Sticking Gas Pedal at Idle

[joe n suzanne]

Hope someone can give me some tips. All of a sudden on our '98 Buick Park Avenue, the gas pedal is stuck and it is very hard to press down on it.
Here is some of the info. Driving the car the pedal is fine. Once you stop the car and turn it off, and then the problem happens. It is very hard to press down on the pedal, but it will free up after a couple of presses on the pedal. Once you start the engine it seems to be ok, once you press down hard enough. You can drive it foreever and it wont stick anymore even at red lights, as long as the engine is running.

I looked at the linkage at the throttle body, and I decicded to try and move the throttle lever at the throttle body, while engine is off, and it was hard to move at that point. It seems someting inside is sticking when the throttle plate is closed or idle position when you turn the eninge off.I can hear the "sticking noise" it seems inside. The car has only 65,500 miles on it and seems odd for the throttle to stick.

So my question is, does anyone have any tips or suggestions on what to look for, before I have to take it in to the dealer.

Thanks Joe

[tman]

Sounds like you;ve got a sever case of carbon buildup on your throttle body. I'd suggest removing the throttle body and cleaning the black stuff (carbon) off of the inside of it. You may be able to do this while it's on the engine. spray come carbuerator cleaner inside it and use a hard toothbrush or wire brush to clean it. You should clean the interior or the throttle body and the butterfly valve as well.

Good Luck!

[yogi_123rd]

Agree with Tman. I also get the problem too. I think just spraying carb cleaner down the barrel should do it as I suspect the carbon is building up on the sides causing the butterfly valve to stick.

[tman]

Yogi- On my silverado, it was a really bad buildup, carb cleaner alone wouldn't do the job.

Try it, but be advised that you may need to use a little muscle to assist it.

[joe n suzanne]

Thanks for all the replys. I am going to try that this morning and see what happens. I hope that is all the problem. I will post back later on in the day to let you know what happened.
Joe

[joe n suzanne]

Well I took a look at it by removing th e rubber connection and they have a honey comb mesh hiding the inside of the throttle body. So it looks like I will be taking it apart this week. No time today, but I will get to it, and clean it out.
Thanks for the replys and helpful info.
Joe