I was driving to Costco last night down a 4 line road. I was in the outside and wanted to pass someone ahead of me. I pulled into the inside lane and momentarily floored it to get by the guy. I felt something through the accelerator as I did that, kind of a "click." When I released the accelerator, my Jeep stayed FLOORED. For those of you that don't own one, while they are not a high-performance vehicle, one thing they do have is a lot of torque out of that straight 6, so it'll get you moving in a hurry if its floored. :Q
I was in forth gear at the time. I nailed the brakes to keep my speed under control. I tried to flip my gas pedal up with my foot as I thought it might have got caught under the floormat. The gas pedal moved freely so that wasn't it. As I did that I had to let off the brake so I could move my foot around there so I sped up again. So, I put the brakes back on but they were starting to "stiffen up" (happens if you push the brake pedal rapidly several times.) Luckilly, traffic wasn't terribly heavy. I put my 4way flashers on, kept my brakes nailed and pulled back into the outside lane. As I slowed to about 50, I killed the ignition and coasted over a snow pile into the ditch to get off the road.
I got out of my Jeep and played with the accelerator pedal. It moved freely. I opened the hood. My hood light was burnt out
so I couldn't see anything, but I could tell my throttle linkage was stuck in the wide open position. So, I manually moved it and it snapped back to idle.
So, I got back in my Jeep, fired it up and it ran fine. I put it into 4Low to climb over the snow bank (good thing I was in a vehicle with good body clearance and 4X4 or else I would have been screwed) and made it to Costco without further incident.
I killed the engine, and for the hell of it floored it again with it turned off. It stuck wide open again. I opened the hood and saw the problem. Luckilly, there was light in the parking lot so I could see.
Somehow, my block heater plug came unfastened from where it usually is. The part that actually plugs into the wall fit underneath my linkage only when it was floored (the only time there was enough room for it). Then, once it was there it kept it from returning to a closed position.
I moved it out of the way and all was fine.
So, lessons for today:
#1 - Make sure you have nothing the could potentially interfere with your throttle linkage. Periodically check this. That was my mistake.
#2 - If the same thing happens to you. DONT PANIC. Your brakes are enough to overpower your engine (as long as they're in good shape they should be!). Keep your car under control and kill the engine with the key. Worst case scenario, I suppose you could dump the clutch or put it in neutral but depending on what your vehicle is, you could blow the engine doing that.
#3 - Change your underwear.
Funny enough, I was all calm and cool when it all happened. I just operated on instinct. This is a good thing. It didn't dawn on me until later when I thought that it could have been a far different outcome if there was more traffic, on a different road or didn't think straight and just panicked.
I was in forth gear at the time. I nailed the brakes to keep my speed under control. I tried to flip my gas pedal up with my foot as I thought it might have got caught under the floormat. The gas pedal moved freely so that wasn't it. As I did that I had to let off the brake so I could move my foot around there so I sped up again. So, I put the brakes back on but they were starting to "stiffen up" (happens if you push the brake pedal rapidly several times.) Luckilly, traffic wasn't terribly heavy. I put my 4way flashers on, kept my brakes nailed and pulled back into the outside lane. As I slowed to about 50, I killed the ignition and coasted over a snow pile into the ditch to get off the road.
I got out of my Jeep and played with the accelerator pedal. It moved freely. I opened the hood. My hood light was burnt out
So, I got back in my Jeep, fired it up and it ran fine. I put it into 4Low to climb over the snow bank (good thing I was in a vehicle with good body clearance and 4X4 or else I would have been screwed) and made it to Costco without further incident.
I killed the engine, and for the hell of it floored it again with it turned off. It stuck wide open again. I opened the hood and saw the problem. Luckilly, there was light in the parking lot so I could see.
Somehow, my block heater plug came unfastened from where it usually is. The part that actually plugs into the wall fit underneath my linkage only when it was floored (the only time there was enough room for it). Then, once it was there it kept it from returning to a closed position.
I moved it out of the way and all was fine.
So, lessons for today:
#1 - Make sure you have nothing the could potentially interfere with your throttle linkage. Periodically check this. That was my mistake.
#2 - If the same thing happens to you. DONT PANIC. Your brakes are enough to overpower your engine (as long as they're in good shape they should be!). Keep your car under control and kill the engine with the key. Worst case scenario, I suppose you could dump the clutch or put it in neutral but depending on what your vehicle is, you could blow the engine doing that.
#3 - Change your underwear.
Funny enough, I was all calm and cool when it all happened. I just operated on instinct. This is a good thing. It didn't dawn on me until later when I thought that it could have been a far different outcome if there was more traffic, on a different road or didn't think straight and just panicked.
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