Dear Volvo junkies,

My gas pedal "sticks", that is, it doesn't go down smoothly but "catches" or "hesitates" before going down and engaging the fuel injectors. The Volvo manual states that you shouldn't grease it but then how do you make the thing smooth? Thanks

 

You need to find out if its the throttle body, the mechanism that opens the throttle body, the cable or the pedal. There are multiple spots that could cause it.

 

You could have a gummed up throttle body. Pop the hood and try to move it by hand. See if it's sticking or if the cable is binding somewhere.

 

If it only happens at first I'm going with gummed up thorttle. First picture isn't really all that bad but you want to clean it so it looks like the second. Make sure you use a product that is for the throttle body. Do NOT use carb cleaner. It can damage the coating on the throttle plate.

 

A coating? Ooooppssss!!! I always use carb cleaner. I didn't know it mattered. I also use carb cleaner on my EGR, intake, and everything else in there that looks dirty.

 

Thanks guys, I'll try the easiest first: the cable foot pedal area, especially since there's no problem of power when I get past the "slack" (or it seems like that). Then will look under the hood, my last resort.

 

The throttle plate has a coating to keep it from rusting/corroding. It's such a tight fit it wouldn't take much to make it start to stick. Carb cleaner is a great cleaner but it's too aggressive to that coating and can start to peel it off. Whatever you do, just never soak it in cleaner.
The other one is the Mass Air Flow sensor. If yours acts up and you want to clean it there is a MAF sensor aerosol cleaner that is different again. On that one I can't remember what the difference is but for what a MAF costs it's worth it to get the 6 buck cleaner.

 

Heck, when you're in the store looking at the shelf, there's about 20 different cans of stuff. One for this, one for that, then one for MAF, one for brake dust, one for your hair, yada yada yada. I guess I better start reading those things so I don't mess anything up. I usually spray and scrub with a tooth brush to get things cleaned up good.

 

You sounds like the inner cable is starting to snag & fray. When was the last time you lubed it?
I lube mine every Oil change and goes to show it is the Original one from factory.
16 years and 400,000+ later

 

mattyxxl

it's the original (1994, 175,000 mi) and I've never lubed it. I just looked at the cable. The plastic covering is frayed, so lubed the exposed parts of the wound-up metal under it and other areas nearer the end of it (towards the front) and the gizmo it goes into. you put lube grease, right, not lubricating oil? If this works, I'll leave the rest alone since once past the "slack" in the pedal, the car responds well in terms of the power.