Dead Accelerator Pedal / Drive By Wire Throttle

I had a battery failure the other night on my 2010 JK, the factory original battery failed and I had to get a jump to get home. The Jeep ran fine once jump started, just had a check engine light on the way home. The next day when I tried to start my Jeep the battery was dead and when I tested it the meter only indicated 9.6 volts so I went to town and bought a Yellow Top Optima as it seems to have less bad feedback than some other favorites of the Jeep community.

Battery installed and the Jeep fired right up as expected with the new battery. But when I pressed the accelerator pedal there was no response, dead accelerator pedal and the Electronic Throttle Control warning light is lit on the dash.
I researched the www and have found that it is not that uncommon of a problem on Dodge trucks and Jeeps for the computer to loose memory or pairing, not sure which the term would be, of the Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor (APPS) and the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS). I read a couple of different procedures with variations of the dance with the signal stalk and the APPS that is supposed to pair the APPS and the TPS but I have not been successful with any of the supposed pairing procedures. I am curious if anyone has experienced this and had any success with getting the accelerator pedal to work again after disconnecting the battery.

Just to make sure, you are not running a Sprint Booster are you? Also, have you just checked to make sure the pedal plug is still in and tightly secured? Just trying to get the obvious out of the way. As far as batteries go, I'm not sure where you heard ANY positive praise for Yellow Tops but over the last 10 years, their reputation hasn't been too good. A Sears Die Hard Platinum P1 would have been a much better buy.

No Eddie, not running a Sprint Booster. I had adjusted for tire size with a Procal and just for good measure I put all those settings back to stock. Yes I did check the connections on both APPS and TPS.

For the battery I was first going for the Sears but there was only one positive feedback on the Sears webpage and all the rest were complaints of 3 year warranty batteries failing after only one year. I did also see Optima batteries getting negative feedback as well but on average seemed to be less so I guess I will just have to hope for luck to be in my favor.

Pushrod said:

No Eddie, not running a Sprint Booster. I had adjusted for tire size with a Procal and just for good measure I put all those settings back to stock. Yes I did check the connections on both APPS and TPS.

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Okay, had to check. Have you tried disconnecting the battery for about 20 min and then trying it again? Basically, clearing the computer of any codes and trying again?

For the battery I was first going for the Sears but there was only one positive feedback on the Sears webpage and all the rest were complaints of 3 year warranty batteries failing after only one year. I did also see Optima batteries getting negative feedback as well but on average seemed to be less so I guess I will just have to hope for luck to be in my favor.

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I had been a long time user of Optima batteries and stopped using them altogether about 5 years ago. The quality of them has really gone down but being that they have such a long standing name in the off road market, you will still hear a lot of praise for them.... that is, until they stop holding their charge and become impossible to charge back up. The Platinum P1's are essentially Odyssey's and ever since I've moved over to them, I haven't had any problems.

Yes, I did clear codes. I had a check engine light after the jump start the night before and it was cleared during the time I had the original battery out and making sure the battery cables were clean etc. At this time I do have a code after doodling with procedures to pair the APPS and TPS that I need to clear. I ran out of time to work on the problem and had to catch a flight to Newfoundland so not at able to work on it until I get back home. I have a trip to Montana planned when I do return home so looking for solutions in the interim.
I live about 50 miles from the dealer so I am hoping that I don't have to trailer it over to get them to flash the computer if that is the fix needed. I bought the lifetime warranty when I bought the Jeep so I may have put it to use.

Pushrod said:

Yes, I did clear codes. I had a check engine light after the jump start the night before and it was cleared during the time I had the original battery out and making sure the battery cables were clean etc. At this time I do have a code after doodling with procedures to pair the APPS and TPS that I need to clear. I ran out of time to work on the problem and had to catch a flight to Newfoundland so not at able to work on it until I get back home. I have a trip to Montana planned when I do return home so looking for solutions in the interim.
I live about 50 miles from the dealer so I am hoping that I don't have to trailer it over to get them to flash the computer if that is the fix needed. I bought the lifetime warranty when I bought the Jeep so I may have put it to use.

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Well that sucks. Sounds like you've been pretty thorough and if you've got the warranty, it might be something I'd use at this point and time. Granted, I have a 2007 but, I've had to have my wiring harness replaced under warranty for ETC issues.

Pushrod said:

I had adjusted for tire size with a Procal and just for good measure I put all those settings back to stock.

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When did you put it back to stock?

wayoflife said:

Well that sucks. Sounds like you've been pretty thorough and if you've got the warranty, it might be something I'd use at this point and time. Granted, I have a 2007 but, I've had to have my wiring harness replaced under warranty for ETC issues.

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Wow, hope I don't have to get that done, would ruin my trip plans. I hope if I have to go back to the dealer it will just be someting like a computer flash.

I have read a lot on the internet and see how much more complicated the drive by wire system is than the old style TPS that was just feeding information back to the computer for the throttle position. The old TPS sensors were variable potentiometers that wore out over time. The new drive by wire are dual magnets that move between Hall Effect Devices (HED) that convert that signal to voltage. One HED works on 5 volts and the other on 12 volts. The computer does a constant comparison of the output of these signals and if there is a variation the computer gives ETC warning light. I guess if the disparity is bad enough the computer turns off the throttle completely. This all came out of the Toyota throttle run away crisis a few years ago. This is my internet education on the subject so some of it may not be totally correct.

36Fan said:

When did you put it back to stock?

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I put back to stock the Procal settings after the battery install and during my failed attempts to pair the APPS and TPS. I tried the pairing no less than a dozen times and thought about the Procal settings after a few attempts. Then set everything back to stock settings for more failed attempts to pair the sensors.

Pushrod said:

I put back to stock the Procal settings after the battery install and during my failed attempts to pair the APPS and TPS. I tried the pairing no less than a dozen times and thought about the Procal settings after a few attempts. Then set everything back to stock settings for more failed attempts to pair the sensors.

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Being that there is no physical damage, the timing of the Procal reset might be the problem. Just thinking out loud though. Maybe reloading the Procal settings? At this point it looks like it needs reflashed?

I finally got my dead accelerator pedal problem fixed. The APPS had to be "relearned". It took the tech longer to get his laptop to boot up than it did for him to fix the problem, which took all of 30 seconds. I have heard a lot of people say to disconnect the battery to fix little anomalies with the computer on the Jeep but I will never do that! It's just crazy for these computer systems to loose sensors when the battery is removed.