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HUGE Problem with my Jeep Patriot 2008

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destroythevoice

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hi all! I have a big problem that's been reoccurring with my Jeep Patriot 2008.. I recently purchased it a few months ago off of my girlfriends father. Everything was fine in the car.. I replaced a few parts since they were all shot... Back struts, left CV shaft.. two front tires.. and I have to replace a few more parts but that I believe has nothing to do with the problem at hand...

My little lightning bolt light keeps blinking every now and then when I'm driving, the car is not over-heating.. It just slows down badly, and then the next thing you know.. I got to pull over and turn it off and turn it back on.. And then i'm fine. But now after a few times of it happening in the last few weeks.. Now my car stopped doing that and now the light with a car and squiggly lines under it keeps showing up....

And I cannot accelerate at all.. Almost barely 5 MPH up the road. This is a huge problem for me and I cannot fix this fast enough. I just noticed today that I barely have any transmission fluid left so I am refilling that today... But I had my mechanic look at it last week when it happened and he cleaned out the barrel where the accelerator apparently pushes through and he said it was dirty and full of gunk.. and something along the lines of the intertake manifold or something like that being stuck open or something like that.. I am not sure what that all means. I am new to this... I'm a new driver, I have no idea what I'm looking for or what to do.

If anyone has the answers... Dear god save me. Lol
 
#2 ·
Sounds like it's going into "limp mode", the lightening bolt may just mean that your battery is shot.

I had a reoccurring problem with the engine stalling or going into limp mode and it turned out to be the timing sensor which is cheap part but it's on the back of the engine and hard to get to and is an expensive repair because of that. I was able to diagnose that problem with an OBD code reader.

BTW I have a 2008 with about 160k miles on it. How many are on yours? It has been doing pretty well until recently. My evaporator died and I need some other pricey repairs.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
TopangaPat said:
Sounds like it's going into "limp mode", the lightening bolt may just mean that your battery is shot.

I had a reoccurring problem with the engine stalling or going into limp mode and it turned out to be the timing sensor which is cheap part but it's on the back of the engine and hard to get to and is an expensive repair because of that. I was able to diagnose that problem with an OBD code reader.

BTW I have a 2008 with about 160k miles on it. How many are on yours? It has been doing pretty well until recently. My evaporator died and I need some other pricey repairs.
Click to expand...
Mine is at 112K miles so far. It runs great, the only problem is that the previous owner neglected so much on it... The car ran beautifully when my mechanic cleaned out the barrel of the accelerator I believe.. I also just saw a video on youtube that described the same problem.. When it scans it says the Intake Manifold is stuck open... But this guy claims he took out the entire intake manifold and cleaned it off with a tooth brush entirely and thoroughly and maybe replaced one part for about 80 bucks... And now his car runs perfect. Jeep patriot 2008 as well. So I'm gonna take it to my mechanic and hope that THAT is the problem but it's unfortunate cause I need this for work like every day... There's apparently a lot of gunk and build up in this car so I want to just thoroughly give it another cleaning and see what happens... Cause last time he did it my check engine light even turned off but went back on shortly, assuming because there was yet more build up.
 
#6 ·
Yeah, you've got a fairly old vehicle. Coming up on 10 model years. How many miles on your Patriot? Mine is past 250,000 and going strong.

So my first car was a 1960 Ford Falcon I got for nothing from my uncle. I put $400 into it (not counting a $160 engine rebuild my uncle had done). This is when a brand new Ford Maverick cost $1995, so I was putting 1/4 the value of a new car into the old one. I did a lot of rust repair and body work on it, too. I got 3 years out of it with no major repairs and sold it for $200.

What I'm saying is, if you get past these first few repairs youve probably got some happy miles ahead of you. :)

PS, I hope the GF gives you less trouble than the Patriot! :D
 
#8 ·
The "lightning bolt between two half moons" symbol represents the electronic throttle control (since the Patriot doesn't have a cable throttle). This is a fairly common failure point on the Patriot. Do a search for "ETC" or "electronic throttle control" around this site, and you should find some decent answers.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
Guys! Replaced the Throttle and the car works like a dream again! The check engine light also went off for the majority of the day but it came back on today.. I believe that is because I don't have the airbag clockspring still. Still working out the few quirks!
 
#10 ·
destroythevoice said:
Guys! Replaced the Throttle and the car works like a dream again! The check engine light also went off for the majority of the day but it came back on today.. I believe that is because I don't have the airbag clockspring still. Still working out the few quirks!
Click to expand...
We like good news!
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
I have bad news.... Lol. The throttle did not entirely fix it. I just literally bought the entire manifold with the sensor on ebay now for about 250 dollars.. Hoping this will be the fix I need. My mechanic took another look at it and saw that the manifold is really stuck and has trouble moving and the sensor was faulty.. But it's weird because I read in other threads that it might be the alternator or something else part of the manifold.. I'm seriously not sure what I'm even buying anymore but at the rate I'm going my whole engine will be replaced by the time I'm done trying to fix this catastrophe.
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
Ignatz said:
Yeah, you've got a fairly old vehicle. Coming up on 10 model years. How many miles on your Patriot? Mine is past 250,000 and going strong.

So my first car was a 1960 Ford Falcon I got for nothing from my uncle. I put $400 into it (not counting a $160 engine rebuild my uncle had done). This is when a brand new Ford Maverick cost $1995, so I was putting 1/4 the value of a new car into the old one. I did a lot of rust repair and body work on it, too. I got 3 years out of it with no major repairs and sold it for $200.

What I'm saying is, if you get past these first few repairs youve probably got some happy miles ahead of you. :)

PS, I hope the GF gives you less trouble than the Patriot! :D
Click to expand...
Mine just hit 113K. I'm sure once this manifold situation is taken care of I'll have this car for a long time.. I'm just trying to take care of the situation now before it's too late cause this guy took NO kind of care to this car and it's really a good car from the feel of it even just being in the bad shape it is now.
 
#13 ·
The warning light you are getting

destroythevoice said:
Hi all! I have a big problem that's been reoccurring with my Jeep Patriot 2008.. I recently purchased it a few months ago off of my girlfriends father. Everything was fine in the car.. I replaced a few parts since they were all shot... Back struts, left CV shaft.. two front tires.. and I have to replace a few more parts but that I believe has nothing to do with the problem at hand...

My little lightning bolt light keeps blinking every now and then when I'm driving, the car is not over-heating.. It just slows down badly, and then the next thing you know.. I got to pull over and turn it off and turn it back on.. And then i'm fine. But now after a few times of it happening in the last few weeks.. Now my car stopped doing that and now the light with a car and squiggly lines under it keeps showing up....

And I cannot accelerate at all.. Almost barely 5 MPH up the road. This is a huge problem for me and I cannot fix this fast enough. I just noticed today that I barely have any transmission fluid left so I am refilling that today... But I had my mechanic look at it last week when it happened and he cleaned out the barrel where the accelerator apparently pushes through and he said it was dirty and full of gunk.. and something along the lines of the intertake manifold or something like that being stuck open or something like that.. I am not sure what that all means. I am new to this... I'm a new driver, I have no idea what I'm looking for or what to do.

If anyone has the answers... Dear god save me. Lol
Click to expand...


I believe your car isn't charging. It could be an alternator or a loose ( or corroded) battery cable. Those are the less expensive things. An ignition module is a possibility. If it is an alternator and they put on a new belt, watch out they don't overtighten it. Your water pump will be the next expense if they do.
 
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