Electronic Throttle 'Dead Zone' at highway speeds?
07-28-2015, 03:39 PM
#1
JK Newbie
Thread Starter
Electronic Throttle 'Dead Zone' at highway speeds?
Lo All,
Need to pick some brains on this one as I'm stumped. I've an 07 JKX w/45k miles 4.10 gears and 35" tyres. Here's the issue. When on the highway and I'm trying to maintain speeds above 60mph, throttle response completely stops when I hit 2k RPM's. When I try to accelerate lightly past the 2k RPM/60 MPH mark, I feel what I consider to be a lot of pedal travel but see no increase in RPM's at all until the pedal reaches a point prompting the transmission to downshift, which kicks RPM's to 3k+. Once downshift happens, I can then get to my desired cruising speed, but when the transmissions upshifts back into OD and RPM's drop to the 2k range, I slowly decelerate and am unable to maintain the speed. I spent 7 hours on the highway today continuously jumping from 2k RPM to 3k+ after kick down and back. My average MPG was around 13. Now I do understand I could probably stand to re-gear and it's on my 'to-do' list however, is it normal for the ETC to have such a dead zone with no throttle response?
Need to pick some brains on this one as I'm stumped. I've an 07 JKX w/45k miles 4.10 gears and 35" tyres. Here's the issue. When on the highway and I'm trying to maintain speeds above 60mph, throttle response completely stops when I hit 2k RPM's. When I try to accelerate lightly past the 2k RPM/60 MPH mark, I feel what I consider to be a lot of pedal travel but see no increase in RPM's at all until the pedal reaches a point prompting the transmission to downshift, which kicks RPM's to 3k+. Once downshift happens, I can then get to my desired cruising speed, but when the transmissions upshifts back into OD and RPM's drop to the 2k range, I slowly decelerate and am unable to maintain the speed. I spent 7 hours on the highway today continuously jumping from 2k RPM to 3k+ after kick down and back. My average MPG was around 13. Now I do understand I could probably stand to re-gear and it's on my 'to-do' list however, is it normal for the ETC to have such a dead zone with no throttle response?
07-28-2015, 03:59 PM
#2
JK Jedi Master
Sounds normal for the pre-2012 JKs. Mine does the same thing.
Yours is probably worse, though, because of the bigger tires.
It's not really a dead zone in the ETC. The engine just can't make any more power at the lower rpm in O/D.
You are on the right track thinking you need to re-gear.
Yours is probably worse, though, because of the bigger tires.
It's not really a dead zone in the ETC. The engine just can't make any more power at the lower rpm in O/D.
You are on the right track thinking you need to re-gear.
07-28-2015, 06:40 PM
#3
JK Super Freak
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario
Posts: 1,267
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Turn your OD off and enjoy the ride. Unfortunately this is the life with the 4spd auto. Very poor factory gearing in the transmission and overdrive is way too steep. A programmer will help but regearing to 4.88 or 5.13 will do the trick and you will get better mileage. The sweet spot for good economy is around 21-2200rpm.