Yaris D4D cuts to safe "get home" mode

February 21, 2016

Hi All,

Can anybody help me?

I've got an '04 D4D Yaris that I purchased at 127k miles and have added another 18.5k to without issue (except a new battery).

Just recently the car keeps cutting into "safe" mode without warning, losing all but very limited power. There's no consistency to the cut outs and if I turn the engine off for 10 seconds or so then restart the car runs fine.

I've put the car into the garage and they've read the codes and told me it's either a potentiometer on the accelerator pedal or the ECU (clever money's on the former as ECUs rarely go wrong) but due to the problem not being there all the time they can't definitively say what the problem is. Trouble is the potentiometer can't be purchased without the pedals and that's £300 please.

Their only advice is to run the car until it permanently breaks.

It was occurring every 100 miles or so but recently has started occurring every 25 miles or so - painful on a 100 mile daily commute.

Does anybody have any ideas, or even know where I might be able to source a second hand one?

Looking on the forum this doesn't seem to be a common problem so I'm hoping a second hand one would be fine.

Thanks in advance.

Rob.

February 21, 2016

Car breaker's is the obvious place to try.

February 22, 2016

Gah, how do you link things in here without the stupid forum inserting this

Anyway, the short answer is, you can remove the pedal (It's like, 2 bolts and a plug), then spray the crap out of the potentiometer with contact cleaner and that will probably fix it without needing a replacement!