Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Throttle Problems

I have a 2000 SVT Contour and last night I had some serious throttle problems. The car would actually increase in RPMâ??s when the car was in neutral and I my foot was not on the accelerator. A few times the car went from 3 thousand to 4 thousand RPM's! Also on the highway I was able to take my foot off of the accelerator and the car would still drive at 65 MPH without me on the accelerator and no I did not have the cruise control on. From looking around this site I did find a throttle hang fix. I do have a couple of questions before I try this fix.

1) Do I have throttle hang? My RPM's do not hang but actually increase.

2) If the problem is not throttle hang, what could the problem be? My car was running fine the other day and never had this problem before.

Thanks for any help.

You DO NOT have "throttle hang" as a problem.
"throttle hang" is described as: in a car with a stick shift, normally the car will be slowed down by the engine when the foot is taken off the accelerator and the car is still in gear. The engine will slow the car down. "Throttle Hang" is a symptom of modern EPA crap... In our Contiques with manual trannies, the letting off of the gas and leaving in gear will NOT slow the car down. (An air bleed valve and the EGR valve conspire to kill this 'slowing down' ability. The "THROTTLE HANG FIX" alleviates this to some degree.
THAT IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM !!!!!!!!!
Sounds like your throttle cable is kinked or sticking for some reason. You need to get this fixed!
Check the throttle cable, follow it around from the throttle body on the engine and visually look for sharp kinks (any sharp bend at all even little ones) or spots where the cable appears crushed or mis-shappened.
(I think there was a recall on some throttle cables ???? but that is a dim memory and I never needed it)
Look down (actually get your head down in right up to it) at the drivers foot gas pedal, it uses a pull on the end of a cable going through the firewall. check to see if it is clean and free of foreign matter. See if the pedal moves freely on it's hinge.
For the rest, wait for some other gurus advice...
good luck and get this checked out before you have a disaster. (and remember, the brakes can and will override the power of the engine. if your engine will not slow down... LEAVE THE CAR IN GEAR, and use the brakes to slow yourself down so when you are moving really slowly on the side of the road in a safe place you can shut off the engine and not have it revving like crazy.

The wires to the MAF became dis-connected on my mystique, and it did a similar thing. It's unlikely that this would happen, but it could. I think I had knocked mine loose while I was tinkering under the hood.

I have this same problem and when I inquired about it on this site a year ago, everyone determined it was throttle hang. Does this increase in rpm's happen all the time or do you just get throttle hang occasionally and an increase in rpm's occasionally? Bottom line, if it's not a consistant problem, it's probably your government mandated smog devices having a mind of their own. If after checking for physical evidence of a throttle problem comes up with zilch, try the throttle hang fix if it really bothers you. I don't care for throttle hang because I can't rely on engine braking all the time and it will probably cause premature brake wear and maybe clutch wear to boot.

Karl

Try cleaning the throttle body and IAC valve. I've had this as a persistent problem on my SVT. Your idle will run high (1200-1500RPMs) and when you shift, the revs will climb to 3-4K RPMs (or more) and hang there for a good long while before settling to a high idle. Instructions are here for cleaning the IAC valve (major PITA - word of advice - remove the bottom bolt first). Some people say they clean their TB every 5-10K miles. Give it a try and good luck.

Your symptoms are indicative of what we at CEG have dubbed "throttle rise." Do a search for that phrase, and if nothing else you'll find you're not alone. In my case, I experience what you describe very sporadically, but when it does happen, it's extremely frustrating. When I'm ready to bite through the steering wheel, it goes away.

People have blamed everything from burrs on the throttle cable to bad IAC's to dirty intakes and throttle bodies. Personally, I eye the IAC as the source of the problem, but it doesn't happen consistently enough for me to do a targeted diagnosis.

Hope this helps...

I've got a suspicion that the ECU or PCM or whatever you call that thing has a mind of its own. I think it's possessed, and at times it says " ". It seems that a lot of these intermittent problems can be resolved (on a short term basis) by resetting the ECU.

Im sorry, I must disagree with elizabeth. I had the EXACT same problem and the throttle hang fix cured it.


I also thought it was the cable, but when I poped my hood and had my friend push the gas while i looked at the throttle and cables, i noticed it was closing all the way.


So my next step is doing the 5 cent throttle hang fix, and surprise, surprise, the problem was gone. Before you go messing with your cables, try the throttle hang first. Its the easiest thing to do on your car, and its the cheapest.


And if the throttle hang doesn't fix it, then move on to the cables. But i can tell you Im almost positive the problem will go away after you do the fix.

And yes there are different serveraties of throttle hang. Like me, you might have one of the worst.


Roz

Thanks for all the responses. I checked the cables and did not find any problems. Since the throttle hang fix is so easy and inexpensive, I tried that and the fix seems to be working. I have one problem with the throttle hang fix. Now when I start the car in the morning, the cold idle revs at 750 instead of 1,500. Other than that, the car idles fine and the car's throttle problems have gone. I wonder if the throttle hang fix only cures the symptom and not the cause. I wonder if the problem is the idle control valve and replacing or cleaning that component will fix the throttle problem. Is it good for the car to idle at 750 RPM when the engine is cold?

Thanks,

200BLKSVT

with the throttle hang fix yes because the the pipe cap is restricting some of the air. I have the same problem that you have and it stabilzes at 750 rpm. Other than that it runs fine. How big did you drill the hole?