Accelerator pedal sticking; throttle body cleaning no help

[keith3267]

This is a good thread with a lot of good info, I just would like to point out that the Subaru throttle body is no different than the throttle bodies on all vehicles of that era.  The only difference between it and the newest throttle bodies is that the direct link, that is the cable no longer exists.  All new vehicles are throttle by wire.  The problems you have had with yours is common to all makes and models.

 

If you go to a general car forum such as cartalk.com, you see this complaint on every model when some uninformed person "adjusted the idle".  Some models are more inclined to have a gummy build up behind the throttle plate than others, my Saturn needed the throttle body cleaned about every 10-20k miles, I did it myself, its not hard to do.

[Suz]

I have 03 Forrester.  Had the head gaskets replaced.  It did not crank on 1st turn of the key - so I gave the gas pedal a short jab.  Next crank resulted in throttle stuck and it went to full rev.  It was a bit scary. 

 

I had purchased a shop manual years ago and took a look at the diagrams of the pedal and throttle body.   Turned out there are 3 clips that hold the accelerator cable.  My mechanic had only attached 1 close to the throttle.  So the short jab to the gas pedal had kinked the wire enough to stick in full throttle.  A manual toggle of the release worked.  But after reviewing the diagrams and reattaching the other 2 clips I feel better about the problem, and hope it is fixed now.  Just thought I would post - since this forum got me pointed in the right direction to find the sections in the shop manual. 

 

Your fix could also be - are all 3 clips attached in the right places?  White one is close to the wall attached to the brake booster, then 2 black ones attach to hoses in the engine compartment to complete the "J" shaped curve from the pedal to the throttle body.