Electronic Throttle Body (ETB)
WARNING: This page does not describe the selected car, but rather 31 other vehicles, including the 2008 Mercury Sable, 2008 Mercury Mountaineer, 2008 Mercury Milan, 2008 Mercury Mariner, and 2008 Mercury Grand Marquis. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.
The ETB has the following characteristics:
- The throttle actuator control (TAC) motor is a DC motor controlled by the PCM (requires 2-wires).
- There are 2 designs: parallel and inline. The parallel design has the motor under the bore parallel to the plate shaft. The motor housing is integrated into the main housing. The inline design has a separate motor housing.
- An internal spring is used in both designs to return the throttle plate to a default position. The default position is typically a throttle angle of 7 to 8 degrees from the hard stop angle.
- The closed throttle plate hard stop is used to prevent the throttle from binding in the bore (approximately 0.75 degree). This hard stop setting is not adjustable and is set to result in less airflow than the minimum engine airflow required at idle.
- The required idle airflow is provided by the plate angle in the throttle body assembly. This plate angle controls idle, idle quality, and eliminates the need for an IAC valve.
- There is 1 reference voltage and 1 signal return circuit between the PCM and the ETB. The reference voltage circuit and the signal return circuit is shared with the reference voltage circuits and signal return circuits used by the APP sensor. There are also 2 TP signal circuits for redundancy. The redundant TP signals are required for increased monitoring reasons. The first TP signal (TP1) has a negative slope (increasing angle, decreasing voltage) and the second signal (TP2) has a positive slope (increasing angle, increasing voltage). The TP2 signal reaches a limit of approximately 4.5 volts at approximately 45 degrees of throttle angle.