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Signs & Symptoms of a Bad Throttle Position Sensor A throttle position sensor is used to monitor the position of the throttle in an internal combustion engine. The throttle position sensor is usually positioned directly on top of the butterfly system. Motor Activity A bad throttle position sensor may cause the car to unexpectedly buck or jerk around. It may also cause random surging of the engine when the car is idling. Stalling Cars with a faulty throttle position sensor may randomly stall for no apparent reason. This can happen whether the car is in motion or simply idling. Accelerating One of the signs of a bad throttle position sensor is a slight hesitation in the response time of your engine when you are attempting to accelerate. Highway If your car randomly increases its speed while driving on the highway, you may have a problem with your throttle position sensor. Engine Light When you have a problem with your throttle position sensor, your car's servic...

Symptoms of a Bad Throttle Position Sensor Fleas caused the Black Plague. A few misplaced carbon atoms sank the Titanic. Tribbles crippled the Enterprise. Sometimes, the smallest and most seemingly innocuous things can cause the biggest problems, and that certainly is true of one little sensor on top of your engine. These days, engines have become so utterly dependent on this simple sensor that many use it exclusively in place of the reliable old throttle cable. It doesn't take much going wrong in the throttle position sensor to cause a whole plague of issues -- possibly including a bit of unintended acceleration to warp speed. TPS Sensor Function At heart, a TPS sensor is effectively a dimmer switch. It's a "potentiometer," a kind of variable resistor that can increase or decrease the amount of voltage that makes it from one end of the sensor to the other. Inside the sensor is a crescent-shaped strip of material with a certain amount of resistance. A metal arm...