Throttle Position Sensor

[hampstead]

Been having a spot of bother with the Galaxy lately (1998 TDi 110), trying to eliminate possibilities one by one and I think a relatively cheap thing to try is a new TPS. Can anyone recommend where I can get one? Ideally I'm looking for a brand new part for sensible money - would be quite happy with a pattern part though.

 

Thanks very much!

 

Matt

 

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For your general amusement here's a brief tale of what's happened so far, any suggestions welcome...

 

Car has about 110,000 miles on the clock, was running fine, needed to do a long trip abroad fullly laden, due a service soon, so I thought why not put it in for a service before I go, get the cambelt changed too, so off it went to the garage (friendly local independent place, not marque specialists but well regarded, have been OK in the past).

 

In the course of the cambelt change, two problems materialised/occurred.

 

First, the immobiliser servo failed, meaning the car would not start after the cambelt was changed. After fitting a new servo, it would start but ran very rough. They twice re-checked the work they had done on the cambelt change and could not find fault with it and eventually diagnosed a problem with the EGR valve, which they cleaned up.

 

So after 8 days in the garage I got the car back, we do the big trip and the car is all fine for about a month (over 2,000 miles) after the service, but suddenly it has thrown up a couple of problems which may or may not be related:

 

1) ABS warning light permanently on, red brake warning light on occasionally.

 

Then a few days later:

 

2) Varying degrees of hesitancy when putting my foot down - this can be when pulling away from stationary, or accelerating from a constant speed. Sometimes it will rectify itself, other times it chugs along well short of power. The natural tendency is to press a little harder when that happens, which results in a disgraceful belch of smoke from the exhaust.

 

I will get the ABS warning checked - hopefully it is just a sensor - I've had one fail before. At this stage I am thinking of the ABS and power problems as unrelated coincidences, but could it be that the engine management thinks I am braking and is modifying the fuelling?

 

Assuming the two are unrelated, I am fairly confident it is not the MAF sensor which I replaced about 18 months ago, and the 2,000+ good miles since the service makes me think the timing was all fine when they gave me the car back.

 

If a new TPS doesn't help, what else would people suggest I look at - throttle actuator, vacuum pipes, turbo, ECU...?

 

Thanks again

[Bigjeeze]

Sounds daft - but check your brake lights. This could be a case of duff brake light bulbs or switch. :lol:

[Topbloke]

i had that thought also, if its intermitant check it when the problem is there !, seems a stupid comment but sometimes it helps to state the bloody obvious

[Guest Mozzy]

Check MAF sensor?

[hampstead]

Thanks everyone,

 

Brake lights all OK. MAF sensor I believe is OK, as I know what it was like when it didn't work before, and the problem I have now is quite different to what it was then.

 

I came across a site - www.dieselbob.co.uk - which suggests I should add the injection pump to my list of possible causes...

 

Meantime, I'm still keen to try a new TPS - anyone bought one before??

 

Cheers,

 

Matt

[hampstead]

Possible change of direction on this - I've just detected and repaired the classic fault with the rear washer fluid pipe. This has saturated the passenger footwell and the large chunk of wiring loom that passes along side it. I'll put a fan heater in there to try and dry it out overnight.

 

I've read the consequences of this leak can be dire - will post a new thread asking what can go wrong as a result.

 

Cheers,

 

Matt