Power Button verses Throttle Actuator Life

[Three Pedal Steve]

If the power button and M drive button increase the throttle response it seems that more force is applied to the T/A's to make them react quicker. Poorly lubricated plastic gears create more resistance and the pc boards over heat.

So here's the question..........Does more frequent use of power button shorten the life of T/A's?

[serranot]

I don't think it reacts quicker. It's indexed differently. So, no effect.

[Richbot]

On my car, the car gets back to vacuum more quickly when you lift off and seems to respond with more power when tipping in with the power button pressed. I don't know how it does that other than moving the butterflies faster.

[Tzounis]

This crossed my mind when I went through my throttle actuator issue. I did notice that it was easier to put the car into limp-mode when the throttle was in Sport or Sport Plus.

[Z K]

I don't think it accelerates wear.

I never have power mode on and I had a actuator go out at 60k miles like most people's actuators have been doing.

[BPMSport]

It won't shorten the life of the actuators any more then varying driving styles will.

[Richbot]

You may be right Mike, but the question is whether or not the same driver using the same driving style is putting additional wear and tear on the throttle actuators if they use the more aggressive throttle map. The faster the throttles open, thanks to physics, the more force on the actuator's gears and such. If you're matting the throttle from every stop and it takes you 0.1 second to get the pedal to the floor, the Sport map might have the throttles open 100% in 0.07 seconds instead of 0.095 seconds. That's like 18% more acceleration the little gears and such have to stand up to. And maybe more importantly, it seems like the same light pedal press in normal driving is met with more response than the same pedal press without the sport throttle map selected. So each time you go for throttle, even in traffic, you get that little bit of more abrupt opening and closing. I certainly notice this behavior when I try and use it, it's a lot jumpier at tip in and seems to go into engine braking a lot quicker with the Power button pressed.

So can they handle it? Yeah sure probably. I just don't see how it's a zero impact deal if the wear is from gears that just can't handle the forces being put through them long-term. I'm not 100% convinced that the gears etc. are even the primary failure mode on these things though

Unless that's not what the pretend-racecar-driver throttle maps are doing to get the throttle more responsive, but I was under the impression it was all throttle and did not impact timing or VANOS maps at all?

[pbonsalb]

Seems like they last about 5 years. Just buy the VDO version and change them as needed and enjoy sport throttle. Now that the parts price is down 50%, its not as big of a deal.

[Richbot]

Originally Posted by Z K

I don't think it accelerates wear.

I never have power mode on and I had a actuator go out at 60k miles like most people's actuators have been doing.

I doubt it's really something that is going to make a big difference or even a measureable one, but I don't think the laws of physics take a break inside our TA's either

[Bartledoo]

Sport throttle sucks anyways...