2000 4.7 eating throttle position sensors

Hey guys, I’ve been digging around forums and can’t seem to find this repeating issue I’m experiencing. Seems like everyone else’s was one and done.

I’ve owned my truck for about a year and a half, and in that time I’m already on my third throttle position sensor. It seems like something is throwing it off or they’re seeing voltage spikes that eat them up over the course of a few months. When they start to go bad, I’ll occasionally lose throttle control on startup, or the truck will run rough/ idle low and stall. Each time I replace the tps, the truck runs flawless for a few months before it starts acting up again.

I pulled all the connectors for the tps, pedal position sensor, and tb actuator and confirmed good grounds with a multimeter. Also checked resistance through the pedal position sensor and it seems to be linear and consistent throughout the range. However, when I check resistance through the tps, it’s sporadic and inconsistent.

The engine is bone stock, and there are no other mods that interfere with wiring to my knowledge. Any ideas what could be causing this?

 

Check the 5v supply for voltage spikes? Perhaps internal to the ECU.

 

The 5v incoming to the tps? If it were internal to the ecu, I’m not sure that’s something I could check.

 

Are these OEM or aftermarket TPS's? Aftermarket electronics are notoriously unreliable and have short service-life.

 

What year is your truck? Your describing a throttle by wire, not a throttle by cable as your ‘00 signature states.

 

These have been aftermarket. Lifetime warranty at autozone so I’ve just been swapping them out for free. It could just be poor quality, but 3-4 months each?

 

It’s a 2000. The cable only connects to the pedal position sensor and the throttle body is controlled by an actuator. Took me a while to figure it out lol.

 

Yes, they are that bad. I would strongly encourage you to buy once and cry once and purchase OEM and I think you'll find your issue disappears.

 

Probably worth a shot, honestly not something I would have considered. Thanks!

 

Another thing worth noting: I replaced the battery in May of this year, I’ve had no issues with it. The truck sat for maybe 4-5 days last week and was dead when I went to drive it a couple days ago. No lights were left on etc and this is not a common problem with this truck. When I jumped it, the tps has been acting up severely since. Could that be related or just coincidental?

 

I understand. Be sure and clean up the connector with some CRC electronics cleaner or the like when installiing. It's possible you may have another issue but until you have a high-quality part on there it will be very difficult to diagnose. My money is on the issue being resolved with OEM though. Let us know how it goes.

 

Prolly just coincidence.