Limp mode after completely dead battery?

[gferil]

So I just came back from a business trip, only gone for four days and parked my car in the long term parking garage, and when I got back to my car the battery was completely dead (very strange but not the big issue). No lights, not even a click of the starter when I turn the key.

So I get a jump from the garage employee and the car fires right up but the idle is all weird. It keeps jumping up and down between 500 and 2000 RPM, and then stabilizes out, then does minor fluctuations. So I let it run like that for a few minutes until it completely evens out consistently for a few minutes. I go to take off and the EML, Traction Control, and Brake light are all lit yellow. The car is in limp mode and I drive it around the garage a few times to see if it clears itself up.

That doesn't work so I turn the car off, let it sit, turn it on...same thing, turn it off, turn it back on again, let it sit for a few minutes while I call AAA for a tow, and then turn it back off. After I get off the phone with AAA, I let the car sit for a few more minutes, and then turn the car back on and everything is back to normal (except now the SES light is on).

I cautiously drive it around for about a mile in the city streets and it is acting fine. I hop on the freeway, and minus a few stutters between 2.5 and 3K RPM for the first 2 miles, everything is reacting normally. After a few miles the car is acting completely normal, minus the fact that the SES is on.

I know the battery completely died because the clock is reset, all my trip computers are reset, and the Bluetooth is no longer synced to my phone.

So...anyone else experience this after a completely dead battery? I'm under CPO so I'm going to call the service department tomorrow, but just wanted to see if anyone else has been through this.

*regarding the battery, I just replaced it a few months ago, but lately I've been traveling quite a bit, so I have only put a little over 1000 miles in the past two months, and the trip from my home to the airport is about 20 miles so I'm not sure if that was enough to charge the battery, but earlier that week I drove a 100 mile round trip so that should have charged it.

UPDATE: well, found out that the battery drain was coming from a defective TCU (telematics control unit) pulling an abnormally high amount of power (which sucks cause it stopped working altogether).

Also, Roffle hit it right on the head, the hesitation and car dying that I was experiencing was from a defective TPS!

[ZStig]

depends what the codes are. Most likely a throttle position sensor went bad. Its either a cheap fix, or an expensive one depending if the front or rear sensor went

[Nhopkins1394]

Do the non-///M cars have a "limp mode" because your symptoms mirrored mine. except for the engine missing problems.

What is the SES?

My step-son mechanic read the error codes and he says he "reset" the computer(s).

All seems fine.
the battery is good.
It died after 5-7 days of inactivity parked in the garage.
No starter clicks or anything.
Clock reset.
No bluethtooth synched.
Very similar.

[gferil]

SES is the "service engine soon" light. Someone has my code reader, so once I get it back, hopefully it can read the past codes. The SES light turned off the next day, and with the exception of a few stutters and jumpy response between 2.5K and 3K (cruising along in 4th gear, steady throttle, no acceleration and the car would "hesitate" or stutter for a bit but then correct itself) two days after the incident, everything is working fine...

Except the bluetooth, I can't get the thing to work anymore...but I'll diagnose that separately.

[beta]

Resurrecting an old thread because the same thing happened to me.

I had a low battery (original battery was 6 years old, it was time). After that I got the EML lights, surging, limp mode, etc. Replaced battery but still had issues. Pulled codes and got:

2CF6 throttle valve potentiometer 1 plausibility with regard to air mass
2D07 Throttle flap 1
2D09 Throttle valve

I compared notes with gferil and he had the same codes 2CF6, 2CEE, 2D09, and 2D07.

So I went ahead and bought a new Throttle Position Sensor PN 13 63 7 840 383

Installed it in 5 minutes (it's right at the front of the engine, two screws, one connector). The hardest part was finding a screwdriver short enough. So far it looks like it fixed the problem.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue: a low battery triggering a TPS failure. Right now it could be coincidental, but if it happens to enough people the events might be linked.

TPS:

[ZStig]

I've replaced this sensor on my car before