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Water damge to the TPS?

OverTheHillsATTW

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Pennsylvania
1989 Jeep Cherokee Pioneer. Auto.

So I went into the mud and went balls deep. Shortly afterwards I had to wash it and the engine bay (low misting and Degreaser). Now the old dog doesn't have power and starts to stall on stops. I had this problem before and replaced TPS(60$). Can water get into the TPS and short it out? Should I just buy another one? :bawl:
 
I have heard of someone drilling a small hole in the case, just big enough to insert the tube from a can of contact cleaner. It might just need a good flushing out. Just don't use anything that will attack plastics or WD-40 which dries to a gummy goo. Haven't had to try this myself.
 
I've been using electronics cleaner but so far no go. It runs fine except the drastic power loss untill I get it warmed up then it likes to stall alot.
 
gunked up IAC maybe?

And I've always used WD-40 on electrical components. One of it's initial design purposes was to clean electronics and repel water.
 
I've had good luck - if I catch it fairly quickly - with heating my oven to about 250* and putting the sensor in for about five minutes once the oven gets up to temp (don't leave it in too long!)

IIRC, it's a "carbon track" potentiometer, and once the carbon track gets wet, it has to be dried out. If it's been a little while since it got wet, I would think soaking the thing with rubbing alcohol (70% isopropyl/30% water) should get the water "brought up" to where it will evapourate. IIRC, 250* is somewhere below the flash point of IPA (I haven't had to do this it - it's a thought that just occurred to me. BE CAREFUL!) The water content of rubbing alcohol should also help keep it from flashing.
 
SanDiegoXJ said:
gunked up IAC maybe?

And I've always used WD-40 on electrical components. One of it's initial design purposes was to clean electronics and repel water.

Its original design purpose was to get water out of aircraft engine mechanicals and leave a light oil behind to inhibit rust. Personally I hate the stuff. It's not that great at loosening bolts, a lousy lubricate as it evaporates and leave a gummy film behind (as design) and a mediocre solvent. It does work okay on bike and motorcycle chains.

Contact or tuner cleaner would be my first choice.
 
lawsoncl said:
Its original design purpose was to get water out of aircraft engine mechanicals and leave a light oil behind to inhibit rust. Personally I hate the stuff. It's not that great at loosening bolts, a lousy lubricate as it evaporates and leave a gummy film behind (as design) and a mediocre solvent. It does work okay on bike and motorcycle chains.

Contact or tuner cleaner would be my first choice.

WD-40 is a "water displacer," and works well for that purpose. To that end, I spray all my "in the white" stock with a light coat every six months or so, so it doesn't rust away before I get to use it.

I will - sometimes - use it as a cutting oil. If I don't have something more suitable to hand (I'd use spit, but I do prefer my cutting oils actually be "oil" of some variety.)

WD-40 as a lock lube? No. Dry graphite.

WD-40 as a contact cleaner? Gawd, no. It has made me some money in that respect, but I'm tired of that sort of thing. NEVER NEVER EVER NOT EVEN ONCE use WD-40 as a "contact cleaner" - you may as well just dunk the connector in ATF. Don't use it as a "corrosion inhibitor" either - there are products that do the job much more efficiently, without inhibiting connectivity.

WD-40 as a penetrating oil? That's not even farcical enough to be funny.

I probably go through one small can of WD-40 every two or three years - I usually end up having to buy one because I finally lost the last one (since I tend to re-arrange things every few months or so. Usually a few weeks before I'm due to coat my project stock again, even though I don't have much of it.)

If you want to clean your connections, use electrical contact cleaner. The stuff based on trichloroethane is about best, but you can't find it anywhere anymore. I think most of them now are MeOH with some acetone thrown in, and that works fairly well. Brake parts cleaner is an acceptable substitute, with carburettor/throttle body cleaner in third place. I prefer CRC, as long as we're talking about brands.

If you can't find contact cleaner and don't want to use either of the other two, use acetone after using a rubber eraser to scrub the contacts clean (size permitting.) It is important that whatever you use to clean does not leave residue - WD-40 is formulated to leave a residue.

I've said it before and I'll say it again (and probably again next week...) "WD-40 is not a 'miracle in a can' - despite what people and marketing tell you."
 
5-90 - X2 on the 1-1-1. I used to get in 1 gallon cans, back in the VCR head cleaning days. All I remember is they were yellow and black cans. And to smell it you would swear it would burn readily, but not. Melted plastics if you weren't careful. Ah, those were the days.
 
cygnus58 said:
5-90 - X2 on the 1-1-1. I used to get in 1 gallon cans, back in the VCR head cleaning days. All I remember is they were yellow and black cans. And to smell it you would swear it would burn readily, but not. Melted plastics if you weren't careful. Ah, those were the days.

Yeah - now they foist all these "environmentally friendly" solvents on it. I finally wore out my can of carbon tetrachloride a few years ago - haven't been able to find that stuff in forever (and I could make a quart can last years. I used it for cleaning competition rifle brass...)

How is it "envionmentally friendly" to use six or seven times as much of a "low-volatility" solvent as you'd use of the real deal? Seems like you actually end up contaminating more using the "friendly" stuff, you know? Hmm...
 
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