Throttle Positioning Sensor? hmmm....

[Shoga]

Hi I have a Hyundai, Tiburon that has never given trouble before, but one day left me stranded luckily next to a Midas Automotive shop. The mechanics said it took them all day to find the problem which they said was a short to the fuel pump harness. I was charged almost $200 for labor, but when I got the car back the engine would jump between 3k rpm's and 5k rpm's while driving on the expressway, and sometimes seems to want to stall after coming to a complete stop and trying to take off. This was the same thing it was doing before it left me stranded. I took the car back to Midas and they said they couldn't duplicate the problem, but every morning when I first start the car (and while it's in park) the engine idles at 3K RPM so I decided to leave it at Midas overnight just to share that same wonderful early morning experience with them. So now this morning they told me that it's a bad Throttle Positioning Sensor. They say this is a seperate problem from the "short" they claimed to have fixed. Although when I took the car back the second time and told them that I also noticed the temp gage was stuck on cold, the mechanic that worked on the car then said " Now I know where to look" which seem to imply that he didn't know where to look before, and if that's the case then was the problem really a short to the fuel pump harness or just easy money. They told me today that the throttle positioning sensor will cost me about an extra $100.00. Is it just me or does anyone else smell fish? By the way when I took the car back the first time they also said I had a bad temperature indicator. However today no one mentioned anything about that. I would sincerely appreciate it if someone could give advice on what to do.

My questions are...

1) Since my car has never given problems, what's the chances of two things suddenly going bad at the same time.

2) And is it possible that the two problems are related.

3) Can a bad Postioning Throttle Sensor prevent your car from starting.

I don't to be taken for a ride. Is there anyone that can help me? Thanks in advance. Shoga

[escort0526]

Shoga

It sounds like it's too late to worry about being taken for a ride. But the best advice I can give you here is to post this thread on the hyundai forum. This forum is for Mercury Sable's. Not that there aren't people who might be able to help here, but you'll likely get better results there.