I was driving on the highway last night and someone was high beaming me so I decided to floor it and get away from him. After I took my foot off the gas pedal to slow down i noticed the gas pedal was stuck to the floor at full throttle. i panicked a little and kept stomping down on the pedal to jar it loose after 4 or 5 times it popped back out.

luckily there werent any cars close by but needless to say i really really dont want that to happen again. after i got home i checked under the hood and noticed the throttle cable was really loose. i'm wondering if thats normal i thought the throttle cable wasnt supposed to have any slack in it? wondering if that could have caused the gas pedal to stick.

 

The throttle cable on these cars and most others do have slack, not alot but they are not tight. If they were the car would idle high, or have fluctuating idle. A stuck open throttle, can be the cable, if it were losse enough to come off the throttle body pully and get caught on its self, also a dirty throttle body, with lots of carbon, can cause the throttle plate to stick, or the cable itself has a kink in the line somewhere, most likley at the exiting end of the cable. I would take out the slack to the point that there is just enough to flex the line with your finger no more than a 1/4 inch without pulling in the throttle plate, make sure your throttle body is clean, make sure you don't have a floor mat, carpet, or pedal issue inside. If all of this looks good, and youv'e inspected the full length of the cable (and find nothing out of the ordinary) replace the cable.

 

first thing i did was check the mat its the factory option mats and its hooked in so it wont move so i know it cant be that. i checked the footwell around the pedals and it seemed to be ok.

i can press down on the cable well over 1/4 inch before it pulls on the plate. havent checked if the throttle body was dirty yet but i have an appointment at the dealership tomorrow. would something like this be covered under warranty?

thanks for the input

 

any of it would, except for a dirty throttle body, they will try to sell you a throttle body service, but odds are that wasn't the problem. Thinking more about it, carbon would make it momentarily stick, not hold it... unless there is a tar pit in there .

 

took it to the dealership and they said that the throttle cable was fine it was loose but they couldnt figure out what caused the gas pedal to stick. guess i'll have to try not to floor it.