Im thinking my TPS is on its way out the door. My car will randomly accelerate in some gears, and just as randomly all the sudden feel like it has no power, and get kinda sluggish. Then today on the way to work in a really bad snow storm it started acting up. I noticed when I revved it up, you could hear it missing a little. Then when I parked it started Idleing at 2k. Come back out 5 hours later and start it up, idles at 900. Try to press the gas and the pedal wont move. I think its frozen so I push it a little hard, it breaks loose and revs up. Problem is, It goes back up to 2k. By the time I get to my GFs house 5 miles away, its now idleing at 3.5k...

CEL came on for 24. Obviously means TPS too low/high voltage or MAP/TPS do not agree. Without a scanner I cant tell which one. Should I just bite the bullet and get a new TPS for $60?

Easy way to find out, go to your local autoparts store, I'm assuming you have an autozone, kragen, carquest somewhere nearby. They will run the diagnostics on there for free. They do where i live anyway.

Not for nothing but, did you even look at your throttle body? Something could have fallen in the way (wire, hood sound proofing etc.).

Check to see if anything is making your throttle body arm stick. Disconnect the cable to take that out of play if that helps to narrow it down. Flick it full wot (obviously without the car running) and see if it returns to full closure (take off intake snorkle - what ever you have - so you can see the throttle plate actions). Then just a little blip, then hold at 1/4 wide and then release slowly. Just variations on actual driving positions.

Start there.

MB

I did all that last night when it first happened. The throtte plate was all the way closed against the adjusting bolt, there was nothing in the way. Checked to make sure the cable wasnt sticking. Im fairly certain its one of the sensors because I revved it WOT to like 5.5k and it was missing the whole rev. It came back down and went back up to 2k.

The next "free" thing is to start checking the sensor electrically. The sensor is like a potentiometer. You might picture it like a piece of high resistance wire strung between the two outer pins. The center pin connects to a wiper that can move up and down that high restance wire. Unhook the electrical plug and measure the resistance between the two outer pins. You should get 3.5 to 6.5 kOhms. Measure the resistance between the center pin and one of the outer pins while moving the throttle plate. The resistance should vary smoothly as you move the throttle. Pass those tests and your TPS is OK at the moment. Next, you would want to turn the key to "ON" and measure the voltage between the green wire with yellow stripe and a good chassis ground (cable from battery to firewall). You should get around 5V. Wiggle the wires around and see if it is stable. Finally, check the resistance between the black wire with green stripe and a good chassis ground. It should be near zero and not change when you wiggle the wires. The final test would be to check the resistance beween the brown wire with red stripe at the sensor and at the ECU. To probe the wire at the ECU, you can either disconnect the ECU plug or use a fine straight pin to pierce the wire.

Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Gimme fuel...Gimme fire...Gimme that which I desire