Hey all, yesterday my car went into restriction mode (amber) about a mile away from my house. As soon as i pulled in the driveway and put it in park it was gone. This morning it was still gone as I drove to Autozone to have them pull the codes. All that came up was a "voltage malfunction" I think is what it said but I'm pretty sure that's not related (think that was for a parasitic drain I haven't fixed yet) How should I approach this one? I'm thinking it might have something to do with the throttle body?

 

Grab a cheap code reader and get the code when it's on, it'll be enough to capture a restricted mode code. Start looking into DSC/Cruise control which are common issues of amber / restricted perf.

 

Okay I'll look into that. I want to try getting it taken care of early on

 

Kay,

I have seen the exact behavior you described. Have seen it a few times, actually. Always traced to a lean condition, but that would leave behind a code or two ... 0171 and 0174 are the lean codes, if I remember right.

If this turns out to be the case for your car, the prime suspects would be dirty/faulty MAF sensor, or vacuum leak. It's possible to distinguish which it is by some detective work with fuel trims, but let's save that until we see what if any codes are in play.

Good luck.

 

Could be any of a long list, even (#1 suspect) a failing battery.

Code reader would help, with live data would be best.