DIY - Check/Replace your CPS Sensor

Where there's a will there's a way my friend!
The ecm is looking and reacting to sampled signal and reacts or adjust to it accordingly, so any millisecond glitch may just slip by, and all is well. Or is it?

Ford has one of the best troubleshooting systems (imo) with the BOB pinpoint system by allowing easy live lab scope setup to detect glitches. On some GM its not bad either, I had made my own pin harness to put between sensor and ecm years ago, but now you can easily buy them ready made.

Toyota I honestly never had a cause to troubleshoot anything as they’re just trouble free.

The most I’ve had to deal with are routine maintenance, console bulbs and some cv joints on old high mileage ones. I’ve never even had to look at the ecm on any.

But now it may be a new area with ever increasing up the ante on technology, I may eventually have to get smart or suffer.
Or come here, get past all the cry babies who say it’s a POS and get answers from guys like you who get to the bottom of the issue and make their lives better by nipping it all in the butt!

But I’m still lucky so far
Cheers!

 

I think that's what gets so many butthurt really. So many of us have bought Toyotas religiously for that reason, so it was really hard for me to digest I had bought a $35k new vehicle from a brand I trusted that had any issues to begin with, much less ones that weren't acknowledged and/or resolved by the dealer. Hard pill to swallow, but as stated in a prior thread - the information from this community helped me wade through the insanity to find the problems!

 

I decided to replace my sensor for the hell of it as my truck runs drastically better on 93 octane....and it shouldn't. My truck has the updated part if the hash mark is the indicator. However, the old sensor had some sort of greasy splash across the tip that seems like it might be inhibiting the sensor function? I haven't drive it yet other than around the hood and it did seem smoother. See the photo for the grease smear.

 

Please do report back on your results!

 

Mine had that stuff on it too. I didn't wipe it off for fear of it causing a problem since my new sensor doesn't get here until Friday.

 

Well the new sensor doesn't have it. Maybe that is the extra "anti-corrosion" coating slinging off.....

 

After taking a trip to the store, I can say that the truck didn't do the 40 mph 1k rpm shudder at all on roads where it did earlier in the day. We will see if it continues to stay that way.

 

Just ordered mine Thursday even though mine was not on the recall list

 

I think they need to expand that cps recall list and cover everyone that got infected.

But that's just me, and what do I know :/
Cheers!

 

What clip do you have to press? I can't seem to get the harness off.

 

There is a rubber boot over the connector on the sensor. You can either pull the boot back, which is difficult or take the sensor out first, then you can see what you're doing easier.

 

I just finished CPS replacement. I didn't remove the tire which made things much more difficult. My factory installed CPS looked fine, but I swapped it out anyways. I wasn't sure if I torqued it to spec. I set my wrench to 84inch lbs. I got to a point where I couldn't rotate the wrench anymore, but I didn't hear a click. I am going to remove the tire and retorque tomorrow.

I did my first drive and got 20MPGs!!!!
I rarely get 20mpgs unless i hypermile and it takes at least 30 miles to reach 20. This time I did it in 10 miles!

Looks hopeful! I will see if this is consistent over the next week

 

I received my replacement Friday and swapped it out today. It does feel a bit peppier but not sure if that is because I unhooked the battery and it is re-learning my driving habits.

 

My truck continues to run better after the cps swap and get much better mpg. I replaced the part while on vacation so I had a several hour drive to test it. One thing, however, my truck still has the misfire/shudder feel when running 87 octane and cruising at 45-50 mph. I swapped to 93 after experiencing this when the truck had 1k or so miles and it never came back, but I filled up with 87 and sure enough it starts to stumble again. Latest tank is 93 and back to smooth running. Go figure......

 

Thanks for the write-up. I have a 2017 with a 3/17 build date, built in TX, no recall as of yet and while I don't get any sort of stuttering, I'm getting about 16 MPG combined. I was expecting to get at LEAST city ratings (18 mpg) for combined (my driving is 75/25 city/hgwy). I'm going to try running higher octane first to see what happens but then may replace the CPS if MPGs don't improve.

 

Post photo when you

individuals driving habits has a lot to due with mpg's

 

In past vehicles (including 5 different Toyota trucks) I've reliably gotten better MPGs than most people based on my driving habits.

Having said that the increasingly electronic control over the engine/transmissions is making our driving habits matter less than ever in 2017 (though they still play a part, just smaller.) All those electronics are taking your inputs and then deciding what the mechanics of the truck should do based on algorithms that are attempting to give you what you want while making the driving experience as uniform as possible.

Based on past experience, if I'm getting worse MPGs then other people with the same vehicle, something is different about my vehicle...YMMV

 

Right, but I use cruise control to gauge MPG on the highway. I recently did a 30 mile drive using cruise control at an average 50MPH, and I only got 20MPG. The trip average didn't reach 20MPG until I got to the 30th mile on my trip.

I have also been recording my trips using a OBD2 recorder before and after the CPS swap, so I have data as well.

 

I just returned from a 1,000 mile road trip from Nashville and many miles up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway and many forest roads along the way. Truck continues to perform quite well overall. I averaged about 17mpg over the trip which is ok considering I was loaded down with MTBs, a kayak, and a few hundred pounds of gear, and often treating it like a sports car on windy-steep roads. I even drove home about 300 miles today in D the entire time up and down mountains/plateaus and it was fine. Then, as soon as I hit the city again I had to throw it into S-mode or ECT. The ONE time I actually witnessed it learning a behavior I wanted to was after a couple of days of driving primarily between S-3 and S-4 to maintain power engine braking. One day I took off down the mountain in D and it ACTUALLY stayed in 3rd like I wanted it to so I didn't have to ride the brakes.

Other than that, I can still tell it slowly learning how not to give it power when I want to. Throttle response slowed again after about 600 miles post battery reset.

BUT, my primary issues of crazy fuel trims, harsh steering, and bad bogging have not returned since the CPS swap - so it DID fix my primary concern. of that I'm confident. I just wish I could pick a "theme" or something and the truck stick w/ it instead of using flawed algorithms to read my mind. In the next year or 2 they'll probably nail all the learning stuff, but this is "beta" imo so here's to hoping for a non-aftermarket ECU update... I'm beyond baffled by the throttle stuff b/c that's the most noticeable thing it "learns." Post battery reset, if GOES when you hit the gas. After some time, as it learns - for some reason it thinks you DON'T want to go faster when you press the pedal?!?!?

 

It's not a "feel" alone - it's ACTUALLY misfiring, a I'm honestly thinking it's designed that way... Mine isn't as bad running 89, and is considerably better when running 87 E-free (89 or 93 E-free feels "smothered" for some reason though...) or 93. When I was running Shell V-Power for awhile is when my, likely, CPS issues started to surface really bad - most likely b/c of the bad data the CPS was sending that was throwing fuel trims and timing advance out the window. I may pivot back to higher octane. Sometimes I do wonder whether there is some sense of a "tune" in all of these trucks where they will run differently/better on different octanes vs. just running the same but I'm not a mechanic and far smarter people than I have debunked this theory... who knows