Hi, all. Hope someone can shed some light on this problem. Two months ago, while driving around town, the "wrench" light came on in my '05 Mustang (63,000 pampered miles). The car went into "limp" mode. I was near a Firestone store so I took it there for repair. They ran diagnostics and replaced the throttle position sensor (TPS). They used a Ford part. A week later, the same thing happened. Firestone then stuck in a NEW, new TPS. One week later -- same problem once again. Firestone threw up their hands and apologized for not being able to diagnose the problem. Money refunded. Reluctantly I then took the car to the local Ford dealer. They declared that the throttle body needed replacement. They wanted $840 to replace this $350 part. I said "No dice" and had another garage install it. One day later -- SAME problem returns!

Some time ago, I accepted the fact that this expensive Mustang (which I bought nearly new from a dealer - only 3,000 miles on it) is a flat-out lemon (bad weld in the front cowl, resulting in catastrophic passenger compartment flooding during heavy rains; defective fuel-fill auto-shutoff mechanism in gas tank, causing fuel nozzles to shut off every couple of seconds, even if the tank is empty; exterior paint literally rubbing off of the surfaces of the car; and most recently a broken gear shift mechanism that causes the red needle to stay on "P" all the time, regardless of what gear the car is in.

But I still owe money on this miserable car and have little choice but to have this "wrench light" problem definitively repaired.

Can anyone offer any suggestions? Many thanks.

 

You're TB could not be properly "clocked". Is it a stock TB or aftermarket? Also, what mods do you have? Any custom tune?

 

The water leak issue as well as the fuel fill issue are both chronic issues with these S197's and both (as well as many others) are covered in the multitude of TSB's associated with the model. Although the water leak issue will eventually result in SJB corrosion and electrical gremlins, I've never heard of it causing only a wrench light.

Have you checked the MAF, MAF connectors and MAF wiring?

 

Kast1376,

Thanks for the reply. The TB is supposedly a new Ford part. I haven't done anything to the car, except to have an iPod player professionally installed a few years ago.



Nuke,

To be honest, I'm not much of a mechanic. I've only learned what I have about the 2005-2009 Mustangs because of all the mystery maladies. I don't know nuthin' 'bout the MAF connectors...

I'm planning on just taking the thing back to the dealer, but I'm saving up the necessary huge pile of money first.

tjw

 

had this problem ended to be tune related, if you have installed any tune, this could be your problem. I also had on cylinder that had bad compression.

 

Kast? lol...Look into properly clocking the TB. Could be causing the "TB actuator stuck open" code.

 

Fuel fill issue was a TSB that you should have notified the dealer about when you first bought the car. It would've been fixed for free under warranty. Outside of warranty is out of your own pocket.

Haven't heard of a bad cowl weld. What I mainly hear about is the drain plugs (under the cabin air filter) get plugged or that the grommets where the cowl cover pops into the cowl leak.

As for the TPS, it's highly unusual that they fail on the S197 (never heard about it on the forums IIRC).

Is the car stock? Did you have any other intake work recently performed just before the car started having problems?

As some have mentioned, if you have a tune on the car, when you took it to the first shop, they may have reflashed the car to stock (deleting your tune). I would try to either 'A' reload the aftermarket tune and see if that fixes the problem or 'B' return the car to stock and see if that fixes the issue.

 

What is clocking the throttle body? Is that the process of turning the ignition to on, and slowly pressing the gas pedal to the floor and releasing again?

 

My throttle body sensor failed suddenly, throwing my car into limp mode with the wrench light on. Stupid plastic part. It was replaced and I've had no problems since.

 

you need to have the codes read. Any autozone will do it for free. does the car have the stock air intake?