Rav4 Gas Pedal hard to push

All of a sudden my Rav4 (1998) with 131000 miles is causing me a gas pedal
problem. It doesn't happen all the time but it's annoying. After I come to
a complete stop sometimes the gas pedal has to be tapped to get it to go
down. I'd appreciate any help.

Dirty throttle body:

[url]http://experts.about.com/q/832/3752559.htm[/url]




"jimy39" <james.mack1@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:d11807cdb18ed9ef6355b0eb87ee491c@localhost.talkaboutautos.com...[color=blue]
> All of a sudden my Rav4 (1998) with 131000 miles is causing me a gas pedal
> problem. It doesn't happen all the time but it's annoying. After I come to
> a complete stop sometimes the gas pedal has to be tapped to get it to go
> down. I'd appreciate any help.
>[/color]

On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 17:11:44 -0500, "jimy39" <james.mack1@comcast.net>
wrote:
[color=blue]
>All of a sudden my Rav4 (1998) with 131000 miles is causing me a gas pedal
>problem. It doesn't happen all the time but it's annoying. After I come to
>a complete stop sometimes the gas pedal has to be tapped to get it to go
>down. I'd appreciate any help.[/color]

Mine started doing this at about 85k miles and it was carbon buildup
in the throttle body. It was easy to fix, I went to Auto-Zone and
bought a can of throttle body cleaner and cleaned it out. It's worked
for 10k miles since.

J

Thanks John..but where exactly is the throttle body?

"jimy39" <james.mack1@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:ac55fde11cfad0c3629f03d75efd2d1f@localhost.talkaboutautos.com...[color=blue]
> Thanks John..but where exactly is the throttle body?
>[/color]
Easiest way is to find the air filter housing, then follow the black air
duct back toward the engine. Along the way, you will see a silver throttle
body with the throttle cable and cruise control cable (if so equipped)
attached to a semi-circular link. Remove the air duct and look inside the
throttle body. You will see a flat plate inside that opens when you twist
the semi-circular link. Spray the plate with carb/throttle body cleaner in
the open and closed position and wipe out with rags or paper towels. The
carb cleaner is very flammable so make sure no heat sources are nearby.
Also spray the rod that the link and plate pivot on.

Put everything back together, and start it up. You will probably get some
smoke and rough running until everything is burned up in the engine.

The sticking gas pedal is caused by the edges of the plate sticking inside
the throttle body. The stickiness is not carbon as someone suggested, but a
film from oil fumes.
--
Ray O
correct the return address punctuation to reply

"Ray O" <rokigawa@tristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote in message
news:b2b2b$422a8b44$180fead6$24231@msgid.meganewsservers.com...[color=blue]
>
> "jimy39" <james.mack1@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:ac55fde11cfad0c3629f03d75efd2d1f@localhost.talkaboutautos.com...[color=green]
>> Thanks John..but where exactly is the throttle body?
>>[/color]
> Easiest way is to find the air filter housing, then follow the black air
> duct back toward the engine. Along the way, you will see a silver
> throttle body with the throttle cable and cruise control cable (if so
> equipped) attached to a semi-circular link. Remove the air duct and look
> inside the throttle body. You will see a flat plate inside that opens
> when you twist the semi-circular link. Spray the plate with carb/throttle
> body cleaner in the open and closed position and wipe out with rags or
> paper towels. The carb cleaner is very flammable so make sure no heat
> sources are nearby. Also spray the rod that the link and plate pivot on.
>
> Put everything back together, and start it up. You will probably get some
> smoke and rough running until everything is burned up in the engine.
>
> The sticking gas pedal is caused by the edges of the plate sticking inside
> the throttle body. The stickiness is not carbon as someone suggested, but
> a film from oil fumes.
> --
> Ray O
> correct the return address punctuation to reply[/color]

some modern cars have a throttle body that must NOT be cleaned under any
circumstances, it has some sort of special coating on, the only cars I have
seen so far are late ford escorts (UK) but no doubt it will spread to other
makes

mrcheerful

On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 18:58:52 -0500, "jimy39" <james.mack1@comcast.net>
wrote:
[color=blue]
>Thanks John..but where exactly is the throttle body?
>[/color]
Its where the cable from the accelarator pedal ends in a semicirclular
disk which moves the plate inside the air duct. You might want to
jack one side of the car up to keep the cleaner from running down into
the engine. It helps to drain all the gunk out when you clean it and
keeps it out of the engine.


J