M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
FAQ / REFERENCE => How-To's => Topic started by: twright on December 26, 2008, 03:44:50 PM
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I discovered that my TPS was bad and, being too cheap to go buy a new one, decided to try and fix the old one. I discovered that they're pretty simple and can be easily repaired, if you're careful. Here's how:
1.) Open the plastic housing by carefully prying up on the four plastic clips that are holding the two halves of the housing together. Try not to break the clips, but you probably will. Don't worry if you break them because the two halves are held together by the bushings and screws that hold the TPS to the Intake manifold.
2.) Separate the two halves of the housing by carefully prying the haves apart. Be careful to not stick the screwdriver into the inside because there is a small rubber gasket between the two halves.
3.) Remove the white inner rotating sliding device.
Now that you have this thing apart, you can see how simple it is. To fix mine, I only did two things:
1.) CAREFULLY bend toward the carbon rubbing face on the two metal arms that are on the white piece that moves. You are trying to SLIGHTLY increase the amount of force that holds the metal arms onto the mating black carbon surface.
2.) CAREFULLY clean the face of the carbon surface and the metal arms that ride on it. Use a clean, lint free cloth. (I first used a Q-tip, but that didn't work very well, because it had so much lint on it.)
3.) Put the three pieces back together exactly the same way they came apart.
That's it! You just saved yourself the price of a $90 part.
I can't figure out how to attach the pictures I took of this event, but don't worry about it, because this whole thing was pretty straightforward.
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How is your vehicles behavior after this repair?
Does it run better?
What problem was it having?
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Before the repair, the car would have an intermittent, and completely random, misfire.
It would also run badly for 30 seconds after a hot start.
The random misfire is gone.
The hot-start issue is drastically reduced to the point where I might ignore it.
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Good to know.....
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>It would also run badly for 30 seconds after a hot start.
I have this nonsense too. So how long does it take to get the TPS off and back on to the throttle body? Is it really as big of a PITA as it looks?
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Its really not difficult to take off. It is just 2 screws. It's just a little difficult to split apart. I actually have an extra TPS and throttle body that I may be interested in selling depending on price.
/thread jack ;)
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i will embark on this adventure tomorrow. my car also has a HORRIBLE hot start problem. so we will find out if this helps.
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well, spent a few hours getting my TPS cleaned out. holy crap. the upper intake had to come off to get the throttle body off to get to the stupid tps.
once i got it off, broke all the tabs and got it apart, it didnt look that bad. but it seemed to help the hot start problem. i dont have insurance until monday so i was a little afraid to drive it around and get it good and hot. i might take it on some deserted back roads tonight (: shhh.
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I can't figure out how to attach the pictures I took of this event, but don't worry about it, because this whole thing was pretty straightforward
You can simply upload them to this service:
http://www.photobucket.com (http://www.photobucket.com)
If it still doesn't work out,just drop me a PM and i will post them for you;)
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so is this a real potentiometer switch or just a wide open switch? the ones on the 325i, e, and m10 318 are just wide open switches and you can run with them not even on the car.