Got Scared

[ttammunek04]

Hello all,

Well the tank freaked me out yesterday afternoon. I got in, cranked up and shifted into reverse. I noticed that it shifted awful hard. Backed up then shifted to drive, hard shift again. Didn't think much of it so I went on about my business. Gave it a little gas, revved up to about 2500 or 3000 rpm, and only went about 5 mph WHAT THE @#$%! Pulled over called the dealership and they said bring it right in. Well to make a long story short, cranked it back up and every thing was fine. Dealer scanned it and everything checked o.k. Technician test drove, no problem. Told me that the vehicle had a "DRIVE BY WIRE" accelerator. I didn't know this. I always thought that the thing had a throttle cable just like every other vehicle I've had. I must have confused it trying to enguage it into drive to fast and went into shut-down mode or something. Anyways no damage occured. Just thought that I would throw this out there in case anyone had the same problem.

[hawkeye680]

What exactly does drive-by-wire mean as opposed to drive by cable?

[BigJoe_Titan]

Originally Posted by hawkeye680

What exactly does drive-by-wire mean as opposed to drive by cable?

No expert here, but you when you hit the gas pedal it a actually has a circuit to your computer, the computer then controls the injectors, etc...

[salvanilla]

Drive By Wire Means That The Truck Uses A Potentiometer Instead Of A Cable To Open And Close The Throttles (electronically), I Work For Bmw And They've Been Using It For A While. The Old Spring Loaded Throttlebody And Cable System Is Going By The Wayside

[Bayou Titan]

I was thinking about how much I like the drive by wire in the Titan yesterday. I was driving my wife's Mitsu which is not that old and I can feel the accelerator cable dragging and giving resistance. This is very annoying and I notice it in other cars that I drive that have a throttle cable. I have heard that this problem is non existant in drive by wire vehicles for the most part. Drive by wire has the benefit of not having a hole in the firewall for the cable to pass through leading to the engine. By not having the hole, less engine noise and dust can enter the cab.

[Austin]

Just as salvanilla said, the throttle pedal is merely a rheostat in a drive-by-wire system.

On cars with a cable controlled throttle plate, you (the operator) directly control how much air the engine sucks in (and, to a point, is blown in on forced induction engines). When your right foot goes down, throttle butterfly opens more, engine gets more air. The engine management computer(s) then react to how much air the engine is ingesting.

Drive-by-wire cars can (if programmed correctly) be much more smooth. The engine management software is "reacting" much less. When you step on the throttle pedal of the Titan, you are simply sending a request to the engine control computer for more power. The computer decides if you actually get more power after consulting a variety of other computers and sensors. If the engine control computer decides you get more power, then the throttle plate is opened relevant to the change in TPS.

Drive-by-wire can also be a tuner's biggest nightmare. Beyond a certain point, additional power requires that you have access to reprogram the original engine control unit.

[ttammunek04]

Originally Posted by hawkeye680

What exactly does drive-by-wire mean as opposed to drive by cable?

Yeah what all these guys said. Guess I should have clarified myself.