m400 fly by wire throttle

[opel16]

Hi
I have a 1600 engine with a fly by wire barrel throttle body and m400 ecu.
How often should i have to calibrate the sensors.
I was at Philip Island on the weekend and had a problem with the engine cutting out.
When i was on full throttle the engine cut out so i pulled off the track and found that engine was still idling but with no throttle response.I turned the car off and back on again and everything was ok ,car ran good.
The next time i went out the problem occurred again at full throttle but this time before the car stopped the throttle came back so i kept going.The same thing happened again half a lap further on and the throttle came back again while i was rolling back to the pits with the engine idling.
The problems has gone by the time i get back to pits or when i restart the car and when i had look at the lap top there are no errors showing.
I don't know what to look for or it might be nothing to do with the fly by wire.
Could it be a calibration issue.
Any help would be appreciated.
Regards
Phil

[MarkMc]

Hi Phil,
You really should have a look each time you want to run the car at the track, same as checking the oil and water. If I am not mistaken your car is the little Opel Corsa(?) which had the custom barrel throttle setup? If so I remember the mechanical system was not all that good and it was the car that put the nail in the coffin for us calibrating custom setups. There was a lot of "stiction".

You must log the TP, TP2, TPD, TPD2 and Throttle position Required channels to see where the errors is happening. As soon as you turn the ECU off and then back on you are ressetting the errors.....which is why it should be logged.

It could be a simple problem of the sensors wearing out. If the two pedal sensors do not track each other properly the system will be shut down, if the two throttle body sensors do not track each other it will be shut down, if the two throttle sensors do not track the required position (set by your pedal and the translation table) the system will be shut down.

[opel16]

Hi
Thanks for getting back to me.
Yes it is a little opel corsa with a barrel throttle body.I bought the car last year as it is.
Is it possible to change the fly by wire to cable operated or is there a better solution.
If i change it to cable operated what sensors do i need to make it work.
Are you saying that if i calibrate the system before i go to the track that it could fix my problem.
Regards
Phil

[incontrolsteve]

calibrating the sensors more regularly may fix your problem, but if they need calibrating so often, that points to an issue with the installation of the pedal sensors, throttle sensors or both. As the system requires that the feedback from each pair of sensors is within range of each other, and the servo target, I would imagine that requiring frequent recalibration must mean that these signals are less than reliable, and therefore your DBW is going to be less than relaible. For safety sake the error systems are in place, and the issues you have don't necessarily mean an ECU problem, more likely an issue with the basic setup of one or both of the throttle sensor systems. If you ran a cable throttle you would only require a single throttle position signal, making life much simpler, unless you can guarantee the setup of the DBW sensors.