Throttle Cable
The throttle cable is an important part in your vehicle that must be working at all times to assure your vehicle is performing properly. The throttle cable is responsible for keeping the engine’s throttle body and accelerator pedal connected. If the throttle cable isn’t properly in place, it could lead to faulty acceleration or possibly no vacuum being created inside the throttle body, which leads to no acceleration at all. In order to make sure your acceleration pedal is always functional, you’ll have to make sure the throttle cable is working properly.
How the Throttle Cable Works
The throttle cable connects the accelerator pedal to the throttle body (located in the engine). When you push down on the accelerator pedal, the throttle cable will open a valve in the throttle body. This will allow more air to enter the throttle body and ultimately create a vacuum within the throttle body. As the vacuum gets stronger, the amount of fuel mixed into the air in the throttle body will increase.
How to Fix the Throttle Cable
If the throttle cable isn’t working properly it can lead to a negative throttle response. If you want to make sure you can properly accelerate, you will need to fix the throttle cable whenever it’s not working right. Fixing the throttle cable isn’t too difficult as all you have to do is readjust the cable so the tension is at a performable level.
Guide to Fixing the Throttle Cable
There aren’t many steps to follow in order to fix the throttle cable but this guide will help you with the process. First off, you need to open the hood and find the throttle body. Usually the throttle body is in the back of the engine bay. On one side of the throttle body will be the fuel rail and on the other side will be the air intake system.
Spotting the throttle body shouldn’t be too difficult. Once you do, you will have to find the throttle cable, which is just attached to the throttle body. There will be an adjustment screw somewhere on the throttle cable which will help you with changing the tension of the cable. By turning the nut you can repair the cable whether it’s too lose or too tight.
Use an open ended wrench to turn the adjustment nut in either direction. Most vehicles will need to be adjusted to have a quarter of an inch of give. If you wish to find out the best tension specifications to follow when readjusting the throttle cable, check your vehicle’s manual. Once tightened to the correct specification, your vehicle should be able to start idling between 500 and 800 RPM.
There will be many different signs of problems with the throttle cable. If your vehicle isn’t accelerating smoothly nor has problems downshifting, you may want to check if there are any problems with the throttle. Whenever there’s a problem that could relate to the throttle response, it’s best to first attempt to readjust the throttle cable in case that will solve the problem. By doing so, you could save a lot of hassle and money from repairing other parts that could be more difficult to deal with.
If you notice any problems at all you will want to care to them immediately. If you don’t fix the tension level of the throttle cable as soon as it’s noticed, it could lead to serious driving issues. To assure your safety and the safety of others on the road you will want to repair your throttle cable as soon as the problem is discovered.