What are the symptoms when your ECU is in the Fail Safe Mode? does it affect shifting? My code is the Exhaust Gas Sensor. but when I reset the ECU I get 55, only sometimes I get the o2 sensor code. My smptoms are:

1) From a dead stop I floor it and it feels like I 'm in third gear (in drive)
2) It takes forever to accelerate.
3) It shifts ok in drive once I have some speed but, when I go from drive to 2 or 1 nothing happens.
4) the idle is rough @ 1000. when in drive the Idle drops to 500 sputtering.
5) At idle with the a/c turned on the car stalls
6) When driving I can get the RPMS over 3500
7) Everything done with the car fully warmed up

 

Where can I get more info on the safe mode. I'm not getting any faults just 55 (alls good) but the car runs the same I checked the injectors and all ohm out 12-14 ohm seems like I'm stuck in the fail safe (limp home) mode.

 

Mine was in safe mode when after changing my timing belt I had left off the wire harness to the MAF when I took the intake tube off to get to the lower radiator hose. The car would lidle up to about 2k and and no further and would drop down to like 1k and go back up to 2 and drop again as long as I had the accelerator held past the point of 2k rpm. So it would rev fine to about 2k then if you opened the throttle more and held it it would bounce from 1 to 2k. It scared the crap out of me when it did this cause I thought I had screwed up the timing belt job etc. Just my experience.
89se with VG of course.

Sounds like a transmission problem of some kind. Do you have an auto? How does it idle in nuetral? If ok and only screws up in gear then its probably the transmission maybe. Hopefully someone else can help out here, Im just guessing.

 

When you were in the fail safe mode did your max have the same symptoms as mine. and yes it is an automatic. Hooking up your MAF cleared it out of the fail safe mode?

 

I did not have the same symptoms, only the ones I described. It went into safe mode because there was obviously no reading from the MAF since I left it unplugged, when I plugged it back in all was good. Sounds like your engine boggs when in gear like its under a load, and it sounds like the tranny is worn since its not shifting until after 3.5k rpm. I would say if the engine runs great in nuetral, but not in gear, then its not an engine problem per se but something in regard to it being in gear. I dont think the fail safe will come on unless there is a problem with some of the sensors giving a bad reading, either falsely or if they are truly reading a problem somewhere. Does it rev freely and smoothly but not when you are in gear and driving, then Id say that theres something wrong with the tranny. Just my guess, fortunately I've not had any trouble with my tranny so I can't help you there, but do a search on the autotransmission and or hard or late shifting and see if the symptoms others describe are more like yours.
Well, there you have it, my guess, take it for what its worth, someone else may have a better idea.
Good luck.

 

the tranny will shift before 3500 rpm, it feels like its in third gear when from a dead stop. I tried the self diagnose test for the tranny and no flashes from the P light. When driving I manually put the shifter from drive to 1 or 2 and nothing happens (no shifting) Could the TCU do this? When I drive there is no slipping in the transmission at all