What are the potential effects of a bad tps sensor?

Question

I have a Yamaha R-1. A couple months back, a rod slung through the engine block and now there is a huge hole. Obviously it is not running anymore. I have been doing some research on the bike and there is a recall on the tps sensor. Could a bad tps sensor potentially have caused the rod to have come through the engine block? This bike is only 3 years old and has been very well maintained.

Answer 1

TPS is the throttle position sensor, which tells the ECM what you're doing so it can adjust the engine including the fuel injection and ignition timing.  The TPS will indicate when you have the throttle wide open, so the ECM will richen up the fuel/air mix and advance the ignition.  When you snap the throttle back for a quick slow-down, it sends a signal telling the ECM to shut everything down.

It doesn't do anything more than tell the system how far you're twisting the throttle.  If the TPS sensor goes bad, or gets disconnected, the default for the system is idle, so even if something goes bad at wide open throttle, it'll just revert to idle until the sensor is fixed.  It cannot cause the throttle to be stuck on WOT.

There is no way a failed TPS sensor could cause a windowed block.  Perhaps if the oil pressure sensor had failed then you wouldn't know if there was a problem, but a failed TPS will result in a bike that won't accelerate, no chance for slinging rods and windowing blocks.

Answer 2

maybe