I have a 97 dakota V6 2wd 5spd. After changing a lower ball joint on the driverside and before I had a chance to figure out why my brake light and abs light come on around 40-50 mph. I backed it down the driveway for a test drive. It started hard and when I hit the street the check engine light came on and it died. After it died a few more times I got it back in the driveway.

As soon as I let off the gas it wants to die. The only code that comes up is P0123. I replaced the TPS because I thought it was bad. But I had the same issue when I connected the battery. So I borrowed the snap on brick and it was reading 4.6v or around there but when I checked with a meter the tps was 5v power and around 1v signal. So I traced the wires back to the computer and checked there and it was the same as the tps. So I disconnected the airbag clock spring (someone told me it might have a short) hooked everything back up and still no difference.

So I picked up another computer thinking that had to be the problem. But after installing the new computer I still have the same problem.

If I am overlooking something please tell me or if you had a similar problem I would really appreciate any help.

Thanks in advance
Phil

 

i've gotten a couple of p0123 codes over the years that i've owned my truck. both times a new TPS fixed it. if you probe the pins at the tps connector, does it appear to have an idle voltage of 1.x and swing up to 5 at WOT. any chance you've got an weird interaction with the ABS. there's also some complicated interaction between TPS and IAC. i've tried to understand it and gave up.

 

Yeah I probed the back of the tps and it checked out fine with the new sensor so then I check the old sensor and it was still fine. That's when I started to dig into everything else.

 

bump.
Hey did you ever find a fix for this because my truck is doing the same exact thing. I know this post is over a year old but there isn't a fix posted. I have just bought a MAP sensor thinking that this may be the problem. I'm going to try it out tomorrow.

 

No I never figured it out. Thought about changing the map. But wasn't sure that would fix it. I have to pull the heater core out because it leaked all of the coolant into the cab so I was thinking it might be shorting something out. Let me know if the map works for you. Good luck

 

BUMP! Just want to let anyone who wants to know, the truck is now running fine again. My gf helped me change the heater core because it was pissing coolant out onto the floor and onto the airbag module.

So I clean everything and put it back together but it still had the same issue. So while I started probing wires she went online and suggested I change the rear ABS sensor and NOW it works PERFECT!!!!!




PS I had a hard time remembering but the ABS and Brake light came on shortly before I had this problem but the light wasn't on after the heater core was replaced.