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Gas Pedal Linkage Ghost?

2K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  hurk 
#1 ·
1st Ford, 1st post and my 1st mystery with my 3+ y.o. Xscape. I may have a Ghost in the Machine.

Let me know if this has ever happened to any of you.

Start the truck up on saturday and it revs up to several thousand RPMs, so I hit the pedal to see if it is stuck. It is just laying limply on the floorboard, so i turn it off before it flies into the RED. I play around with the pedal, it is still mounted properly, but it is limp and I can hear some part of the linkage rattling from what i think is behind the firewall. Check under the hood and all is in place. Well it is just laying there, limp and useless, so i call AAA and have it towed the dealer as I conclude it is un-drivable.

Dealer calls me this morning to ask about why it's there. I tell him the story and calls me back to say everything seems fine. WHAT?
So I stop by and they show me. Yep I see the gas pedal is back to its normal position, the cable to the throttle body looks the same as when this occurred. They have the throttle body cover off to show me the coil spring. No binding at all.
Hell, my first Ford tour, even I could see all seemed well.

So what happened? Other than me paying for the diagnostic, I'm a little freaked by a self-correcting throttle cable. Oh, I have Premium Care so I had them replace a window regulator, yea the plastic gear broke, cost me $100 plus the diagnostic for my Ghost.

My wife is busting me as she drives Jeep #5, we have over 650K miles on them with only one tranny, one viscuous coupling and no window regulators. I hope she is wrong, I traded my '06 Grand Cherokee that was killing me on gas and at 4200 lbs. was a dog off-road.

Any ideas?
 
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#2 ·
I had a similar problem with my 01 Tribite. My accelerator stuck on me in the nearly full throttle position. Turned out to be in my cruise control cable that was attached right next to the accelerator cable on the throttle body. My cruise control cable was not retracting when I would let off the gas pedal. The tip of the cruise control cable was getting jammed on a plastic lip under the throttle body cover. I opened the throttle body cover and opened the throttle by hand and saw it was jamming.
Might be something to check out.
Let us know what you find out....This could be a very dangerous issue.
good Luck
 
#3 ·
A few possible causes I can think of:
  • dirty throttle body[/*]
  • gummed up accelerator cable[/*]
  • gummed up cruise control cable[/*]
  • cruise control module fault[/*]
  • kink in the lines somewhere causing friction[/*]
  • gas pedal caught in the carpet[/*]
 
#6 ·
That's really weird... I know there was a recall for sticky throttle cables on the 02-04 E-M-T's. 2002-2004 E/T - RECALL: Accelerator cable. I had it done on my '02. I thought my neighbor told me he had to have the cable replaced on his 01 as well.
 
#9 ·
Not sure what happened to the link in my previous post.... it is now showing the wrong info.... anyway....

From doing an internet search for 2008 Ford Escape TSB Speed Control... not sure if this is your problem, though:

2008 Ford Escape Recall Details - Service Bulletin
2008 Ford Escape Recall Details
Service Bulletin ID: 10033726

Bulletin Date:
Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Affected Component:
181000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL:ACCELERATOR PEDAL

Summary:
FORD/MERCURY: NEW SERVICE KIT AVAILABLE FOR ACCELERATOR CABLE TO PEDAL CONNECTION. SOME VEHICLES MAY REQUIRE THE ACCELERATOR CABLE TO ACCELERATOR PEDAL CONNECTION REPAIRED. A NEW SERVICE CLIP HAS BEEN RELEASED FOR USE, IN LIEU OF REPLACI
From another site - Same description as above: Bulletin No: TSB-09-21-9 Date of Bulletin: 09/15/2010
 
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