Vrodman

So today in heavy traffic on the way home I was following some a-hole texting while everybody kept dropping in front of the idiot. My patience ran out, so I quickly smashed the throttle and passed her on the right and then slowed quickly. Nothing seemed unusual. UNTIL, I went to move again. The idle was normal and not rough or hiccuping, and yet the car would barely move even with the pedal floored! It was similar to the limp mode I once had in my E55 when the air-mass meter died. But this was way worse. I mean it barely accelerated at all.

At this point I am VERY concerned, and start moving to the right in case I stall out so that I dont block traffic. 5 seconds away from pressing emergency lights.

After about 90 seconds of the car having 3 HP, I started toggling all of the console performance controls, esp, trans, suspension, etc.

About 5 secs later, the power was back. When I got an opportunity, about 5 mins later, I jumped on it, and it felt fully normal.

It still seems normal after parking and test driving it a few hours later.

One other thing happened that I believe was coincidence. About 10 minutes after the event I received a dash message that said "Pre-Safe functions are currently limited. See operators manual" I looked this up in the manual and it suggests it is a dirty radar/distronic cover or bumper sensors that are dirty.

Could the 2 events be related. Seems unlikely.

So do any of you guys have an idea of what happened?

Thanks in Advance Guys.

Vrodman

BTW, I do have an EP mild tune via the OBDII port and a sprint booster.

I did immediately turn off the sprint booster while I was attempting to solve the issue. No effect.

I am slightly wondering if the EP tune has anything to do with this.

homeofstone

My guess and its only a guess, the car was starved for fuel or could be ecm malfunction. Maybe have a star scan done and see if it will give you some clue.

Vrodman

I can pretty much completely rule out the starved for fuel notion.

It definetely seemed to be software related. As if the ECU somehow had confusing or conflicting data and defaulted to some type of limp mode until it figured out what it was doing.

Starved for fuel would also cause rough idle and stuttering. Nothing of the sort occured.

Thanks for your time to reply though.

Any other ideas?

PeterUbers

Vrod

It's the booster, take it off

This has been reported before occasionally by others with the booster; the presafe warning can also be the booster .. Also reported

Like physically unplug it and go back to stock pedal connection

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...t-booster.html

Vrodman

This makes sense to me. When it happened, it was as if the gas pedal nearly completely stopped working. Also, one of the things I did while the car was acting up was to turn off the SB. It was shortly after this that full function was restored.

I guess I will take it off and call it a $300 lesson.

My performance tune claims to increase throttle response as well. Perhaps the 2 things together are just too much.

Removing the Sprint Booster tomorrow! Anybody want to buy one? 1/2 price! PM me if interested.

otakki

Man, good luck with selling that SB now everyone knows it changes the engine output to 3HP.

Vrodman

Hahaha !

Well, we know you actually read the original post.

Wasn't really counting on selling it! Lol

I feel somewhat "taken" by the SB. (Sprint Booster, for the search engines)

Might need to post something on Yelp about their defective product.

I did in fact remove it entirely from the car today!

Ready for shipment! Lol

Hearing from PeterUbers was all I needed for credibility.

I forgot to mention thank you in earlier reply Peter.

Thank You!

PeterUbers

Vrod--- anytime bro

Sorry it didn't work out... I'm quite addicted to mine now, I turned it off for a day and had to go back to "green" though your post has me worried... I think when I get an error message like you did I'll toss it as well

How's the '63 these days?

Vrodman

Bro,

My booster was great too until this event happened. And when it did, the timing was quite scary. In fast lane of 5-lane highway and the only place to get out of the way is on the right. Heavy traffic. Impatient drivers. And the car will barely move at all! I did manage to get over to the right while pissing a whole bunch of people off, cuz they had no idea what I was dealing with,, and it was about then that life came back.

Truth is in most cases if this happens you could simply pull over and restart the engine and likely be OK.

BUT,

Imagine you have kids in your car and some roid rage maniac is chasing you and your car wont go. Just not worth this risk to me.

I did enjoy the booster, but to be honest, there were a couple of other strange things that I now see might be related to the boosre after I removed it.

Mainly is a unusually long time to upshift in just S mode without foot in the throttle. I know S+ can do this but it didnt do this before the booste in S and now doesnt do it after.

Fun experiment. But done with it now.

You should dump yours and get an ECU toon that will give you a more reliable form of the same thing.

Cheers Buddy!

Vrodman

Did I really write toon? Must be way too tired these days. Meant tune of course.

PeterUbers

Bro, BRO!!! I would love nothing more than to send my Ecu overnight fedex to renntech ... However I'm in this car for 7 years with my extended warranty and don't want to jeopardize that ... And no local dealers are renntech "friendly" so it's pretty much stock horsies for me

I live vicariously through you and guys like Sdg and David Kuo!!!