my buddy just bought a used, one owner 08 maxima SL that was well kept from a dealer. i drove it and it ran fantastic. the trade had just arrived when he bought it, so i doubt it sat up for any time. he told me it just refused to go at all, unresponsive to the throttle whatsoever. he was told it could have been because they had both keys too close to each other. that wasnt the case. one key was dead in fact. now the ford dealer he bought it from said maybe it was going into fail safe mode because the throttle body needed to be cleaned. any advice, suggestions, or input would be greatly appreciated. he has small kids and i hate to see him stranded. thanks yall

 

dang, 60 out of 60 people have no idea what could be causing this. update, here are the codes:
p0643, p2122, p2138

 

Just a guess but it might be throttle body related. I had a similar thing happen to me on the highway last year in my 07. Went to step on it to merge, then the check engine light and the TCS light came on, along with little to no throttle response. Had to get towed to the dealer. The cause ended up being a bad potentiometer in the throttle body. Luckily, I had an extended warranty at the time so saved about $450. You said you have codes, do you have any lights on? (check engine, etc?). Per google, the p2138 code looks to be related to throttle/pedal position. Your issue might be similar to what I had. Again, this is just a guess as the symptoms sound similar.

 

cman, thanks for posting. yea a couple of the codes pointed to an accelerator pedal sensor thing, and one was about a circuit sensor short. his mechanic suggested cleaning the throttle body also, and offered to do it for free. he is there today, so im hoping that does the trick and he wont have to buy any parts. he just laid down 11k cash to buy this car, and already had to replace the tires so he is tapped out. he said that the traction control light comes on when it happens, and maybe another light, but he tried leaving the battery disconnected overnight, so now the engine and tpms lights stay on

 

Any luck with this?