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My VS with its V6 Ecotec VS/VY engine and 4L60E VY transmission has recently developed an intermittent issue. It is reluctant to shift gears and when it does, the gear changes are abrupt. In this condition, the CEL may illuminate once in a while, however the only DTC that is indicated (via ALDL) is code 22, which means that the throttle position sensor voltage was below its minimum for over 2 seconds.

Now, this raises two questions. Firstly, can a faulty TPS result in the above transmission behaviour?

Secondly, what is the difference between the TPS used for VN-VR V6 engines and VS-VY V6 engines? (I see a lot of somewhat contradictory information about what TPS is used between VN to VY, with a possible delineation of type SS10429 / 17106682 / TPS-002 / TTH001 for VN-VR, and type SS10425 / TPS-001 / 17106681 / TTH002 / 17080671 / 17087653 / 825482 / 825483 / 94580175 for VS-VY. However, the one I've ordered was listed as type 17106682 / 17080671 / 94580175 / 17113070, which I now see is contradictory and could be either type. Yet they all physically look the same as far as I can see.)

Joe.

Yes it will cause those issues.

IIRC they rotate differently

Gareth wrote:Yes it will cause those issues.

IIRC they rotate differently

Thanks, Gareth!

Will I be able to tell if the new TPS (which is in the post) rotates "correctly"? Is it a clockwise vs. anticlockwise thing?

Joe.

Yes joe,ecotec turns clockwise and Buick is anti clockwise

vs ss wrote:Yes joe,ecotec turns clockwise and Buick is anti clockwise

Brilliant, thanks guys!

Joe.

As long as it is not a china copy, the ones with a gray ring are opposite rotation.

In-Tech wrote:As long as it is not a china copy, the ones with a gray ring are opposite rotation.

Thanks for that tip, I had noticed that some units had grey caps, while others had black, but it didn't occur to me that there was any significance to that.

Anyway, with the suspicion that the 17106682 TPS that I had ordered was the wrong type, I went ahead and ordered a 17106681 type, to "cover all bases" when I opened up the bonnet.

The 17106681 TPS arrived yesterday, so today I found that indeed, that was what matched the rotation of my old TPS.

On its first drive with the new TPS, the transmission now operated smoothly. The fault was/is intermittent, so that's no guarantee that it's fixed, but I am hopeful.

Joe.

Well, it's been quite a while now, and although I don't do much driving these days due to a number of reasons, there's been no recurrence of the intermittent gear change issues with the 4L60E, so I'm going to call this resolved. The worn out TPS was indeed the culprit!

Joe.

Good to hear, thanks for the update joe

Cheers, mike.