ALH TPS Manual Vs Automatic

VDubz

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2021
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
03 Jetta ALH
While cruising around the other day went through a decent sized puddle which resulted in my car going completely limp, I managed to crawl it home.
Once in the garage and started taking things apart I came across my TPS circuit board being fried. I opened the cover to clean the contact and noticed some minor water droplets inside, so I pulled the circuit board to ensure it was fully dry and upon doing so I noticed 2/3 of the board circuit pathways were fried/partially missing. I did manage to however solder in 2 new wires and trim away the inside of the plastic housing to make room for the newly added wires.

Anyways all this aside I was searching around online through local parts suppliers and noticed 2 options of TPS were made, ones for manual trans and ones for automatics.
Curious if anyone happens to actually know if there's an actual difference between the two or if they're interchangeable with each other. What raised this question was I am aware that it is relatively simple to go from an auto to manual trans swap but all the forums I seen talking about the swap never mentioned requiring a new TPS which lead me to believe they would be interchangeable.

If anyone has any insight this would be appreciated because the cost difference between the two at the local parts store is almost double for the manual TPS over the auto.

Cheers.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
The automatic one has the detent for full power.

These rarely fail, I'd just find a used one. In all my years of wrenching on these (as in, since BEFORE they were new!), I've only ever seen two fail. Two.
 

VDubz

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2021
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
03 Jetta ALH
The automatic one has the detent for full power.

These rarely fail, I'd just find a used one. In all my years of wrenching on these (as in, since BEFORE they were new!), I've only ever seen two fail. Two.
Like I was saying when I opened the cover I seen a slight amount of water inside, mainly little droplets and when I pulled the circuit board on the back side two of the circuits were toast so I ended up soldering in two replacement circuits.

But all that aside an auto tps will work in the manual no issue then I assume? Not entirely sure what you mean by the detent exactly.

https://ibb.co/dQDMZyP

Hopefully that link works to see the circuit board.
 
Last edited:

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
When you floorboard the automatic one, there is a detent and the very bottom, like a "click". A "kickdown" switch if you will. To tell (in a manner of speaking) the transmission to go to a lower gear assuming you are not already going at a speed beyond that point.

Manual cars do not have this.
 

PakProtector

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2014
Location
AnnArbor, MI
TDI
Mk.4's and the Cummins
Does the 0001 to 0002( or maybe the other way around) have anything to do with paying attention to the detent? I assume for the time being that the detent actually conveys the WOT info to the control module, yes? On a swap car that is.

Douglas
 

Nero Morg

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 19, 2017
Location
OR
TDI
2014 A6 TDI, 2001 Jetta TDI, 2014 Passat TDI
Yes they are interchangeable. I actually have an auto pedal in my manual car. Only dif is I don't think you can use one from a gasser it has to be diesel.
 

VDubz

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2021
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
03 Jetta ALH
So bit of an update..... I picked up a tps from an 03 alh that was an automatic, unfortunately the bolt holes are different between the two, however im sure you can modify the automatic bracket to fit into the manual, or open each tps and changed the boards out between the two
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
There are several suppliers, and the car normally has the studs for either bolt hole arrangement.
 

VDubz

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2021
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
03 Jetta ALH
There are several suppliers, and the car normally has the studs for either bolt hole arrangement.
So they layout i guess would technical be the same, its the spacing between the two holes at the top, and the one at the bottom.
On the automatic the holes are closer together by maybe 3mm or so, but its enough so that it doesn't want to line up properly.
 
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