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The Accelerator Pedal Position (APP) sensor was identified in the review of manufacturers’ service literature as a significantly important ETC input for all vehicles used in the study.
With the two APP sensor signals shorted together through a varying range of resistances, all four Toyota vehicles tested thus far reacted similarly and were unable to detect the purposely induced abnormality. The types of signal faults introduced into the APP circuit should have triggered the vehicles’ ECM to illuminate a warning lamp within seconds. The ECM should have then set a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC), entered the vehicle fail?safe mode, and reduced engine speed and/or power. When the two APP signal
circuits are shorted together, the redundancy of the APP circuit design is effectively nullified and lost.
In addition, the shorted APP signal circuits were connected momentarily to the sensor’s five?volt supply circuit with the vehicle in drive. In all test vehicles, the ECM did not set a DTC and the engine speed increased rapidly to full throttle.