PULSCAR ANALYSIS - P0122 AND P0123 (THROTTLE / PEDAL POSITION SENSOR "A" CIRCUIT LOW AND HIGH INPUT) AND THROTTLE OR PEDAL POSITION SENSOR FAULTS IN NHTSA'S PUBLIC FILES PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, October 2026. License: CC BY 4.0 Attribution: "PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, October 2026." Published alongside https://www.pulscar.io/blog/p0122-code ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scope and dates. Prepared October 2026 from NHTSA's public flat files: owner complaints received from 1 January 2015 to 4 October 2026 (the latest received date in the files), the index of manufacturer communications and the recalls table, plus the maker papers themselves from static.nhtsa.gov and nhtsa.gov. The NHTSA complaint file is public: anyone can download it from NHTSA and check any number here against it. 1. Complaints counted (1,320) 926 complaints whose narrative names P0120 to P0124 or P0220 to P0229, or describes a throttle position sensor or an accelerator pedal sensor (words such as throttle position sensor, throttle sensor, TPS, pedal sensor, APP sensor) together with a symptom or repair word; and 394 more found by a second search of the whole file (misspellings, "sensor on the throttle body", an accelerator pedal assembly replaced for lost power). The exact search wording is in codebook.txt. found_by in the complaints file says which search found each complaint. Left out on purpose: throttle body or throttle motor complaints that use none of these words (about 3,800 narratives name a throttle body), and 143 complaints whose only link is a pedal/throttle correlation code between P2121 and P2139 (mostly P2135 and P2138), which have their own pages. Each complaint was sorted twice by the same written rules (codebook.txt), into one cause category and four yes/no questions (limp or reduced power, stall, recall, returned); disagreements were settled by those rules (rule_applied column). The two sortings matched on the cause for 90.0% (1,188 of 1,320). Result: 1,118 relevant, 202 not relevant. Counts are counts of complaints, not cars. A complaint is evidence that an owner wrote to NHTSA; nothing here is a failure rate. 19 complaints spell out P0122 or P0123 and 37 spell out a code from P0120 to P0124 or P0220 to P0229 (codes_named column); 186 relevant complaints print a P2100 to P2139 code. The rest describe the event in the owners' words, which is why the set is built on wording as well as on codes. 2. Documents (p0122-documents.csv) 74 maker papers (bulletins, campaigns, special coverage, service updates) chosen from NHTSA's index by what the index summary says; 73 have a file, 64 are distinct once exact copies are set aside, and one entry has no file and is listed as "no file". Another 33 papers that name only the pedal codes P2122, P2127 or P2138 are left to the page on P2138. Recall filings for three campaigns (13V430, 14V583, 22V288), 21 files, are listed in the same file. The list shows, for each file, which codes its own text names, whether it mentions a throttle or pedal position sensor, and its relevance. Years, engines, build dates and coverage terms are as printed in the documents. Coverage status "as of September 2026" is our computation from printed terms. 3. Owner-reported amounts (93 figures in 82 complaints) A dollar figure is included when the owner states it as a price, charge, bill, quote or estimate for diagnosing, repairing or replacing the throttle position sensor, the throttle body replaced for the sensor fault, the accelerator pedal sensor or assembly, their connector or wiring, the engine computer for this fault, or a diagnostic fee, on that vehicle. Excluded: mileage written as "NNk"; vehicle price, value, payments, trade-ins, refund demands and settlement sums; repairs of other systems; totals that mix other major work; restatements; other owners' costs; rental-car and towing costs. Status comes from the owner's own words (paid, billed, quoted, not stated). 143 candidate figures were found and 50 were excluded, each with its reason in p0122-excluded-figures.csv. Figures are what owners wrote, not audited invoices. 4. Limits The complaint file holds the cases where an owner wrote to NHTSA, in the owner's words, with no verification; owners whose trouble ended are mostly not in it. The shares reported describe the sorted complaints, not all cars. Only 19 complaints spell out P0122 or P0123, so most of the set is built on wording. Many complaints do not say whether the throttle sensor or the pedal sensor is meant, and a reduced-power warning in a narrative is not proof that a sensor failed. The cause category is the least certain field; that is why the article reports the share of complaints where no cause was stated. The document set holds what NHTSA's index lists and what could be read; a maker paper that is not in the index is not in it.