TPS trick's been acting funny for awhile.

[waveoff]

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I've posted here...hope all of the old faces are doing well. Anyway, I have this problem with my modded TPS relay. It likes to burn out resistors every so often. I don't drive my car that much anymore so it could have something to do with it sitting for weeks at a time. Anyone else with a modded TPS relay been having this problem? At first I thought it was moisture working it's way into my wiring and shorting things out. My connections are all airtight though so I've ruled that out. You electronics whizzes might know something I don't. Educate me.

[rjaffey]

I haven't seen this problem myself. When you say the resistors burn out, is there any physical evidence of this, or do they just become electrically "open"? What power rating are the resistors you're using?

[bnfoster]

Well, I don't know how the TPS trick is implemented but I can offer this:

Don't increase the wattage of your resistor if you're using the correct one now. It's that value for a reason.

If your vehicle grounding is bad, those pesky electrons may have found an easier way to ground through that TPS resistor.

An interesting failure mode in my Alfa is a premature throttle cable break due to bad / corroded ground straps. The throttle cable is weakened by acting as a ground path.

Something to think about if the car's been sitting a while.

[waveoff]

I know, I'm an idiot for only visiting this site once in a blue moon. I still love my Honda though, I swear! [img]smile.gif[/img] Anyway, saying that my resistors are "burning out" probably wasn't the right term to use. What's happening is, the metal lead will separate where it joins the ceramic part. The thought of a bad ground had crossed my mind at one point. The grounding strap from the block to the chassis is kind of corroded. I'll try replacing it with some heavy speaker wire and see how that works. I only seem to have TPS circuit problems when it's damp out. My connections are weather tight. If it's dry the car runs fine with no hiccups from the TPS circuit. I've also noticed that on a long trip where I've been cruising at highway speed for awhile the TPS will act up. The car starts hesitating/surging and then eventually throws a code for TPS circuit input too low/high. After this happens, I inspect the resistors and one will be broken where the metal joins the ceramic. I appreciate the input guys.