[saltyshores219]

My wife was on the highway going 67mph with the cruse control on when she felt a surge or a jerk forward. at this time the cruse light in the dash stayed on as if the cruse was still operating but the vehicle started to decelerate. at the time of the jerk the engine light came on and has stayed on since. She pulled over and shut the car off and then started it up and everything seemed normal other than the engine light. She continued on and 10 min later it surged or jerked again but at about 30 mph with no cruse control on. She is on her way to auto zone now to get a reading but i just wanted to see what you guys thought. I don't have a lot of money and need to do any work myself if possible. I am mechanically inclined and work on our vehicles myself. Any help or ideas would be a life saver. 2004 honda element lx

Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully this thread will help others in the future

 

[MikeQBF]

We can conjecture all day... but since you had an immediate MIL directly associated with the condition and are in the process of getting the code read, let's hold off until we get that key bit of info. Thanks.

 

[94eg]

I had the TPS (throttle position sensor) go out on my 03 Element and it was pretty scary. I took my foot off the throttle getting off the freeway and the thing just kept accelerating. I put the clutch in and it would rev up to about 5k and then back down to 2k and do it again. Very scary...

Unfortunately the only fix was to replace the whole throttle body since this sensor is precision calibrated at the factory. That's about a $500 part if your not under warranty. Thank goodness I was...

 

[MikeQBF]

Again, let's not conjecture. The problem was apparently significant - the ECU could not resolve the condition, and put the engine into "full cripple" mode.

The code was supposed to have been read, with 100% correspondence between the MIL and onset of the problem. When the OP has the code in-hand and is ready to talk about it, please PM me or one of the other moderators and we will unlock this thread.