Episode: 2199
Title: HPR2199: Replacing the Throttle Position Sensor on My Truck
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2199/hpr2199.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 15:39:32

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This is HPR episode 2199 entitled replacing the throttle position sensor on my truck.
It is hosted by John Culp and in about 19 minutes long and carrying a clean flag.
The summary is soundseeking episode, listen and replace the throttle position sensor on my truck.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by an honesthost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15.
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Hey everybody, this is John Culp in Lafayette, Louisiana.
It has been a long time since I've recorded one of these things and it's good to be back.
I've been awfully busy with work.
That's why I haven't recorded one in a while.
I've got ideas for a couple to do during the holiday season here.
The semester at school is over and the high guys, these two cats, I'm out in my car
port right now.
There's two feral cats that we take care of.
We just about two weeks ago trapped them both and took them to the spay neuter clinic and
got them fixed and got them neutered and got their shots.
So I feel a lot better about feeding them every day now that I know that they're not
going to be out there breeding other little kiddies.
I wish we could catch their mama.
That's the one who she is way too smart and wildly.
She never gets caught in a trap anyhow.
So today what I'm doing is another of the sound seeing things.
I'm sitting in my truck right now and what I want to do is take a picture of the check
engine light here and turn it on.
The check engine light came on in my truck about a week ago maybe.
I first noticed it three or four days ago anyway here let me get my camera app and I see
it.
There it is.
Yep, okay.
So the check engine light is on right now and I know what's wrong with it because I have
a little on-board diagnostic tool.
They've got these crazy things now.
I remember the last time the light came on I drove the truck over to AutoZone where they
hooked up a tool to the truck and then took it inside and uploaded it to their computer
to tell them what part I would need to buy and they said it was the throttle position sensor.
Well a buddy of mine at that time I think I talked about this on a previous HPR episode
when I first got my truck but a buddy of mine who is really good at cars said before
you go and buy a new throttle position sensor you should try just cleaning the current
one using some spray on electrical contact cleaner and so I did that and put it back
together, turned the truck back on and voila it was fixed.
Now we are 15, 18 months later and the same issue has come up and this time cleaning
it did not do the trick.
I know that it's the throttle position sensor because now I have my own on-board diagnostic
tool.
I've got this very small little device about the size of a pack of gum.
We plug it into the place where you put the on-board diagnostics and this one is a Wi-Fi
device.
Some of them are both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
This one is only Wi-Fi so right now I've just connected my phone to the Wi-Fi signal that's
given out by this device and I'm going to have some screenshots in the show notes but
I'll probably put them on a flicker slide show.
I've connected my phone to the wireless network that is generated by this little V-Peak
OBD2 compatible diagnostic tool thingy and now I'm going to open up an app on the phone
called Torque.
Torque is an Injig Diagnostic app that kind of gets into one of these on-board diagnostic
tools and will check all kinds of stuff.
I don't really know how to use everything that it will do but like right now it's showing
me the revolutions per minute that my truck is doing in idle and I'm going to tap where
it says fault codes and then I can say tap here to scan for fault codes and so it's scanning
my engine and it has a little percentage indicator up across the top and it says fault log
manager scanning 40% done and it currently says power train and once it's done it'll
give me a detailed listing 77% now we've done it just a sec.
Okay yep it says P1120 power train throttle position sensor out of range and I don't
remember whether I had to tell it what kind of vehicle I had so that it would know what
to tell me about this fault code or whether it checked my vehicle identification number
and figured out what kind of vehicle I had from that but anyway I'm going to long press
on that and now it says close yeah it just says close it seems like there's a way for
me to clear the fault codes as well right if I click back on fault codes and clear fault
codes okay sending the clear command I'm not sure is it doing it on my car or oh yeah
yeah so and now the check engine light is off on my truck but what I wonder is whether
like when I turn this off and then back on let's see turn it back on you know what and
now the the check engine light is is off but the funny thing is I bought a new throttle position
sensor and so you know I think I might go ahead and install it anyway since that was what
I intended to do here it's probably about time it fits if that throttle position sensor
problem has come up twice since I bought the truck I think it's probably time to put the
new one in so I'm going to release the hood high kitty cats they're hanging around here
watching me so that their food bowl is right by where I park my truck and they won't
come here and eat it as long as I'm here they won't let me touch them or anything like
that you guys could come eat you know I'm not going to hurt you I'm feeding you okay I'm
going to take a position of the throttle position a picture of the throttle position sensor now
it might not come out very well because there's not a lot of light down here but here is a
picture of it on the vehicle whoops focus okay and now I need to take it off of there first
I'm going to plug it from the little thing okay I've unplugged the little connector and that
was what I did before to spray the contact cleaner in there it's held on to the engine by two
Phillips head screws I have no idea how tight these are somehow I suspect that they're going to
be pretty tight so hopefully it's not going to be too hard for me to undo them
pushing really hard turning
boy that's tight I'm able to strip this right out of there from that careful
man that is really really tight let's try the other one
hmm that sure looks like all you should have to do is take those screws out but my goodness those
are tight I'm a little bit scared to try and do this I wonder if I should try it with my drill on
a low setting I'm going to go get my drill
I'm still trying to get the old one off
okay I've got it on reverse hi guys there go the cats again and do run around the corner okay so
this thing is a lot stronger than I am so what I'm going to do is stick it in there and push really
hard against it and then hit the um
got it yes
oh
oh boy that thing is really in there good I wonder if it was stuck in there with some kind of
um it looks like it was kind of stripped or something I should take a picture of that to show
no wonder it was hard to get out I hope it's going to stay good enough Nick when I put it back in
I wonder if it had some kind of thread lock on it okay there's one bolt I was trying to get the
other one out
okay I got the part out
now I'm not sure how to tell a bad throttle position sensor from a good one but I've got a new one
here that I ordered on Amazon
genuine motorcraft part here for the Ford vehicle this is a Ford Ranger pickup truck 2004
okay I'll take a picture of the old one next to the new one
okay
hold one on the right new one on the left now let's put the new one on
this I just stick the thing on here every time I walk over here those cats oh my gosh here he comes
again those goofballs you guys are goofballs
you
see here there a trick to getting you one there but just pushed really hard
you can go look at this one yeah that looks about right
you
it's got the first bolt started there
hmm
get to see where that was going
oh who was that just fell off the
oh yeah
I drilled that fell off the back of my drill they've got a little slot on the back of the drill
to hold a spare bit or something and the one that was being held there just fell off
that's all right
okay tell us that's cool the hole or not
oh I guess let's see
looks like that's going in there
oh
man y'all I totally love the cordless drills like one of the most useful tools you could ever have
love love love this thing it is so much stronger than I am it was able to allow me to get this thing
off of here I'm going to go okay looks like that is in I know plug in the connector
oops I have to finger out there
seems like out of here a little click into place there go on
did you click into place look like it
mm well I'll see how that did I'm going to start up the engine
and hopefully check engine light will still be off here
yeah everything looks good well I think I might be it then see I'm not sure exactly what
kinds of things the throttle position does for you throttle position sensor I guess it helps
regulate how like idle speed and stuff like that but anyway hopefully the truck will run better
now with this brand new part in there and once again I was able to get the trouble some
check engine light to disappear without taking the truck into the shop for this I am very grateful
and it makes me feel like a real hacker all right turning the truck off for too long sometimes
during the break I'll probably do another episode about the truck having to do with a recent
series of upgrades I did to the lights I've upgraded a bunch of the light bulbs in the front
and tail lights from halogen to led and I'll I'll do an episode that talks about that all right
so thanks for listening and this has been John Colp for Hacker Public Radio talk to you guys
later bye
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