For the past couple of years, I have noticed than when the weather turns cold, my 2003 Subaru Baja's accelerator pedal sticks upon initially depressing it. I have to sort of force it or pop it loose and then it's fine until the next time the car sits for a long while in the cold.
Has anyone dealt with this issue? Any helpful advice (besides take it to the dealer) would be appreciated.
Jay M VA, USA '03 Subaru Baja Sport 5sp
My '99 just started doing this recently. This is, by far, the coldest temps since I've had the car. I'm guessing there's condensation forming then freezing on the pedal assembly somewhere. If we ever see temps above freezing again I'll know for sure.
-John O
Just lurking here--don't even have a sube, but it sounds as the throttle plate is getting stuck in the gunk that collects on the body bore. On other cars I've cleaned that with carb-choke cleaner and then sprayed the area with silicone grease and that cured the condition for a long time.
wrenden
Hi old-timer, that woulda worked in the old days, but of course these days all of these cars are fuel-injected, not carburetted. These days the problem could just as easily be because of a stuck throttle position sensor.
Yousuf Khan
Not true young man. My above fix *was* done on fuel-injected vehicles. The gunk comes from the crankcase vent system--a very common problem on any car. See
Fuel injected still has a valve, just like the "old" carb. It is funny to hear carb stuff referred to as old. There isn't a fuel injection on this planet that has the genious real time function as a carb. Fuel injection is mimicking the carbs and always will- there is an eternal delay forever in many aspects of fuel/air carbeuration when it went to injection. Anyway...
It can happen to any car in cold climate. They don't build them for it. The silicone into cables, and other lubes help. water dispersal additives in fuel helps too. The subes are usually quite warm on top of engine where this linkage is, must be a lube problem (water etc)
Not something to be ignored. I had a throttle cable freeze up on my fathers' Ford Exploder, and it damned near killed me. Seized while underway on an icy winding 2-lane back road. The truck kept gaining speed even with both my feet hard on the brakes. In the end the only way I got it to whoa was by chucking it in neutral and quickly hitting the switch before the valves bounced. Suddenly being without power steering and brakes at
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