Sticky Gas Pedal in Cold Weather
 

I've noticed an odd issue with my gas pedal this past week (which has been quite frigid in western PA). When I press the gas pedal, the pedal "sticks" a bit--it takes a bit of force to press down and seems to "click" down when pressed. This only seems to happen when the outdoor temperature is at the ambient level (when the orange light goes on) or lower and doesn't happen every time I hit the pedal (it occurs mostly when I first get in the car).

It's not a huge issue, as the pedal always goes down, but I just don't like the feel of a pedal like this. Is there anything I can do for this or is this a common quirk in cold weather? (It also happened last winter but I've noticed it more this year because it's been sitting out more during the day due to my current schedule). Is it perhaps in need of a lubricant or something?

I just had the car inspected two weeks ago and there were no problems with it. It's been driven about 120 miles since that date.

Sounds to me like the throttle plate is sticking inside the throttle body. I've had similar experiences in my other cars; the first drive of the day you have put a little sharp force into the gas peddle and after that it drives fine for the day. I cleaned the throttle body and all the stickiness in the peddle went away.

Could be that the throttle is sticking closed or that the cable itself needs to be lubed. I would first give the throttle body a good cleaning the make sure that it is not gummed up at all. If that does not fix the issue, then I would remove the throttle cable and lube it up. That should fix the issue.

Thanks for the replies. I've got a few questions about this procedure.

Keep in mind I don't work on the mechanical pats of cars; aside from changing light bulbs I have my mechanic perform almost all work on my vehicle. I do, however, like to know what goes on in the car so I can understand the vehicle and its components, communicate better with the mechanic, and be able to point a fellow Volvo owner with the same problem in the right direction :-)

1. What exactly is the throttle body?

2. What needs to be done to access the throttle body? Is this something I could possibly do myself or should I have someone experienced do it for me?