gas pedal sticking ?

[artie in miami]

Due to all the inactivity that my wife's car (2000 camry 4 cyl) has been subjected to (timing belt 2 week epic adventure) now...the gas pedal sticks...I greased the cable attached to the accelerator pedal and also under the hood where the cable is on a plastic pulley...still sticks. It feels mechanical (not the timing of the engine)...is there any other way to loosen up that cable ? (ie: a better place to lube it) Or...should I just replace it, and if so...which piece usually goes bad ?

artie in miami

[Nervous]

did you clean throttle body?

[BMR]

On my Camry I found a sticky gas pedal problem to be caused by the plastic pully; part of the cruise control hardware I think. It's under a plastic cover just left of the battery. I squirted some lube down at the pully's axle which fixed it. With the engine off, have someone press/letup on the accelerator repeatedly and lube anything that moves under there.

[Hajoca]

Did you clean the throttle body?

I would try and remove as much of the grease as I can from the cable. Grease there can cause binding when it dries up, or attracts too much dirt.

Use a dry type lube only, like graphite, teflon dust, or silicone

[artie in miami]

Hajoca
Where is the throttle body located ? Thanks

artie

Originally Posted by Hajoca

Did you clean the throttle body?

I would try and remove as much of the grease as I can from the cable. Grease there can cause binding when it dries up, or attracts too much dirt.

Use a dry type lube only, like graphite, teflon dust, or silicone

[Mike Gerber]

Another vote for cleaning your throttle body. Here's a DIY with some good pictures on how to do it on your 5SFE engine:

How to: Cleaning Throttle Body -4 Cylinder Engines- With Pictures

Mike

[AliRazoR]

You Tube

You Tube

[artie in miami]

I think I found the problem...when I did the timing belt job, I noticed that there were several small oil leaks and cleaned the bottom half of the engine with the spray on cleaner and then hosed it off with water. What I think happened is...the throttle cable seems to go into a box near the starter area...then...a cable that comes out of this box goes down into the area between the flywheel and the drivers side wheel weel and where the cable enters the transmission area...part of the inner steel is exposed...when I cleaned the engine, I think I washed off whatever lube this exposed calbe end had on it. Does any of this make sense ?? I sprayed that area with silicon spray and the gas pedal worked great for awhile. My wife drove the car to the keys and she says the gas pedal is starting to stick a little again. I may have hit on the right area, but used the wrong lube.

I did not clean the throttle body yet, as my wife needed to use the car and was afraid to let me start one of my projects again (timing belt job took two weeks !!). I will clean it this weekend. Funny that the sticking went away when I lubed that lower connection...now that the engine got hot...it is coming back a bit.

Any thoughts on this ??

artie