E46 pedal linkage

More likely the throttle body is gunked up. Try popping the hood and moving it by hand. If it doesn't move smoothly and seems to have a little hitch in it, get in there with some carb cleaner and a rag.

--scott

I thought the e46 throttle was drive-by-wire. e.g. the foot-pedal simply sensed depression and rate of depression and 'tells' the throttle body what to do electronically.

That's what I thought. I assumed there was only one possible lubrication point - on the pedal linkage itself. ie no cable or throttle body

If that's the case, does the pedal feel like it moves freely with the engine turned off? If it does, there probably isn't much to be done about it unless the pot attached to the pedal has gone noisy, right?

--scott

My daughter's E46 is not fly-by-wire. She has an "00 323.

I do not think the fly-by-wire made it to the 3 Series cars until the E90.

I dunno, I'm pretty sure my 01 e46 330Ci is fly by wire..

There's even a bimmerfest topic about exactly this. Looks like 2001+ e46'es. And this topic talks about what the OP is mentioning..

It's odd that they would make a change like that in the middle of a production run. I'm sure it's a good thing in the grand scheme of things. But, it's odd to make a change like that in the middle of the stream.

In any case, you found a link that helps the OP ...

Yes - I will look into this and hopefully solve the problem. Thanks.

BMW had a problem with accelerator pedal modules sticking esp. when hot. I think there was a service bullitin. NO recall. the ony way to fix it is replace the pedal module, that is if the car has the "fly-by- wire" system. it's easy to check, if there is a black box under the pedal you have the electronic version. if you have a pedal with a metal bracket with a metal bar that goes up into the dash you have a cable driven throttle. hope this helps .

Thanks - it is the black box type. I found that the pedal needed bending slightly and a little rubber cleaner to make it slide more easily through the rubber grommet. The pedal action 'feels' better now but the system does require a very gentle initial movement for smooth starts. My E30 is far less abrupt.