Car Analogy

Edit: I found a solution. Its all in the alignment of replacement sensor. See post #x for details.

Original post:
The dbw cars use an Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor (note, this is not the same as a TPS).

You can only buy a whole new pedal assembly from Honda, and its like $300. Its only the senor itself that goes bad. You can buy an aftermarket APPS sensor for most other Honda's for around $25.

I've tried a couple of these sensors that claim to work for our cars. They all do the same thing. They work perfectly until you try to vtec to upper rpm. Then they throw a code and car goes into limp mode.

Does anyone know where to source a n APPS sensor (and not an entire accelerator assembly) that works for our cars?

Car Analogy

Bump. Hoping someone has solved this. Will benefit all dbw owners to have a source for this part that doesn't require buying the whole assembly from Honda.

I'm hoping this solves that annoying dbw flat spot hesitation on take off during normal street driving that seems to happen intermittently to most all dbw cars.

I believe the sensor develops a dead zone near the area where its most used, which would be in the light throttle area, right where the issue seems to occur. It only seems to manifest with a symptom because at speed the cars momentum masks any slight dip, much like a flywheel masks dips between power strokes. At take off, when there isn't much of any momentum yet, hit that dead spot just right, and sensor makes ecu think you briefly lifted throttle.

A dead spot on APP sensor would seem to align with all we know about this issue.

btcs2k

I’m also in the market, and the dealers here (Canada) tell me their part is backordered until September. Amazon has just the sensor part from a company called NewYall which has a handful of good reviews, but no review from an S2000 owner. Anyone tried this?

Car Analogy

Yeah, me! That is one of the suppliers I mentioned I'd already tried. It worked great, until vtec to upper rpm, where car very abruptly cut power, lit cel, and went into limp mode. All as a large interstate bus was barrelling down on me. I went home to change the part back to the oem, as well my shorts.

Putting the oem part back on and clearing the code and all is well in vtec to redline land.

So I contacted the vendor, who was very cooperative. I explained the situation, and they said their engineers still think it should work with our cars. That maybe the part is defective. So they asked me to send back the old one, and they sent me a new one. Arrived yesterday. All this transpired through Amazon, and has gone smoothly.

Won't have opportunity to install second one until tomorrow. Will report back asap.

I explained to them I have an engineering background, which includes electronics, and would be happy to run any tests they request so we can perfect this part to work on our cars. I explained there are others on our forum that would be interested in buying from them if they can make it work.

So hopefully either the first one was a dud, or they will be interested in working with us to correct whatever is incompatible with current design.

Hfreak

I replaced the entire APPS last summer and got it from Rock Auto, I would not just replace the sensor as I believe it needs to be calibrated in some fashion.

btcs2k

They have two different brands listed. Do you remember which one you went with?

Car Analogy

While there is some amount of play designed into it, in the form of oval shaped mounting holes, it doesn't seem to require calibration. I believe the range of adjustment is there just so you can be sure its not going to read some amount of throttle application even at idle.

I say this because each time I've replaced it, then had to put the original part back in place, I've had to 'guess' at where along that range to install it, and each time car ran exactly as before (up until vtec to high rpm, and car goes into limp).

When the original part goes back in, it runs perfectly in all driving conditions. This also leads me to believe limp mode issue isn't a calibration issue, as each time original part has no issue. Still, this time I'll experiment with latest new part by trying it at both extreme ends of adjustment range, and carefully observe effect (see if alters what it takesto fail into limp, or prevents).

Also, this part is replaced all the time on lesser Hondas, apparently without incident. Otherwise there would be anecdotal reports of issues when this part was replaced.

The two parts on rock auto, one appears to be oem part. However its actually more expensive than oem part from Majestic.

Hfreak

Unfortunately I recently threw it in the trash but it was identical to my OEM assembly, as Car Analogy stated it is likely the more expensive one. Good luck.

Chuck S

You can probably look up your order history on line and get us the exact part number.

-- Chuck

Car Analogy

So the APP sensor from Amazon, vendor YallDirect, does not work on our cars, and vendor has no interest in working with us to make it compatible.

As soon as the car hits vtec, it cuts power, going into limp mode, and throws cel P2123.

Prior to that, car runs fine. I can feel how much more crisp the throttle feels with a fresh sensor. Since it seems only choiceis to buy the whole assembly, I am going to investigate if its possible to drill a strategically placed hole and use tuner cleaner to clean the oem part.