Sunday, September 04, 2005

Faulty earth connection from TPS and coolant temp sensor.

I have fixed a common fault with the wiring on the VP/VN Commodores. There is a cable run under the engine bay which goes from the TPS, Oxygen sensor, and IAC solenoid. This run joins to the main loom just behind the alternator. Inside this cable run (under the convoluted tubing and tape) there is a black wire with a yellow trace that joins to two other wires. I understand this is a shared earth between the IAC and coolant temp sensor. The crimps on these connections are not soldered, and over the years the connections corrode and deteriorate. This then causes an incorrect signal from these sensors to be read by the ECU, which makes the idle rough.
I unwrapped the entire run (horrible job), and soldered all the crimps (there are some others along the run too). The idle is now much smoother, because the ECU knows what's happening. I would do this on any of these cars still running a standard wiring loom.

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