Cleaning Throttle Position Sensor

[TOECUTTER]

Hey All,

I had noticed a while ago that when I was driving along on a flat road, usually with cruise control on (ZD30, 5 speed manual), it would all of a sudden loose power. When I lifted my foot of the go pedal, it would "re-set" and I would get acceleration again. I would notice this mostly, or only, when maintaining the same speed on the highway after some distance of about 20-30 K's . After stuffing around for a while, I eventually settled for the fact that the TPS was stuffed.
After making enquiries into replacing it, Mr Nissan informed me that the whole pedal assembly needed to be replaced, as they did not sell the sensor only. At $500 plus, this was not an option.

As a result, I pulled off the pedal assembly and removed the TPS. It looks like you should be able to just replace the TPS with some other nissan TPS (skyline or something), but which one I don't know (any suggestions would be good).

What I did...
The TPS is a plastic device which in effect is a potentiometer, same as a volume knob on your stereo. It is fully closed and sealed, but at the round end (on mine) was a small "plug" where it seems the whole thing was joined when moulded together. With some trepidation, I took a small drill bit and slowly drilled this "plug". When I got to when I thought the drill would be breaking through the other side, I continued on by twisting the drill between my fingers to minimise any internal damage. I tried to ensure that none of the plastic from the drilling went inside the TPS housing.

When I made a small hole, I then sprayed a lot of contact cleaner inside. I used this stuff that is used in the maintenance of electrical wiring in the old Huey's (Iroquois helicopters). I then moved the stainless TPS actuator on the side of the TPS by turning it (it is spring loaded) to remove any crap from the inside of the TPS. I then allowed the TPS to drain and then I did it again, and again allowed it to drain. Once it was drained, I plugged the hole by using a soldering iron and filling the hole with a zippy tie, kinda like soldering or TIG welding. I suppose you could also plug it with Sika or something similar.

I am pleased to say that this has fixed the TPS and now I can enjoy driving without the hassle of lifting my foot to reset the TPS every 5 or 10 minutes or so.

Hope this info helps.

Cheers

TC