928 DesMoines

My apologies in advance for the long note here.
I'm somewhat perplexed, but could it possibly be ant-theft alarm related?
Background: 1990 S4 All service up to snuff with intake refresh, TB/WP service all professionally done last summer. Car has been running superbly up until this point.
The Story: Decided to have the car detailed at a very reputable shop. They have done good work for me on a different car. I instructed them not to do any engine cleaning or interior shampoo. Basically, it was a vacuum and wax. When I went to pick the car up, everything looked great. The car was outside the shop ready to go. Nothing seemed amiss and I was very pleased with the job done. The shop also attended normal and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Car started right up with good idle as usual. I started coasting out of the parking lot.... then, when I hit the gas: NOTHING! I mean, it just continued to idle like it just didn't care what I wanted to do.
So, I idled it back into the parking lot and went in to talk with the shop guys. They said they hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary and stated that they only idled it around the shop to move it and never drove the car. I believe them. They then mentioned that oh by the way they DID set of the car alarm like 3 times and panicked until they found that the door lock turned it off. I felt a little bad as I had totally forgot to warn them about the alarm.


More: In my effort to figure things out. I popped the hood and manually checked the throttle assembly, nothing looked bound up. I blipped it by hand, and still no revs above idle. I locked, unlocked the doors a few times. NADA.


I have searched the forum, but I am having trouble finding anything.


I really appreciate any help or guidance on this.

Mrmerlin

OK so the cable has come off the wheel under that air cleaner,
put the cable back on the wheel
OR the cable has come off the ball on the throttle quadrant that goes around the wheel to the throttle plate

Bertrand Daoust

What Stan said.

I don't think this has anything to do with your alarm system.

The only thing I can think off would be that the throttle cable is detached from the throttle body or off the wheel.

Wisconsin Joe

Not the alarm.

If the alarm is screwed up, it won't start at all.

928 DesMoines

Stan, Thank you for the quick reply on this. I am following your lead and Scratching off the alarm idea to follow the cable theory.

I will go back to the shop tomorrow (they were nice enough to keep it parked inside locked up tonight) and get a closer at the throttle cable and report back. Dumb question: Do I remove the air cleaner assembly in order to get at the wheel?

I will also take some pictures.

Thanks again.

James Bailey

Yes to access the plastic wheel you need to remove the lower air cleaner housing which is bolted in place. The airflow meter/mass air sensor will come up with it and needs to be unplugged. Use care when you reseat it. The wires and connector are both old and brittle.

Mrmerlin

all you need is a 10 mm socket to remove the nuts that hold on the lower portion of the aircleaner,
a flashlight will also be handy

GregBBRD

It would be really interesting to know how they managed to get the throttle cable off of the wheel, idling it around their shop.....

dr bob

Might also be interesting to know how the cable came loose, while they were doing whatever they were doing.


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Meanwhile, following the theory that you should look at what you did last, my first look would be at the cable between the pedal and the throttle quadrant on the left side of the intake. With hood open and engine off, press on the pedal and see if the bellcranks on the quadrant move at all. You'd likely notice that the pedal is very 'soft' if the pedal cable is disconnected, but worth a look there first. Since the detailing team was officially cleaning/vacuuming the rugs in that area, my search would start there at the pedal.

If the pedal is indeed connected to the quadrant, the next step is to pop the throttle cable ball from the linkage on the quadrant and see if there's tension on it. You may detect the lack of tension even without disconnecting anything, looking for a droopy cable with the linkage at idle position. A finger on the cable itself will be enough to tell. If there's no tension, the cable is either off the wheel, disconnected at the throttle itself, or broken.

The throttle housing --should be-- snug in there, so may need to be loosened with a socket on an extension or maybe a long screwdriver through the right side of the intake. Depends on how the clamp was aligned following your intake refresh effort last summer. It's possible to reconnect the cable to the ball stud on the throttle arm if it has come off, using a long-reach pliers. Avoid trying to just pry on something to get the cable reconnected there, as you'll bend the arm a bit before the cable will pop back on.

James Bailey

Right ....Hey Earl I hear these here Porches are real fast........

And sounds like the OP already tried blipping it by hand under the hood.

928 DesMoines

Stan, you are a very good man.

Removed the Air Filter assembly. Found the plastic wheel and sure enough,the cable was off. I disconnected the cable on the assembly ball end near the intake so I would have enough slack to get the cable back on the wheel. After getting the cable back on, I squeezed the ball back on the assembly.

Took about 10 minutes out of my lunch break.

Why the cable came off the wheel at the detail shop..... I may never know.It was shoulder shrugs all around. Not sure how any "carpet play"near the foot pedal would create enough slack for the cable to come off thatwheel. Just seems so improbable. I could only repeat that I instructed them to stay out of the engine bay. We concluded on good terms.

Thanks again guys for the help; especially to Stan for calling it so quickly.

I am so thankful for this forum.

FredR

Sounds as though you need to ensure there is not too much slack on the cable adjustment- that is about the only thing short of sabotage that I can think of that may explain why it fell off the wheel in the first place. Worse, if it is too slack, then in all probability the throttle will not open fully as there is little room for error and it will probably fall off again.

Rgds

Fred

Kevin in Atlanta

Also look for binding as the cable heads toward the throttle body. Any interference or rubbing from a misrouted cable can cause this. I know from personal experience.

928 DesMoines

Thanks Fred I will check it out. I am going to re-check slack and adjust it .
For the quick parking lot repair, I couldn't get the cable back on the wheel without unhooking it at the ball end first, so there is some hope that it will be something minor. Just a head scratching mystery as the car was running excellent when I dropped it off.

Kevin, I will also look for anything that might bind the cable up.

The car looks fantastic by the way! LOL.

Mrmerlin

note that if you make any adjustments to the throttle plate cable,
you will change the kickdown point .

Making the throttle cable tighter makes the bowden cable in effect become looser and visa versa.

Also make sure to not make the throttle cable so tight as to remove the necessary slack you should hear a slight click from the TPS when the quadrant is moved from just off idle.