Car is accelerating on its own

KHOY6

MEMBER
2002 TOYOTA COROLLA
2WD
AUTOMATIC
130,000 MILES

I felt like my gas pedal was lower to the ground than it always is, and my RPMs were at 2,000. I don’t know if my gas pedal is stuck but nothing will bring it up off the ground. There is still some room between the floor and the pedal, but a noticeable difference and even in drive and reverse, the car will accelerate on its own.

Monday, February 21st, 2022 AT 6:35 PM

1 Reply

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
110,089 POSTS

Hi,

There is a throttle valve cable on this vehicle. It sounds like that may be causing it to stick. The cable will run to the throttle body.

Here is what I need you to do: Remove the top of the air filter box. See pic 1 below. Next, loosen the clamp where the air hose attaches to the throttle body.

Inspect the cable that goes to the throttle body. What I would suggest is to disconnect the cable to see if the idle speed goes down. If it does, that cable will likely need to be replaced.

I highlighted the parts below and have an arrow pointing to where the cable attaches.

Let me know what you find.

Joe

See pic below.

Image (Click to make bigger)