topgun129

Hi,

I was driving my car a week back and when I came to a stop light all of a sudden the car died. I turned it back on and the check engine light came on and after a minute of driving when I was pressing down on the accelerator nothing was happening (no acceleration or rpm increase), but the car was on.

I had the car towed to my ind. mechanic and he said the TPS was really dirty and cleaned it, but at the same time he said if it occurs again the TPS will need to be changed.

Fast forward to today a similar issue occurred. It completely stalled when I was accelerating. When I started it up after it died again today it had a rough idle but after driving for a little bit the rpm stabilized.

I’m wondering if anybody has had experience like this before and if it is best to change the TPS at this point (and if so how hard is it to do by myself)?

Thanks!

Lexusjg1

Could also be the battery or alternator. Maybe even both. Check to see if your battery and the cables are clean and tightened done properly. Just a thought.

topgun129

cables and battery are looking good. i don't suspect any issues there. my mechanic is saying the entire throttle body needs to be replaced which i'm having hard time believing.

MrHimbert

Yeah i would not believe that either. There are three components on there that could be the culprit unfortunately. time to bust out a multimeter!

DMPesso

DO NOT change the throttle body, first off what gs do you have? year? miles? I think it is the MAF sensor, please tell me what code came up this will help me tell you exactly what the issue can be. I've been through it all with this car so I can pretty much tell you what it most likely is just based on the symptoms and CEL code if any?

topgun129

I have a 98 GS300 with 120K on it. The error codes are p0171 and p0715.

MrHimbert

Remove the negative terminal off your battery, take the MAF sensor out, clean it with a cotton swap and rubbing alcohol, put it back in, Clear the codes, see what happens. If that doesn't work google how to test the MAF sensor to see if its still working correctly. You will need a multi-meter for this.

MrHimbert

Its not the TPS. your car would still hold an idle, and operate, but in a whole different way if it was your TPS sensor. It would go into what most of us call "limp mode" where acceleration would be sub-par, and have huge hesitation issues when starting out from a stop. Sounds more like a MAF issue as i had mentioned.

jeepandlex

I am late, and you've probably had you car repaired since , but It's more than likely your pedal position sensor .Wifey's gs did the same thing at 122K. Funny thing is, it'll run like a top for a while and then outta no where, boom it's stalled....It'll start back up but it won't do a damn thing when u hit the gas lol. The part is shared with supra so it's available everywhere. Dealer was the best price for me @ $461. I took it home and installed it in about 2hrs. I'm told the resistor(disc in the throttle part of the sensor) wears out causing intermittent contact....it takes years for this breakdown to happen, but that's just how it's designed. Thinking the MAF was acting stupid, I cleaned it, but it didn't work. Your problem will get progressively worse. Wifey complained about dead pedal to me for about a month before she stopped driving the car. I took it...and a 15 minute trip down the road ended up in a ride back home on a flat bed.....only for the car to fire up and back off the flat bed under it's own power. I was like WTF?? Just an FYI, it'll idle high with the new sensor......either take it for a 20-30mi spin or disco the neg battery terminal and reco it and take it for a ride. Sorry about the long answer, but just wanted the reply to be as helpful as possible.

codetoad

iTrader: (2)

Faulty ecu or fuel pump ecu. My SC 300 had weird issues that caused the car to die...only to restart later. the efi relay would get blazing hot. It ended up being the main relay of my ecu AND a faulty fuel pump ecu.

lexo98

iTrader: (2)

My optima yellow top shorted out internally and I had the same problem.