Hello all,

2010 Lancer GTS, 2.4l cvt

I've done a ton of searching, and I mean a ton. Cant find anything that really matches what I have going on here. So, heres the best description I can give you all:

In october, was the first time it happened to me. I had driven to the pharmacy, turned the car off, went inside. When i came back outside after about 20 mins, the car went into limp mode immediately. Started sputtering really bad, like it was missing. CEL came on, as well as the ASC Off, Service Required light. I immediately turned the car off and attempted to not freak out. After I started it up again, the lights were gone and it drove fine.

Fast forward to a month or so later. Been driving it regularly in this time, had no issues. (this car was getting 60+ miles put on it daily when I first bought it, now it sits a lot more.) Wife and I took a trip to tennesee for a football game. Drove from Michigan, about an 8 hour drive. Made it about 2/3rds of the way there and the battery died randomly at a gas station. It was the OE battery, which was now 7 years old. So I got a jump and we went on our way. We were about 10 miles outside of nashville when the CEL and ASC-off, service required stuff started happening. I was going 80mph, having no issues, just cruising along just fine. Pulled off to the side of the road, and of couse, the battery was dead because, thats my damn luck. Got another jump and we were gone again.

Made it to our hotel and I went and replaced the battery the next day. Drove home, made it close to half way with no issues, then it started. CEL and ASC Off again. Pull over, let it sit for a few mins, and restart with no problems. It ended up happening a total of probably 6 times on the way home. Same thing every time, just let it sit for a few mins, and it goes away.

Fast forward to now-
The car is doing it almost every time I start up now. I had the ODB2 port scanned and it showed a p2100 code. My understanding on this, was that limp mode basically cuts off the throttle, so that p2100 code, even though it says its the throttle position switch, thats not what is causing the car to go into limp mode.

My car does have HID lights, and they had been installed before I purchased the car. Thats the only electrical type modification that has been made, that I know of anyways. I went in and replaced all wiring on the HID kit and all the resistors, ect.

Still have this problem.
Again, p2100 is the code it throws, but the car is going into limp mode, I cant barely get to 20mph, and the ASC-Off/service required light comes on.

any help is appreciated!
Thanks

 

also, just wanted to throw this out there. I have noticed that before I start my car, if I step on the brake peddle, I hear a very loud clicking sound coming from the gear shifter area. Could this be something with the backup/neutral safety switch??

 

No. That would only affect start up - you car dies while running...


I would buy a good scan tool (<$100 at most stores) and while someone else is driving monitor (and record) all driving parameters (PIDS). Note any out of range readings when it dies.
Let us now what you find.

 

yeah I'm getting ready to take it into the dealer. I've run a nice odb scanner on it and everything runs fine until it goes into limp mode. And I believe limp mode is what is restricting the throttle position sensor. So I dont really have a choice but to take it to the dealership. luckily I have one relatively close, but Its still gonna be a long drive going 15 mph the whole way lol.

 

So I got back from the dealership a little bit ago, and didn't get the best of news. After hooking up their system to it they determined that I needed to replace the throttle body "first" and was told if that didn't fix the problem then they would perform the diag for free next time...not exactly comforting when the mitsu dealership doesn't have an answer.

So I ordered a used throttle body off ebay. Not exactly wanting to spend $1000 on the OE part and it potentially not fixing the issue.

I know i've read about something similar on a forum somewhere, lol. I've been to so many trying to research this issue lately that I cant remember which was which now.

 

The P2100 is an open circuit for the throttle body. I am assuming the dealership did check the circuit, but you can always check yourself with a multimeter and while wiggling the harness. If the harness is good, i would replace the throttle body. Don't forget to check pin tension (no spread pins) on the TB connector.

 

thanks for the response. it reminded me to jump on here and provide an update:

I did order a throttle body from LKQ. However, I haven't installed it yet. I was rather convinced that this was an electrical issue. So, when I purchased the car (almost 3 years ago now) it had an HID retrofit kit installed. I had never given much thought to it, other than noticing I went through the capacitors and lights pretty often. I had also installed some cheap LED brakelights. They were the ones that replace the reflectors on our back bumpers. When I installed them I just spliced into the brake light wire from behind the tail light. I did this right after I bought the car. These issues popped up towards the end of my batteries life, as it was the OE battery. Like I said above I replaced the battery during a road trip, but I had also broken a wire from the HID kit. Didn't know what wire it was, or what it did. Everything seemed to work fine as far as the headlights. Again, I was about 600 miles from home so I didn't have my electrical stuff with me, so I just let it go. Cut to a few months later, and after this problem happening very frequently, like every other time I would start the car, I decided to replace all the HID wiring, and after this, I also clipped off the wires for the extra brake lights. Since fixing those two things, I have not had a single issue with the car (knock on wood) it hasn't gone into limp mode at all, no engine lights, nothing.

The dealership was zero help, I asked the tech to tell me what the next step in his 'repair tree' and he wouldn't tell me. Probably because they knew I was going to try to fix it myself anyways.

I still have the throttle body, I haven't sent it back yet, but I didn't want to install it if it wasn't going to fix anything anyways. I live in michigan, and the weather sucks this time of year. But the car stays in my garage, and over the last two weeks Ive literally driven it in all weather except 60+ degrees and not had a problem. Taken it to the car wash, idled for long periods of time, open it up, drive slow, using paddle shifters, ect. haven't had a single problem with it. So, it seems as though it was an electrical issue at this point.

Also: I wanted to add that I did have the dealership take care of a few recall issues. One of them was for my blower motor, which was totally shot. And the second was the ECU? I wasn't sure if that was the environmental control unit or the actual computer for the car. They did the repairs on different days, but after they replaced the blower (and I disconnected the above things) it started running much better. And in the week or so between the repairs I had it go into limp mode 1 time, but I did increase my driving more during that time. And since the last repair, the ecu, or I think he called it the etacs, its run totally fine. They were messing with the fuse box as well during this repair, but they didn't give me a ton of info. The repair writer was zero help and basically just told me the acronyms for the repairs because thats probably what the paper said lol.