1984 Pontiac Fiero TPS

by David Sweeny
(Baltimore, MD)

I bought a 1984 Pontiac Fiero as a project car. My hope was that someday it would become a classic like the Corvair. Although my Pontiac has many things wrong with it and I am continuing to restore it I wanted to mention an interesting problem I had with the check engine light.

My Fiero had a hesitation problem and the check engine light code was set for a throttle position sensor. When I took a look at the TPS sensor itself I could see that it was melted. When I went to unplug it it disintegrated in my hands.

I decided to go to a junkyard and see if I could find a replacement on the cheap. There were plenty of Fiero's in the junkyard (which is not a good sign). I found a 1985 Fiero with a throttle position sensor in good shape. The interesting part was in 1985 and they decided to add a little stainless steel heat shield to protect the sensor. This would seem to prevent heat damage to the part.

So if you have a 1984 Fiero my advice would be to visit a junkyard and pick up one of these little stainless steel heat shields that they used on years after 1984. If you're thinking about getting a Fiero I would probably recommend a 1985-86 model which has many improvements over the 84 model year.