[trek95]

I created a thread awhile ago on the TPS issue on breakage. I basically rebuilt mine from a 1.8L civic K-series ceramic circuit board and epoxied the cover back onto the housing. I have been using it since Sept-07 with no major problems other than when I am warmed up and come to a stop, my idle will go lower than where it is set at, then come back up to around the setting. Not sure what this issue is, it doesn't bother me too much and never kills.
I could bring back the instructions I made and the pictures, if anyone is interested?

 

[Timmy.Ho]

I created a thread awhile ago on the TPS issue on breakage. I basically rebuilt mine from a 1.8L civic K-series ceramic circuit board and epoxied the cover back onto the housing. I have been using it since Sept-07 with no major problems other than when I am warmed up and come to a stop, my idle will go lower than where it is set at, then come back up to around the setting. Not sure what this issue is, it doesn't bother me too much and never kills.
I could bring back the instructions I made and the pictures, if anyone is interested?

Yes!

Quite interested in seeing how to jury-rig/fix this tps issue.

which 1.8L engine were you referring to?

 

[trek95]

Here is my write up from 07, it's worded for good detail:

A word before describing what I did... in order to do this, you have to take your time and have delicate hands, otherwise you will break the most important part of the TPS sensor inside, which is a ceramic or plastic PCB.

What I did was take the TPS that was broke off of my RSX-S TB

I ended up buying a 01-04 civic TB off of ebay, since the TPS sensor looked exactly the same... however they are not. As soon as I installed the civic TPS and turned the throttle, I had already broken that TPS and the PCB inside because it rotates the opposite of the RSX-S TB. I ended up getting another TB from the same guy on Ebay. This other one I got that was good, I used its internals to fix the RSX-S TB I have.

Now, with 2 broke TPS's, I decided to take them apart and figure out if I could fix at least 1 of them. What you need to do is carefully drill or grind the 2 bolts holding the TPS to the TBand take the TPS off. Use WD-40 or nut loosener to wet and then let soak to take the gasket off; or keep on if it is the TB you want to use.
For dismantling the TPS,(this is where you have to be careful, be delicate, and be safety minded, because it involves using a knife of some sorts or a utility knife), so be careful!! The factory "plastic sealed" the top of TPS around the edges, you can take a knife to this seal and work trying to pry this up, sometimes a long section might come up. After getting that up, there generally is another strip of sealer that can be scraped across and comes off easier than the larger section.
Upon opening the top, you will find a white PCB(might be in many pieces if it is broke), a rotating disc with electrical contacts(brushes), and a spring. The spring is important because it determines which way the TPS rotates. Other than the spring rotation, I did not see a difference between the civic and RSX-s TPS's. Keep the RSX-S TPS spring, as you will need it to make a good TPS. You will find that the brushes on the disc make contact with the PCB in a circular motion, thus giving the ECU the location of the throttle.

Once I got the other Civic TB from that ebay guy, I dismantled that one also; again, being super duper careful not to break anything!
Once you have a known good TPS apart, you will now use its PCB and the rotating member with good contacts. I lightly rubbed all contacts and the PCB contacts with dielectric grease, so the brushes have a super light lubricity to them and prolong the life of everything.


Now you can put everything together-
1: install the RSX-S spring into the TPS, it only fits one way, but make sure you have the correct spring, otherwise you will break everything later when you use it for the first time.
2: install the rotating disc with good brushes sticking up (also make sure that they will not get bent as they rotate, otherwise they will destroy themselves in probably a short time). You will see that the ends of the brushes do not make contact with the PCB, they are bent downward and it is the point where they bend that the contact is made.
3: You will then turn the disc against the rotation of the spring and it all will hold in there, you will see how that works when you take it apart. Just be careful, because it is held in there by the spring force and it can come up with little force and jump out, possibly causing damage to the brushes.
4: Then you will take the PCB and try to hold it against the back side of the cover, which will then be placed back onto the main part of the TPS.
5: Once this is together, take a wide flathead and rotate the TPS to check its functionality - the RSX-S rotates clockwise if looking at it from the top or in front if you are looking at it on the TB. If it rotates good and you don't hear anything horrible (like the brushes scraping), you are good to go and ready to seal it back up with plastic epoxy. Also note that the cover does not need to be pressed hard onto the TPS, as this may cause breakage to the PCB inside.
6: After you install it onto the TB with new screws and you connect it, you will have to check its location with K-PRO and adjust it. The first time I installed it, it showed it was already at 5% with the throttle fully closed. I then simply loosened the 2 screws until the TPS turned and found the location where it is at zero. I tested it before actually turning the engine on and I got it to go up to 96%, I think my pedal does not go to the floor all the way, otherwise I think it would have gone to 100%. Regardless, 96% is damn close to 100% in my book and I am sure I can adjust my pedal to full throttle later on.

Again, doing all this, you need to be very careful not to break anything. Once you have everything apart, you should figure out how our TPS’s work; they are not really that complicated, but delicate!
I bought the civic TB’s on ebay and paid $100. After looking further, I found some a lot cheaper on car-part.com for around 50 bucks, so this may be the cheapest alternate as of yet… if you can successfully take a known good TPS apart and put it back together with a RSX-S spring.

I hope I was detailed enough with this and will take some pictures and post sometime this weekend, as I am at work now… its Friday and I don’t want to work today, I am too excited since driving my K24a2 swap EK for the first time last night!

Any ???, ask

 

[trek95]

Here is another picture I found from my thread from 07, should help:up:

 

[jonathan92591]

Any more out there with TPS failures? I would like to see more opened up to compare to mine.

WESTUP,

Such an awesome thread. I've been going through this problem for over 6 months now. It started off gradually, then became like clock work, over 2,200 RPM and the engine would bog down and shut off, unless I shifted down a gear, then back up. I could get up to 48 MPH in 6th gear.

I have an '02 K20A2 in a '97 GSR. R-Krew headers, custom intake, K-pro

My first OMNI TPS sensor went bad.

My second OMNI TPS sensor is going bad.

I'm not sure what causes it.

I was very fortunate to have some serious Honda tuners look at my car this morning. They said the TPS was reading -2 degrees. I can't remember what they said, but they reset that. They also said, it's going to eventually go out and happen again. It did bog down on the freeway on the way home one time, I just shifted down to 5 then back to 6 and it worked...for now that is.

So I'm on the market for a TPS sensor and I will be following your thread. Thank you for taking the time and keeping up with the thread.

Before the two tuners looked at my Teg today, I had done everything I could think of: new fuel pump, new fuel filter, fuel injection cleaning service, switched out ignition coil packs and a MAP sensor from a good working 02' RSX-S (same problem), put my K-Pro into that same car (car worked fine).

Thanks again.
-JT

 

[Stinkfinger]

Ive read this entire thread. I'm having a problem now where the car bogs down and then i downshift or keep tapping the gas to keep the car from stalling, and then it kicks back in for about 5 seconds. im currently out of town but as soon as i get home im going to check the tps.

The thing that is driving me nuts is that kpro is not picking up the problem nor any engine codes thrown.

Friends have said i might have bad coils, shitty plugs, or 02 sensor took a dump.

Frustrating :down:

 

[jonathan92591]

The thing that is driving me nuts is that kpro is not picking up the problem nor any engine codes thrown.
Frustrating :down:

Wow! I forgot to mention that I as well have a K-Pro and no codes were thrown either.

Hmm...this is very interesting.

 

[jonathan92591]

Update:

My car worked fine yesterday minus the one glitch.

Then same problem occurred this morning, except now I can't go past 3,500 RPM. So I'm going to order a cheap-o off eBay since the OMNI TPSs aren't working out for me. And according to this thread, none of them really are. And I don't have time or the money to try and hunt down a OEM one, and I don't really have the dough to order a full throttle body from the dealer.

So I'm going to try this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BLAC...tem518dc902d6QQitemZ350271111894QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

I'll let you know how guys know how it works and I'll also upload pictures of my second failed OMNI one when I can.

Also, I just got off the phone from Loi Song of Sports Car Motion out of San Marcos, CA. He's a great guy and he's heavy on K swap knowledge.

Here's what he said.

1. He got tired of changing out after-market ones at the track. So he now only buys the full throttle body from the dealer specifically for the TPS sensor.

2. He noticed the TPS sensors on a stock RSX are covered and protected. He suggested putting some kind of housing, or thermal tape around it. He thinks the heat from the radiator, sense they're so close, cause the sensor to deteriorate faster.

Random note: I'm not sure, but I think if you run K-Pro you have to have the TPS sensor data adjusted through K-Pro data logging software, usually via a laptop and a USB/AB chord. (I'm not sure if that is what the correct chord is called, but the USB side goes in the laptop, and the other non-USB side goes straight into the ECU.)

My coworker, who worked for a few years at a Honda dealership, said you normally don't have to do any kind of ECU parameter adjustments, just take out the negative terminal to the battery, install the new TPS, let it idle for a while, then drive and the ECU will self adjust overtime. Granted, that was for non-K-Pro just OEM vehicles with OEM ECUs.

I'll be getting back to you guys.

-JT

 

[jonathan92591]

Got my Blackworks Racing TPS today. It only took one day to get here! Granted I live in Cali and so did the eBay seller. I'll update in a few days. I'm praying and hoping this thing works. I have to have the Teg up and running my March 21 or I'm going to be bummed.

-JT

 

[jonathan92591]

Such a bummer. It seems to respond better, idle was high at first but slowly went down after idling for several minutes. However, it still cuts off around 2,000-2,500 RPM. I did notice that if I mashed the gas all the down after the needle bounced over the 2,000 RPM mark, I could get a response and the engine would rev but only for one more time, then back down to a low rough idle.

I'm going to have Loi Song (owner of Sport Car Motion) take a look at it with K-Pro data logging software. I think the TPS parameters have to be changed.

Back to work in the Civic.

-JT

 

[Stinkfinger]

Such a bummer. It seems to respond better, idle was high at first but slowly went down after idling for several minutes. However, it still cuts off around 2,000-2,500 RPM. I did notice that if I mashed the gas all the down after the needle bounced over the 2,000 RPM mark, I could get a response and the engine would rev but only for one more time, then back down to a low rough idle.

I'm going to have Loi Song (owner of Sport Car Motion) take a look at it with K-Pro data logging software. I think the TPS parameters have to be changed.

Back to work in the Civic.

-JT

Sounds like I have a similar problem. Let me know how it goes. My car shuts on and off I have to keep reving the car to keep it alive.

 

[jonathan92591]

Sounds like I have a similar problem. Let me know how it goes. My car shuts on and off I have to keep reving the car to keep it alive.

Our problems are not the same. My car still idles, it just shuts off when I'm near 2000 RPM. As long as I shift under that mark, I can get up to 48 MPH in sixth gear.

-JT

 

[WESTUP]

Great,thanks for the posts guys.Good stuff.
I know it is not from heat,it is vibration and all aftermarket sensors have failed me,even BW.So I just get OEM now.
This was a Heavy race weekend,my OEM TPS has lasted with no problems,so I feel as I mentioned, the beefier contacts are more durable on the OEM vs the aftermarket sensors.As long as the sensor does not take a blow strong enough to damage the ceramic board.

 

[jonathan92591]

I just get OEM now.

Since this is pretty much our only option at this point, what do you do with the left over throttle body? Sell it? Is there a market for them? Do you take off the TPS sensor or just replace the throttle body every time?

Also, how many OEM ones have you gone through in how many years?

-JT

 

[Stinkfinger]

oohhhh I see, well good luck with that. After some research I think ive damaged the wiring on my O2 sensor causing it to sputter.

 

[Icaruz]

I have a Hybrid TPS and it seems to be failing. no matter how I try to calibrate the thing it just won't give me constant readings. after I calibrate the tps, at WOT the TPS readings jumps from 85% to 105% randomly. nowhere near a straight line. same thing at 0%. trying to cruise at 60kmh is just impossible as the TPS jumps around 3%-0%-3%, cutting the fuel.. Also, when calibrating, when pressing "read", the reading can jump about 1% almost everytime the button is pressed even tho the TPS is bolted to the TB and I don't touch the pedal (and the engine is off).

The last time I tried to calibrate the TPS, k-manager gave me -0.5% at 0% (that's fine), but only 60% at 100% !! I then had to drive 500km with this setup (had to get home from a trackday (which didn't go too well thanks to the tps acting up)) and when overtaking a car at wot the CEL / MIL / EML (whatever you call it) came on. TPS high voltage was the error code..

I'm not sure if I want to open it up to take some pics of the inside as I'm hoping to get a new one (this one has only done about 1000km), but if it is a poor design, bound to fail again then I might as well cut it open and try to get a OEM TPS from somewhere..

any thoughts?

 

[insidiouseg6]

I've gone thru a omni,bloxracing,blackworks, and now just got a hybrid racing and I doubt its ganna make a difference.they all last a few months then start acting up!on my old b series the omni did the same thing! I. Have all 3 old ones still and I am ganna open them up today and see.what they look like..

 

[WESTUP]

I was contacted by Hybrid to try a "new design" but have not seen it yet,and am curious to see if them or anyone can get a TPS developed that is durable for the aftermarket.
Since I have found a OEM tps,I have had no issues with several race weekends under my belt now with it.I am trying to locate another for a spare but I have confidence in my theory and the durability of the OEM ones have backed it up.

 

[jonathan92591]

This whole ordeal is such a bummer for all of us. I have a Blackworks one now. It's my third TPS; two OMNI TPS before this. The Blackworks one works as long as I'm pulling. But when I try and cruise it acts up between 2K and 2.5K.

-JT
:dance:

 

[Icaruz]

Well, I installed a OEM TPS today and all seems good again. Haven't tried
datalogging WOT yet, but the car feels very smooth again.