Right at the beginning of the Labour Day weekend, the idle on my car suddenly started acting up. I’d just stopped at an intersection with 4 stop signs and I was waiting to make a right turn. I look up at my rearview mirror and saw a car coming up behind me quite fast. In fact, it was coming so fast that I was sure it would not be able to stop before hitting my rearend. It was my turn to move so I hit the accelerator pedal quickly and kept it on while I made my right turn. It was at the next stop sign that the idle did not dip down to its usual 900 RPM but remained in the 2K range.
Luckily, I was less than 5 minutes from my house. I pulled the car into my garage and popped the hood open with the engine still idling at about 2 K. I played with the throttle cam and the idle came back down to 900. I turned off the engine and went in for dinner. After dinner, I started the car up again and sure enough the idle got stuck at 2 K. So I took a closer look at the throttle area and this is what I saw:




I immediately saw that the cable was unravelling itself. I turned off the engine, went back in the house and immediately went online to order a new throttle cable from http://canada.europartsetc.com/ .
Did the sudden acceleration from the stop sign break one of the cable’s threads? Did this prevent the cable from releasing the throttle plate completely and contribute to the high idle? I don’t know but my guess is the unravelling was more due to normal wear. I was just lucky that the high idle prompted me to look at the throttle area a little closer and notice the broken thread.

The new cable came within a week.



Now replacing a throttle cable is not very difficult in itself. The steps are as follows:

1. Disconnect the cable from the accelerator pedal
2. Disconnect the other end of the cable from the throttle body cam.
3. Disconnect the cable from the manifold retaining bracket.
4. Pull the cable assembly through the firewall into the engine bay.
5. Installing the new cable is the reverse.

In fact, the most difficult part is getting under the dash to disconnect the cable from the accelerator pedal. Especially when you’re 6’2”, over 200 lbs and into your 5th decade of life! My contortionist days are long gone, so I actually had to remove the driver’s seat to enable me to crawl under there. Once I had the seat removed, I found years of accumulated dirt, a cigarette butt, a dime and a marble ball!




Once I was able to wiggle myself under the dash, this is what I saw:




The cable hooks up to the pedal way up near the firewall (see red arrow):



To unhook the cable, use any sort of fairly rigid flat-bladed tool. I used a flat-blade wood chisel between the rubber rectangular “ring” and the metal to pry it off the pin. This is what the pin looks like once the rubber rectangular “ring” is off:




Next, I unhooked the cable from the throttle cam:




Next, unscrew the front nut of the cable assembly from the manifold retaining bracket:




Then, pull the cable assembly back until you can slide the cable out of the small side slot of the bracket:




Next, I pulled the cable assembly forward from the firewall rubber grommet and then I went inside under the dash and pushed the grommet out into the engine bay. Finally, I pulled the rest of the cable assembly out.




Reinstalling the new cable assembly was quite simple. I just fished the cable from the engine bay through the firewall and into the cabin. I pushed the firewall grommet onto the firewall opening and made sure it sealed properly. I crawled back under the dash and hooked the rubber rectangular “ring” onto the accelerator metal pin. Then, I inserted the cable into the slot of the manifold retaining bracket, inserted the end of the cable into the throttle cam, and screwed on the nut at the bracket.
I started the car and the idle was back to normal. I’ve been driving the car for two days now and the idle has stayed in its normal range.

 

nice little write up, THX. I know what you mean about working under the IP when you're in your 50s..it SUCKS!

 

Thanks for putting this together.

 

thanks
I just replaced mine & boom

No more idle problems

 

Glad the writeup helped out!

 

Great tutorial!

 

Four years later and you are still helping with this nicely illustrated "how to". Very nice. Thanks.

 

Take with a little tongue in cheek...
5th decade is being in your forties. I 'm my seventh, just turned 60.
Doing jobs like this is the only time I'm glad I'm 5'9" 150 lb.
Worst part of working under dash is being able to focus on something that close. (in the seventh decade)

Enjoyed the post!

 

To anyone who has done this. Did you use the position of the old manifold bracket retaining nut to set the position of the nut on new cable ? I am guessing you would but not sure if old cables would have stretched and whether the new cable would need adjustment or not. Any info would be great
peace
Cyberpunky

 

Thanks for the write up. Make it look easy enough to try as a lazy day upgrade.

 

Thanks for posting this. It's just what I needed.

 

No, I just set the cable to where it was snug enough to not have any slack and not affect the return to idle - I did it about 3 months ago. And pulling the seat is a pain so I try to plan ahead with some pre-ordered parts. I reset the clutch pedal, brake pedal and don't forget to order up those new pedal pads. All stuff that brings back that crisp feeling. The downside was I dinged the door opening with the seat. Arg....Bruce

 

Thanks for the pics, it was bot an easy place to get to at 6'4 230lbs. I tried a different approach that worked and would prob be easier for someone smaller than I. Since I have an aftermarket steering wheel I took that off, put the seat in full recline and laid down with my feet out into the hatch and my head up by the pedals. If you're going to do this make sure you get everything you need up by the brake pedal as you won't be able to reach it once you're in.

 

@951Porschiste eleven years and counting you thread is still delivering 👍👍👍

@Minispeed Great idea, removing the steering wheel was the ticket 😎

 

I’ll be doing this soon. Thanks for the write-up… (I’m 6’1 and 250 pounds, but at least I’ve been warned!)

Jer