For the past month or so my car has a constant high pitch noise coming from the sensor on the throtte body.
Early on when it started I was able to put pressure on the sensor itself and the noise would stop and it also wasnt constant, it would only come on after driving for a while or hard driving. Now it comes on as soon as I turn on the car, quieting down as I push down the accelerator and hyping back up after I take my foot off the gas.

Does not affect driveability.
What could it be?

 

Bump

 

your avi says 2000, but your sig says 03, which is it?

my 02 has always made a high pitch noise from the TB. You can only notice if youre under the hood with the car running or just after you switch if off and the ECU goes through the TB calibration. how loud is yours?

 

Sorry I need to change it to 03. It its so loud I can hear it over my unresonated 3" catback. People look all the time when I pass by because its so loud

 

Obviously something to do with current flowing through the electrical components making up the throttle body sensor. I know it's not helpful but the best thing to try is replacing the throttle body.

Based on that, I'd say it's the 03 max as the 2000 didn't have the electronically controlled throttle body.

Check on car-part.com for a used part and if that stops the nose, I'd say leave it in.

 

If I was to replace the TB it would be with the NWP big bore one

 

its likely the motor in the TB. Electric motors (or servos as I would guess this is) can make horrendous noise as theyre going bad

 

So if my TB goes bad while the car is running... Besides the fact that the engine won't respond to the gas peddle what else would happen

 

well the worst thing that would happen would be if it gets stuck open. You wouldnt accelerate out of control since the pedal position sensor would still register normal but when you let off the pedal the engine might shut off. Other than that I cant imagine anything worse would happen. You will probably have to deal with manual steering and no power brakes for a couple seconds

 

I believe the ECU would enter limp mode and restrict RPMS to 2,000 or something. Check in the FSM.

-edit, check that the RPM thing is for the MAF. For the TP, here's what the FSM says
Engine operation condition in fail-safe mode
The ECM controls the electric throttle control actuator in regulating the throttle opening in order for the idle position to be within
+10 degrees.
The ECM regulates an opening speed of approx. 5 seconds to an opening of 10 degrees.
So, the acceleration will be poor.

 

Ohh that's not bad at all. I wonder what the price difference is between the NWP and OEM

 

If the TB motor/servo fails the ECU wont be able to control the TB at all so it most likely would either fail stuck in one spot or stuck closed, stuck open its possible to keep running but the ECU would need to learn really quickly how to run with an open TB and closed it just couldnt run. I suspect either way it would just stall. If you have a manual it really wouldnt be all that bad. auto would get a bit more interesting but still manageable. On the positive side I havent heard of anyone having this happen on this site. Being the car has been around for 11 years, if it was going to happen you would expect it to have happened by now to someone

You should be able to get a pretty reasonable deal on a TB from a junkyard but if you want the NWP and have the cash then go after it, no better time to upgrade than when the part youre replacing has gone bad.

 

Yeah its automatic so it should be interesting. I'm hoping it won't do it while i'm driving but rather just not start up, if it does fail. Knock on wood

 

Like I said ive never heard of that happening. I expect the ECU will throw a code once the TB goes out of spec (too much current required to reach desired throttle position most likely) so you will know ahead of time

 

I have an 02 what was occasionally making a whining sound from the throttle body as well as some clicking sounds under acceleration. Turned out to be the ground from the throdle body to the firewall.
So if you do have a grounding kit installed and have that connection simply try removing it and see if it goes away.