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TPS 02 RSX Problem P0122

39K views 31 replies 14 participants last post by  2010 admin 
#1 ·
P0122 Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor/Switch A Circuit Low Input :firemad:

Hi Guys, I need help!

The problem is most apparent in my idle - it keeps fluctuating when standing or not in gear, and sometimes dips to 500 rpms (near stall).

The yellow engine light goes on and off with this problem - usually coming on for a few hours - day, and goes off for maybe 1-2 hrs and comes back on again.

Acura tells me they can't replace the sensor by itself, they have to replace the whole Throttle body! This sounds nuts to me. The body has been quoted to me at $750 just for the part.

So I have a few questions for the experts and maybe anyone who has had this problem in the past:

1. Can you just replace the sensor? If so, where can you get it and have it installed? Is this a stock sensor or an Acura RSX specific sensor?

2. Is leaving the problem going to hurt my engine?

3. Since the warning code specifies a 'low input' is this likely a wiring problem that can be fixed without replacing the sensor?

4. What shops besides the dealer are good with repairing such a thing?


Thanks for any help!

2002 RSX Premium - NA (no mods)
59,000 KM, 3yrs 2 months old
 
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#3 ·
maximus9 said:
P0122 Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor/Switch A Circuit Low Input :firemad:

Hi Guys, I need help!

The problem is most apparent in my idle - it keeps fluctuating when standing or not in gear, and sometimes dips to 500 rpms (near stall).

The yellow engine light goes on and off with this problem - usually coming on for a few hours - day, and goes off for maybe 1-2 hrs and comes back on again.

Acura tells me they can't replace the sensor by itself, they have to replace the whole Throttle body! This sounds nuts to me. The body has been quoted to me at $750 just for the part.

So I have a few questions for the experts and maybe anyone who has had this problem in the past:

1. Can you just replace the sensor? If so, where can you get it and have it installed? Is this a stock sensor or an Acura RSX specific sensor?

2. Is leaving the problem going to hurt my engine?

3. Since the warning code specifies a 'low input' is this likely a wiring problem that can be fixed without replacing the sensor?

4. What shops besides the dealer are good with repairing such a thing?


Thanks for any help!

2002 RSX Premium - NA (no mods)
59,000 KM, 3yrs 2 months old
what he said,
I am in the same boat as you but i have no warrenty either.
I would think it should be covered under warrenty by Acura, but if your warrenty is expired your screwed with the bill and there really isnt much for alternatives but for this
A: replace the TPS sensor, Its harder than you think because the sensor is not available separatly, whole throttle body needed 650-750. Even if you did get your hands on a new TPS sensor, it is attached by headless screws and would need proper calibration by someone who knows what they are doing, and no the base tb tps sensor wont work as the throttle bodies are reversed between the two.
B: buy a used one- problem being you dont know what your gonna get
C: Buy a spoon Bored out TB for $500 ish, but you wont have cruise control.
D: or any other aftermarket TB (limited and not cheaper)

Now, heres what can happen if you dont fix it. the ECU uses the TPS sensor among a sleuth of others to determine how much fuel it should inject. The TPS sensor, in my case, at idle(reading half open) is running rich, and at wide open throttle(reading 3/4 open) is running very lean, long term this can foul your Cat, and then your stuck with even more money to spend to replace the Cat as well. Why the sensor died, who knows, i tested mine and found it out of spec for various specific measurements. No real explanation was given to me aside from that the sensor is ultra sensative and it can happen from time to time....
there is no other choice other than to simply replace it. Rewiring wont work either.Good luck man
 
#18 ·
so this happened to me P0661, idk what TPS sensor is, but i think it is the tube that goes inside the intake manifold no? Anyway I think my car is running to rich or too lean that my cat is now already bad, I bought the sensor off dealer for 275 replaced it, and pulled out a code for P0420 which is my cat, replaced the cat, and the cat went bad again.

when I Put the car on neutral coming to a stop, the RPM would dip to 500, and jump back to 750.. felt like the car is going to stall, wtf is the problem?

 
#4 · (Edited)
Update

Zolutar - thanks for sharing your experience, it helped give me some reassurance and insight.

Here's an update on mine. 1 month out of Cdn warranty and I'm living in the U.S. now.

So I called and bitched at Acura client services. A case manager called in a couple of days and offered a good will gesture of 50% off. Today he called and said he made a mistake, and it will more like 25% off ("warranty cost") :jigglemad and Honda US will no longer do 'good willl' gestures with Cdn vehicles. :jigglemad

So the story is I will most likely have to dish out 800US + tax to have the throttle body replaced.

So knowing you truly can't just replace the sensor makes this pill a little bit easier to swallow.

Just to contrast, I just took my wife's CLK into the dealer, he replaced a bunch of things not under warranty for free and even recommended I change my tires at Costco rather than Mercedes since it will be a lot cheaper.

I just wish Acura would treat us like this!
 
#14 ·
You can replace just the tps sensor.

So you have tps problems you call acura and they tell you that you cant just replace the tps sensor and that you have to buy the entire throttle body, well there full of crap! heres how you do it, you pull off the plastic covers on your motor, disconnect all of the wires on your throttle body, theres 4, one is under the throttle body. Take off the two hoses, careful on the bottom one it will leak antifreez you will need something to plug it with, theres a third hose on the top of the throttle body but just unscrew the sensor its conected to, and pop it off the throttle body. Now unbolt your throttle body, and pull it out and set it on your battery but put a towel between them for safety. now unbolt the tps cover you will see what looks like two rivets holding the tps sensor to the throttle body, but they are really screws however they have no head on them just a tiny whole. so in order to get these out get a dremel tool with a small cutoff wheel and CAREFULLY cut a line down the center of the head so you can fit a flathead screwdriver and then unscrew the bolts and thats it. And now you can get tps sensors on ebay and special order through a few auto parts stores, hope this helps some of you if you have any questions feel free to hit me up.


Zolutar - thanks for sharing your experience, it helped give me some reassurance and insight.

Here's an update on mine. 1 month out of Cdn warranty and I'm living in the U.S. now.

So I called and bitched at Acura client services. A case manager called in a couple of days and offered a good will gesture of 50% off. Today he called and said he made a mistake, and it will more like 25% off ("warranty cost") :jigglemad and Honda US will no longer do 'good willl' gestures with Cdn vehicles. :jigglemad

So the story is I will most likely have to dish out 800US + tax to have the throttle body replaced.

So knowing you truly can't just replace the sensor makes this pill a little bit easier to swallow.

Just to contrast, I just took my wife's CLK into the dealer, he replaced a bunch of things not under warranty for free and even recommended I change my tires at Costco rather than Mercedes since it will be a lot cheaper.

I just wish Acura would treat us like this!
 
#5 ·
this has happened to a few people so I emailed a guy who works on throttle bodies to see if he can replace the TPS on a DC5/EP3 TB. will let you know what he says.

I'm guessing the TPS is a generic part used on many Hondas & Acuras and it should be replaceable. I've seen a few for sale on EBay.
 
#6 ·
I like you am a canadian who with work was transferred to the USA, and had the warrenty transfered, my problem is I blew the engine shortly before this and replaced it and had a 1 year parts and labor from Acura, my situation was a little more complex, first the ECU Baro Sensor blew, which confused the heck out of the techs and after a couple trips and replacing the ECU, we found the problem. I tried the Base tps sensor I still had lying around in my pile of engine parts and found it incompatable which sucked.
HOWEVER I found a fellow club rsx'er on here who sold me his old TB after he bought a Spoon bored DC5R TB, Tested the sensor, they are within spec so it looks good, I just hope this fixes the problem and this is my Satuday morning project.

Your lucky they are offering you at least 25% off for a new one parts and labour, better offer than I had from them myself. And yea, I can agree to a degree that Acura's Customer service is a little lacking at times, and in the Case of cross border cars thats a whole different discussion.
Hope it works out for you, and I'm glad I could help!
 
#7 ·
well bad news. this is the response from jorge at maxbore.com, he works on a lot of throttle bodies so he would know best:

You guys with K series engines are on your own, at least for
a while until junk yards start getting cars with K series
engines in them. As you know the TPS in your car is quite
different from the previous ones, although they work exactly
the same with the same voltage range.

TPS's are not repairable. I would love to be able to
repair/replace them, but I don't have the means to do so.
 
#8 ·
yea, thats unfortunate for us because this seems to be a growing problem that is starting to crop up. Acura changed the TB design on 05 too so something might be up to indicate that there is a problem, though not worth of a recall :p

The TB i got from a member on this board solved my problem, swapped out the old TB for this one myself, fairly straightforeward install. So it confirmed the TPS sensor was bad on the old one.
Problem solved, no CEL! yay! *happy dance*
 
#11 ·
Rsx Type-s

Hello Everyone, I Have A 2004 Acura Rsx Type-s And The My Engine Light Is On. I Dont Know What Is The Problem Really. I Was Thinking May Is The Tps But My Idle Doesn't Flutuate At All. It Steady And Engine Sound Normal. Please What Can Be The Problem?
 
#12 ·
Has there been any new developments with this issue. I only ask because I bought a 2003 rsx with 40k on it and not even 16 hours later it popped a P0122 and is running like crap. Does any one know where to get just the TPS or a throttle body that includes the TPS. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

AJ
 
#16 ·
i've had tps sensor problems for a while now and in order for the aftermarket ones to work you need a obd2 code reader in order to reset the error code properly. the one from blox seems to be pretty good.
 
#21 ·
First of all I thank you so much admin for even reading this :( this been bugging me for 6 months now -.-

P0420 is my code now, but before i had the catalytic converter messed up I had P0661, which was something to do with TPS Sensor I believe, that's what the dealer told me.

Though I've had my cat replaced with an OEM Cat from another RSX, which was crashed one of my friend's 2 days after, the CEL went back on for the cat, I think my car is running too lean or too rich :/ due to un-proper TPS installation?
 
G
#26 ·
P0420 just indicates that the catalyst is not working properly. The catalyst has nothing to do with air/fuel trim. That is dictated by the primary O2 sensor, which it sounds like is not giving you any codes. When you say you replaced the cat recently, was this with a new cat or a from a junkyard?
 
#29 ·
my friend, his dad, and I did it, and the TPS i removed wasn't from throttle body, it was from that L looking tube from inside of the intake manifold, this is what it looks like.



I replaced that whole thing with a new one from dealer,

as for the cat, I guess I'll give it a shot one more time buying a new aftermarket cat? I Don't have 1300 for a cat from dealership..
 
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