Throttle Position Sensor/ Engine reduced Power message letter from GM

[my09denali]

I have 09 Denali.

Received letter from GM today that says: This letter is intended to make you aware that some 2009 model year GMC Yukon vehicles, equipped w/ a V8 engine, may have a condition where the throttle position sensor may cause the engine to run rough and cause the malfunction lamp and/or a Engine Reduced Power message to illuminate. If this occurs, it could result in reduced engine power.

Unfortunately for me I received this letter in the mail today. Monday xmas eve I was stranded on I-94 w/ 20 degree temps in the middle of nowhere w/ my truck in limp mode. With engine power reduced you can't go over 20mph.

The letter states in bold letters don't take your vehicle to the dealer unless you believe you have the condition.

Of course by then it is too late. I talked to a lady at work today and she had the exact same thing happen in her '10 Sierra. Luckily she was in town close to a dealer.

No tow trucks working xmas eve. Took 2.5hrs to get one through Onstar. The dealer I had it towed to in WI said there was a silent recall on the issue but they didn't know the batches or which trucks have the problem but it is a known issue so they fixed it for free even though I'm out of warranty.

Now that I have the letter which has a page to file a reimbursement claim I'm going to file for the $125 tow I paid.

The point of this post is I've had my truck 3yrs w/ absolutely no problems. There were no warning signs. Was cruising at 70 on the interstate and just like that it shut down. Don't wait until your sensor goes out.

 

[sumo]

I too got this letter. I have not gone to the dealer but if you tell them it happened and your just cleared it, technically it counts.

 

[TowGMC]

I got the same letter, and this past Thursday my check engine light came on. Runs fine, made it 150 miles home in the snow but fuel economy was horrible. Called my dealer first thing Friday morning and he immediately suggested the TPS might be going bad. Apparently there's been a run on the replacement part so I won't be able to take the Denali in for another 10 days, but at least mine's still running.

He also said that since this is a "service action" (his words, not mine) the replacement will be free. But he also said that a TPS failure should be covered under the emissions warranty since a failure would cause the Denali to fail an emissions test.

 

[Goodinblack]

I got the letter too.

Hmmm.

No warning?

Great.

From my Walkie Talkie

 

[shooterz]

I also had this happen to me last Saturday and disconnected the battery to clear code, so i could get home. Took it to the dealer after receiving this letter two days later and was told that the check engine light had to be on, so they could read the code. As stated in 1st post in bold letters not to take your vehicle to the dealer unless you believe you have this condition. Was told to wait for the light to come back on and call a tow truck.

 

[bolo1g2]

My09Denali, I had the exact same thing happen to me. Except I was about 30 miles from home and I drove that ***** the whole way doing 25mph. Got my letter January 5 after I already had it in the shop and had spent $400 on repairs. I took it to my dealership today and the guy was like well i don't know if we are going to reimburse you for the repair as they did the wrong thing. I almost blew my top. I told him to file the paperwork and let me know what happens. If I don't hear nothing, I'll send it to GM like the letter says. But what a bunch of BS. Just like Denali said, no warning or nothing. Just weird shift noise, car downshifted, lost power and then crawled along at less than 25mph.

 

[doubletapdrew]

Just ran into this today looking into the Investigate Vehicle History secion on GlobalConnect. On affected vehicles they have "Special Coverage 11273" added in the warranty section which is good until 120k miles or 10 years. The shop said they got the bulletin in Sept of last year. I think it's for all V8s from 2008-2010 or something like that.

 

[Ben]

My truck currently has the light on for the TPS sensor, yippie.

 

[bolo1g2]

Got mine back from the dealership today. They said all fixed. Should never happen again. But they denied my request for reimbursement from the shop that did the other work to get the car running again. Said the repairs were for the wrong thing. Really? I never would have taken the car to the shop if it hadn't been limping along? Now I have to write GMC and see if I can get reimbursed from Detroit. I think it's a load of BS and the dealership just doesn't want to pay out anything. But whatever. I hope this never happens again. Just kind of pissed that the dealership wouldn't even acknowledge the reason the car was in the shop to begin with was because of the reduced power. Rant over.

 

[wcsmith21]

My 2010 tahoe just started acting up. Last Thursday I remote started my truck and when I put the key in the ignition the whole dash board lit up. Got the reduced engine power warning. Turned the truck off and let it sit. It started up fine. Today the same thing happened. Can't wait to go to the dealership.