The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

Advancetrac and Limp Mode

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Hey guys,

This morning when driving to work, I experienced limp mode for the first time, at least that's what I think it was. :eek:

Having just made a turn, I was going relatively slow (~20mph) and all of a sudden I lose power and engine wouldn’t rev, all while the traction control light kept blinking. Once the light stopped blinking, the car gained power and I was able to start moving again. For safety's sake, I pulled over, restarted the car and drove to work without encountering the problem again.

Any of you guys experience this before?
I have a track event coming up and don’t want it ruined by a glitch like this, or worse have an accident while merging onto highways.

I did a quick search of the forum, and seems most limp modes are accompanied by a CEL. Could this be caused by an ABS sensor?

I've already made an appointment with the dealer, but I don't have much confidence that they'll find anything, since they more than likely won’t be able to replicate the problem.

Any info will be greatly appreciated!
 
898
544
Try running a diagnostics test as opposed to just looking for any codes. The Accutron scanner you lent me at Summit Point can run diagnostic tests to include testing the ABS.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Steve, I totally forgot about my own tool! :eek:
But I tried it, for some reason I couldn't test the ABS system on the mustang, but it did on my camry. I'll update the software and try again.

If the dealer can't find anything this friday, I'll disconnect the ABS sensor connectors, clean them up, use dielectric grease and hope for the best!
 
My F-150 will do that every so often too. The "service advance trac" message pops up and the yellow skidding car flashes and it goes into limp mode. It usually occurs at relatively low speed while towing and clears itself within a few seconds. It only happens every few months and I haven't even bothered taking it into the dealer because it's not throwing a CEL and it'll just be like all the other gremlins that pop up on the Boss without kicking a DTC...inability to replicate. I posted in another thread about the issue I'm having with the electronic throttle control randomly going into fail safe mode on my Boss again. My understanding is that was programmed in to stop the "runaway cars" like we saw with Audi and Toyota years ago, and more recently with Lexus.

Sometimes these safety features actually backfire when the faults pop up and you're in heavy traffic on the highway and leave you a sitting duck. That said, the AdvanceTrac on the F-150 has saved my bacon towing in high winds on more than one occasion by bringing the trailer smoothly and quickly back under control when it starts to get too squirrelly. It's all a tradeoff I guess.

I really can't see us going to self-driving cars anytime soon without more robust sensors that don't get temporarily "lost" as often as we're experiencing on the Boss.
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
cloud9 said:
I really can't see us going to self-driving cars anytime soon without more robust sensors that don't get temporarily "lost" as often as we're experiencing on the Boss.

No kidding! My concern about drive by wire cars when they first came out seems reasonable justified now. I can't imagine relying on many MORE sensors to keep me safe.
 
F.D. Sako said:
Hey guys,

This morning when driving to work, I experienced limp mode for the first time, at least that's what I think it was. :eek:

Having just made a turn, I was going relatively slow (~20mph) and all of a sudden I lose power and engine wouldn’t rev, all while the traction control light kept blinking. Once the light stopped blinking, the car gained power and I was able to start moving again. For safety's sake, I pulled over, restarted the car and drove to work without encountering the problem again.

Any of you guys experience this before?
I have a track event coming up and don’t want it ruined by a glitch like this, or worse have an accident while merging onto highways.

I did a quick search of the forum, and seems most limp modes are accompanied by a CEL. Could this be caused by an ABS sensor?

I've already made an appointment with the dealer, but I don't have much confidence that they'll find anything, since they more than likely won’t be able to replicate the problem.

Any info will be greatly appreciated!

I had the same thing happen to me the second time I drove my car, had something like 40 miles on it. The CEL stayed on and I immediately brought it to the local dealer who scanned it and it came back to a misfire in the 3rd, 5th, and 8th cylinders. They looked it over and did not find a cause. I had the car looked over again when I had the TracKey installed and nothing was found then either. To this point it has not happened again.
 
When mine popped the CEL and went into limp mode it was cold as hell outside and I was messing around with the traction control button, the car also had just sat for 4 months. Doubt that helps but figured I would post as the memories came back.
 
For limp mode with accompanying Traction Control light: Since it seems like quite a few of you are having problems AND track, I am wondering if heat from the brakes might have damaged the wheel speed sensors or connectors/cables? If they are borderline it might not take much to get the traction control to start trippin, even if nothing is really happening. A loose or corroded connection to the sensors would probably throw it into fail safe mode, too. I have a feeling NDBOSS302's issue is unrelated, even though it still went into limp mode. There are probably several to dozens of things that can cause the ECU fail-safe to that.
 
When the problem occurred, the car was just fired up with a few minutes of warm up. So Advancetrac was on, as it normally is.

I had PMed a fellow member here that had a similar experience on track. He mentioned the problem only occurred when he had Advancetrac on; once disabled, the problem went away. Since I always disable Advancetrac at the track, I may be safe, but would still like to resolve this glitch.

Hopefully, I'll have a constructive update after tomorrow's visit to the dealer.
 

Tucson 302

2013 Black LS #439
Yep Sako is referring to me, and each time it happened the car had to be taken to the dealer to clear the code which was telling them there was air in the brake lines. Anyhoo I bought a tune from AED that disables advance trac so just in case I forget to turn it off this won't happen again.
 
Had this happen about 12 times in the 3 years and 40k mile I have driven her. Some ohn road/some on track. Most on road happened with my old steering rack. Replaced her and then no problems until I started running r comps. Then upgraded to boss 302s module and no problems because there is no advancetrak/tc. Which is fine with me.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk
 

Tucson 302

2013 Black LS #439
centri5.0 said:
no problems until I started running r comps

I think the sticky tires are too much grip for Advancetrac, the only time this has happened to me is when I used NT01s. The stock tires never did it nor did the BFGs
 
I dropped the car off, but dealer won't have time to check it... even though I had an appointment, so I'm only getting the radio screen replaced. I'll have to reschedule my appointment for the advancetrac problem.
 

PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
Moderator
2,848
14
Connecticut
Did your traction control light go on or the Check Engine light ? Seems like we are mixing the two in these posts....
 
For me, the traction control light started blinking, which is why I didn't have any codes. Seems like other members are getting CEL's related to other issues.
 
F.D. Sako said:
I dropped the car off, but dealer won't have time to check it... even though I had an appointment, so I'm only getting the radio screen replaced. I'll have to reschedule my appointment for the advancetrac problem.

Radio screen? The coating on mine is cracking all over the entire plastic window... Same problem as mine?
 
steveespo said:
Hope I never have "Limp Mode" :D

I've heard once you qualify for historic tags, "Limp Mode" may be expected :p

WinterSucks said:
Radio screen? The coating on mine is cracking all over the entire plastic window... Same problem as mine?

Yup. Apparently, the focuses are having this problem as well, according to the service rep.
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top