Going through my new Outback still.....  Right or wrong I R&Rd myTPS to see how it's looking back there, and learned that upon re-innstallation, it needs to be dialed in by adjusting it's position so it's putting out between 0.45 and 0.55 volts.  It was a simple matter of connecting my volt meter to the center wire and a ground and  I wound up with 0.504 volts- real close to the middle of the allowable range.  My question is, what does this value have to do with its effect on how the car runs? It's a pretty wide alowable range, but I'm nut really willing to experiemnt.  Anybody understand the principal here?  What if the value was out of rane?

The ECU gets a variable signal from it based on throttle (gas pedal) position. That allows the ECU to adjust the flow of fuel thru the injectors - possibly also passing info to the transmission control unit for proper gear selection.

others here can give you more details (and will correct my statement if I got it confused lol)