Hello Honda-tech Forum!

Until yesterday, I never gave a thought to the gas pedal on my 94 accord Wagon. It just worked, and gave normal feedback with normal spring action.

Then yesterday I took the car out and immediately noticed that pedal effort was very high. The car even kept going slowly with my foot off the pedal.

I pulled over and checked the cables. To my surprise, they were still in the proper grooves of the throttle body butterfly actuator assembly. And the TB butterfly valve turned easily when I revved the engine by hand.

So I hopped back in and hit the gas. The pedal had stopped moving the cable. Stomping on it didn't help; my car was stuck at the curb.

To get home, I had to adjust the cable end at the throttle body to get a fast idle, then I could limp home two blocks at 5mph.

Back in the garage, I disconnected the throttle cable from the throttle body. Still no change at the pedal. Very hard to depress, seemingly frozen. I sprayed everything with Break Free. I peered at the pedal mechanism and it looked ok...I can't think of how this might have happened suddenly. From a normal gas pedal, to "am I going to break this if I push harder?"

Any advice appreciated.

 

The cable when disconnected can you pull it back and forth?

Is the sheath cracked anywhere ? The cable can catch the ridge and bind.

 

It is cracked. I will try taking it off and checking for binding.

 

If everything at the engine side is loose and free, disconnect at the pedal, if it's the cable it will not move in its sheath.
Had this happen on another rig. Replaced the cable, problem solved.

 

Yep,there's nothing else for it. I took it out but can't free up the sheath.

 

It was hard to remove the frozen cable, but easy to install a good replacement one from the junkyard. Being able to slide the cable end to get some slack makes all the difference.

Do you guys lube the cable? Some advise against it.
.

 

In case anyone is interested, I used silicone spray. It reduced friction on the used cable I installed.

 

Good idea.