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ECU P2138 problems?

17557 Views 18 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  Justin311
I just bought a 2007 Crew Crab Titan LE with 350 miles on it, as I was driving, the "Service Engine Soon" light came on and the "SLIP" light came on. It would let me accelerate, so I had to stop and turn it off.

When I turned it back on the SLIP light was off, but the SES light was still on. I took it in the dealership, and they said it was a P2138, something to do with the Accelerator. Anyone else have this issue?

Problem is fixed now, but just curious how common this is with everyone else.
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Not very common.
I have an 07 never hit that code or any so far.
rgrtitan said:
I just bought a 2007 Crew Crab Titan LE with 350 miles on it, as I was driving, the "Service Engine Soon" light came on and the "SLIP" light came on. It would let me accelerate, so I had to stop and turn it off.

When I turned it back on the SLIP light was off, but the SES light was still on. I took it in the dealership, and they said it was a P2138, something to do with the Accelerator. Anyone else have this issue?

Problem is fixed now, but just curious how common this is with everyone else.
I had that pop up about a week ago. I looked it up and could not figure out why it would pop up after reading the troubleshooting tree so I cleared it and haven't had it pop up since. What did they do for you?
Any of the following can throw P2138

●Harness or connector (APP sensor 1 and 2 circuit is open or shorted.)
(TP sensor circuit is shorted.)

● Accelerator pedal position sensor 1 and 2

● Electric throttle control actuator
(TP sensor)
They said they had to order a new accelerator, took a week to order the part and the dealer installed it right away. Just a little embarrassed telling my friends that my new Titan farted out at 450miles. It's great now, just wasn't sure if it was going to be a problem later. Thanks.
I cleared a code on an 07 P2119 the other day....weird???
No problems at all with my 07. Gas mileage is even improving.
just searched to see if this was a major or minor problem. apparently, extremely rare. anyheww, whilst working from 830am to 830pm my 04 titan sat in the parking lot at work exposed to 8-9 hours of rain showers, hail and strong winds. no big deal, automobiles are exposed to this type of occasionally and built to withstand all these types of elements. well, when i got off work, got to my titan and started it up. right off the bat, i knew something wasn't right, just a certain weird sound i heard when i started it. then the SES light illuminates almost blinding me. thought great, wtf??? anyheww, drove off and traversed about 2 miles when all of a sudden there's no throttle response. i would step on the gas and the beast wouldn't go. i'd keep giving it gas and it would slowly, and i mean slowly, accelerate as if i were in slow motion. so i pull over and think WTF??? shut the engine off, give it about 15 seconds just for the "f" of it to see what would happen. started her back up, SES light still solid, but throttle response returned. accelerated off and continued on my journey home after a long strenuous day at work and in the rain for almost 12 hours. was driving normally for another 2 miles, if that, came to a stoplight. light turned green went to accelerate and nothing, but kept gassing it and again, the rpms would slowly creep up and the truck would move, ever so slowly. ARGGHHH, WTF!!!!!!! shut her off again, waited another 15 seconds just for the... and started her back up... voila, throttle response back to normal... drove another 2 miles and again, throttle response would disappear. NEVER has this happened to me. anyheww, managed to crawl home and left the beast at home till the next day, today. after work drove the wife's truck to the autozone and got me one of them nifty lil OBDII scanners. read the code, pulled a P2138 and said, "huh?" who knows wtf that is, other than having something to do with the accelerator or some mumbo jumbo crap. stored the code, then erased it and took her for a test drive. for 20 minutes all seemed good, could not recreate the weirdness that had taken place the night before. for some strange reason i attribute the strong winds, blistering rain and hail we had to whatever caused my truck to temporarily go haywire. i'll give it a go for longer stretches tomorrow but she ran strong after i simply erased the code, so we'll see tomorrow. wish me luck... [email protected] codes!!! if this keeps up, gonna just drop a GM 502 crate motor in and be done with this Jap motor!!! LOL!!!
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Hooli...
you have just described "limp mode" Seems your truck was tired of hauling your ars around and decided it need some attention....lol

Anyway try to a throttle learn proceedure since she is running now.

Also print the ECU clear proceedure and leave it in the truck just in case it happens again or keep that ODB2 scanner handy.

If you know someone with Cipher let me know I'll see if I can give you some help on checking TP and ACC sensors.
RB's Titan said:
Hooli...
you have just described "limp mode" Seems your truck was tired of hauling your ars around and decided it need some attention....lol

Anyway try to a throttle learn proceedure since she is running now.

Also print the ECU clear proceedure and leave it in the truck just in case it happens again or keep that ODB2 scanner handy.

If you know someone with Cipher let me know I'll see if I can give you some help on checking TP and ACC sensors.
thanks RB, i have a feeling i know what it is and it was shorted, as i saw water accumulation in the area of what i think it was. i've got prerunner fenders as well so water easily gets in now i think, but have never experienced this problem when bogging thru ponds of water. lol... gonna do the throttle learn procedure to set that straight but throttle response seems pretty good now, but will do it nonetheless. "limp mode" was lame...

Demond, PMs cleared...
yeah when doing PGM testing I took the truck to a self car wash and sprayed it down and got that code along with another. truck died and ran just as you described. I had my laptop and Cipher though.
So my first trip with my 5th wheel started out rough due to this code. 40 miles into a 400 mile trip climbing a 5% grade and all of a sudden no throttle response. Pull over and do all the normal stuff, including unhooking the battery to try and help the situation. SES light on solid and in gear truck would pull at 7 mph at 1500 rpm. So I call the Nissan dealer I bought my 05 from and they have no clue. I was fortunate enough to have a guy I know come and flat tow me off an exit ramp to his shop a few miles away. Mind you, his 09F-350 had to pull my T, and 27' 5th fully loaded! Which it did at 50 mph with no issues! So I have done a bit more research to find that it appears my accelerator pedal sensor has failed and will be a week to get. Has anyone else experienced anything excluding the above mentioned with this? Pedal assembly is $240, the throttle body is $690. My diagnosis, based on ressitance test to the pedal and talking with a Nissan tech leads me to the pedal. Thanks
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Similar thing happened to my 05 yesterday. Dry day and it died after about 2 hours of driving. I tried shutting it off and it would not restart. Had it towed to my dealer. Of course, I had my wife, and baby with me, and we were in a state forest with no cell service or houses for miles! UGH!

Anyone know if this falls under the powertrain warranty? If not, is it an expensive fix?

Thanks!
I just had this code pop up as well. Stranded right now... waiting for the closest Nissan dealership to open.

I have a 2004 XE and was towing about 6000 lbs up hill in West Virginia. I had it in manual mode - in 2nd gear holding about 3k rpm's with the A/C off. Was doing everything I could to avoid problems I thought!
I just had this code pop up as well. Stranded right now... waiting for the closest Nissan dealership to open.

I have a 2004 XE and was towing about 6000 lbs up hill in West Virginia. I had it in manual mode - in 2nd gear holding about 3k rpm's with the A/C off. Was doing everything I could to avoid problems I thought!
The diagnoses was a fried wiring harness in the middle of the truck due to my rusted exhaust.

Because of my out-of-state situation, my timeframe was pretty urgent. They wanted to overnight 2 harnesses and they said it'd take 4-5hrs to put them in. After that, they'd know if that fixed it or if the Engine Control Module was also bad. I'd assume that'd be more parts ordering if so.

What a mess it was.....
Wow that sucks. Lots of peoples having this exhaust melting harness problems lately.
Dang p2138 for me too :(. Anybody in the midatlantic (Va/md) have a cypher box to help me figure out which code it is?
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