole throttle, but to check to see if it was dirty, because if it is, that would be the reason why the car went on "reduced power", took it to my mechanic, he cleaned the throttle body, and boy was it dirty, he told me that you have to at least clean it every 15k miles, and to make sure you change the air filter. CEL was no longer there, and the car has been running like a champ. Hope it helps.