Throttle stuck on my wife!

[zipastro]

Nope, no cruise set. She only has about a 10 mile commute in traffic so she never even uses it. If the cruise would have been on a quick tap on the brake or the neutral drop would have shut it off anyway.

I drove it tonight (all works flawless) and asked her more details about the incident. The only new info she gave me was that it also would not accelerate either during its possessed mode? I also verified she had her foot under the pedal to try and free it and that she lifted with a good amount of effort.

 

[PHAEDRUS]

ZIp,
change the dang cable out.
$100 bucks is a small price to pay for peace of mind, while your at it clean out the trhrottle body and get to prove what a loving husband you are.
Dave

 

[JJB77FJ40]

Interesting responses(cool stories!). I didn't read all and don't know if this applies but I once had a 67 chevelle and experienced the same thing. In my case the motor mounts were worn allowing the engine to jump on quick acceleration and bending and jamming the throttle open(I believe a rigid rod and not a cable). Hitting the accelerator with quick jerks freed the throttle.

My $.02 story.

John

 

[zipastro]

POS did it again today........ Dont tell my wife but I was hesitant to completely believe her story the 1st time around and wrote it off as a fluke. I did go as far as lubing up all exposed cable and pivot points but stopped there. Well today the temps dropped again around -10 w\o wind chill, and same thing happened again. The forecast is -25 tonight.
http://www.keloland.com/Weather/KELO/Index.cfm
I will dig into it deeper tomorrow and post back what I find.
I also checked the http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov iste for other complaints and found none so I called in and logged mine as this is not acceptable for any vehicle

 

[turbocruiser]

Something's wrong, get a good cable man, its not worth trying to remedy with lotions or potions. We dont want you or yours getting hurt. Sorry to intrude.

 

[IdahoDoug]

Looks like this is the Possessed Car thread, so here's my two stories.

I had a motor mount break while reversing my 68 T Bird. The gas pedal sunk to the floor under my foot and the 429 4-bbl instantly had me backing up through a cloud of smoke that even filled the trunk in the 2 seconds the entire event took. Hammered the brakes and turned off the key without hitting anything - the tires never really hooked up.

The second story. Remember the ill fated GM X cars (Olds Omega, Chev Citation, Pontiac Phoenix) that had a well known brake defect causing them to spin easily? Recalls, etc. Driving along on a perfect sunny day in my Dad's Omega on a crowned country road, the brakes suddenly locked up and I madly spun the wheel back and forth to keep it from spinning. I'd never touched the brake. I knew about the recall and it had already been done on our car. I got out and stood there a bit shakily looking at the car. For a moment I literally wondered if a car could be possessed. Then I walked around it, looked at the wavy skid marks, and bent down to look for some explanation my mind could handle. Incredibly, a branch no thicker than a pencil had evidently been stuck between the axle and a stupidly large loop of the parking brake cable for a while, just waiting for the right moment to swing around and yank the parking brakes full on. Which is exactly what it did. One of my strangest automotive moments.

DougM

 

[John E Davies]

I agree with turbocruiser. Change the cable ASAP before driving the truck again. At 140K miles the original one is probably toast anyway. It's an easy 30 minute job and the gas pedal will feel soooo good under your foot.

Don't screw around with this problem.

John

 

[turbocruiser]

I agree with turbocruiser. Change the cable ASAP before driving the truck again. At 140K miles the original one is probably toast anyway. It's an easy 30 minute job and the gas pedal will feel soooo good under your foot.

Don't screw around with this problem.

John

Yes, good, and assuming that the throttle cable is adjusted correctly, in other words not too much play, not too little play etc. just take the old one off without changing the references of where the stop nuts are, lay that old one and the new one side by side and simply repeat all the distances from nut to nut etc. as exactly as possible and you will be good to go. HTH

 

[zipastro]

I really really doubt its the cable, dont get me wrong I might replace it just to be safe but it does not seem like the logical problem. I am betting it is somewhere in the return spring or throttle body linkage or butterfly. The last time it happened my wife tried again to lift the pedal up with her foot to free it, she claims she could lift it up completely but the engine did not respond? I have is sitting outside right now for a good cool down (-25 by morning) and hope to see what is happening first hand.

My first guess is a dirty gummed up throttle body, at about 110K I noticed I had the problem with PCV in the TB oil loss. Maybe in an extreme case its enuff to cause a cold weather problem like this.
I cleaned it less then 20K back?

 

[zipastro]

Technical name please???????????

OK I jump in the truck this morning, air temp -20. Before starting I pushed the pedal down a couple of time and notice nothing odd. I proceeded to run it down the road at 55 mph and just as my wife said about 1 mile down the hwy it stuck at the same rpm/speed I was driving at. I hit the brakes hard and some how or another it released. I started down the road again at 30mph and again after a mile or so it stuck at that speed/rpm. This time I quickly stopped and threw it in park hopping to observe the cable position but the rpms dropped as I got out. After that I drove for awhile and could not get it to happen again.


This is where I think the problem is. It seems like it could possible bind up at extreme low temps or maybe even gets some moisture build up underneath that freezes? As I also expected the throttle cable operates smoothly, I blocked the foot pedal down and moved the cable back and forth from the engine bay. No resistance what so ever. Can someone please identify the name of this part?

 

[turbocruiser]

Throttle Position Sensor.