I am trying to figure out if my TPS sensor is bad. I bought a new one from an ebay store which did not work at all, and set of the CEL.

I switched my old one back, and now I have all the same symptoms, but no check engine light, just as was originally:

* Bucking and jerking of the car
* poor idle
* Sudden stalling of the car engine
* Hesitation while the driver of the car is trying to accelerate
* Sudden surge in car's speed while driving on the highway
# The driver of a car experiences difficulty while changing gears.
# The fuel economy of the car drops drastically.

Will a bad tps sensor always throw a check engine light?

 

have you cleaned the iacv?
that doesnt sound like a tps at all,
i say it sounds more like a timing problem
check your spark plugs, and get a timing light and check your timing
and also your fuel filter

 

yeah, i cleaned the iacv, changed plugs, reset ecu, replaced the pcv valve,put in new ground wires, cleaned the throttle body, new battery and alternator(problems started around time that alternator was replaced). None of it really helped the major problems. I just pasted those symptoms in, but my persistent problems are

1.very low idle at lights below 500rpm causing hood to vibrate.(adjusting idle screw helps but its diff almost every start up)
2. occasional stall at very low speeds if I dont step on the gas
3. Dimming of headlights/cluster in time with pulsing or bucking of engine at low speeds especially while coasting.
4. erratic jumpy acceleration at highway speeds
5. shift hesitation.
6. erratic fuel consumption

Any idea how much autozone would charge to rent a timing gun? Ive never done it before, but after reading up it seems do-able

 

well they dont charge its a free rental, you just pay for it and when your done you return it and they give you your money back in full.