Stuck accelerator?

[ErickSaint]

Posting on behalf of my friend that owns a 96 explorer. Last night on the freeway he tried to use the cruise and the truck went nuts. Like he buried his foot on the gas, but he wasn't even really on the gas. Let off the gas and hit the cruise button again and it was still racing, by this time bouncing off the rev limiter for sure. He turned the key off and was able to muscle the car to the side of the road.

Let it sit for a few mins and tried again, as soon as he turned the key the rpms went all the way up again, so he shut it down to figure out what to do.

Let it sit for an hour or two and then came back for a tow, while waiting on the tow truck turned it over and it started just fine. Canceled the tow,and it has been running fine all day, so it seems.

Anybody ever hear of such a problem?

 

[schmidlkofer]

clean the linkage and what not and give it a try again. it happened to me lastweek driving but i didnt use the cruise.

 

[MONMIX]

does he have an after market intake ?

Once when I out my MAC on the part of the hose clamp that you tighten was too close to the throttle cable and it caught it. Scared the _____ out of me !!!!!!

 

[ErickSaint]

No aftermarket anything...all stock baby.

 

[dogfriend]

Check the throttle body to make sure the throttle plate isn't sticking open because of carbon deposits. Its common on Fords, although they added coatings by 97 to minimize the problem. If it has a coating (it will have a warning sticker if it does), you can still wipe with a rag to clean it. If it doesn't have a coating, then spray with carb cleaner to remove the deposits.

 

[shamaal]

Another thing, and as stupid as it sounds it has happened to me, the driver's carpet mat inches up on the accelerator pedal and holds it down. I've also read about it somewhere in a Ford bulletin.

 

[ErickSaint]

Hmm, stopped getting updates from this thread for some reason. I'm helping him do brakes this weekend, so I will poke around the linkages and the TB and see if anything sticks out. So far the problem has not come back.

/me knocks on wood.