Sudden Acceleration! Almost can't stop! Help

[Clunkers]

Here Goes... 1992 Ford Taurus, 80K on it. When you go to step on the gas, it will just take off! (At times, all I have to do it tap the gas pedal once and it will start going and speeding up on its own). Sometimes when cruising at a normal speed, it acts as if the cruise control is on...it will start to speed up for no reason.

When braking, the engine does not want to de-celerate and I have to put it in neutral sometimes just to get it to stop: (ran into the back of my brother's Explorer discovering That One!). When I shift from Drive to Neutral, the engine finally goes down to an idling rpm.

I've pulled the Cruise Control Fuse, Replaced the Throttle Position Sensor Unit, and replaced the Inlet Air Tempurature Unit.

Running out of Ideas. I would REALLY appreciate Any help anyone can give me! Thanks!

[jpell8]

Accellerator stuck?

[Madcat455]

check to see if the Throttle Body has any tension where the Gas Pedal cable hooks up... Move it with your hand (with the car off...lol), and see if it snaps back into the Closed position. If it feels like there is no tension or doesn't return, then it's probably a broken return spring. I had a Return spring break on an old car and it did almost the exact same thing yours is doing (except for putting it in Neutral and the RPM's dropping to normal).

Putting it in N and having the RPM's drop is the only thing that makes me think it could be electrical.... except that the throttle is not electronically controlled (except for the Cruise)... IAC will account for some speed increase, but not as drastic as you're describing. Could be the Cruise Control trying to accellerate the car by itself, but removing the fuse "should" prevent that.... But just in case you can trace the Cruise control throttle cable and disconnect just that one from the TB. Won't fix the problem, but would make it driveable until you found out what was wrong with the cruise system (providing that's the problem)

My money is on the Return spring (usually wound inside where the Throttle cable attaches).

Good Luck

[way2old]

Look closely at the accelerator linkage from the pedal to the throttle body. Look for anything that may cause the binding such as routed wrong, kinks, or weak springs. Also look at the throttle plate inside the throttle body to see if it has a lot of carbon built up on it. This will cause the accelerator not to close properly. Good luck.

[Clunkers]

Ok, tried changing the air idle/mixing/bypass valve. (whatever it's called - its on top of the intake manifold). Finally figured out what it was by unplugging different things and trying my luck. So its at least stopped that.

Now..Next problem - The Air bag light keeps flashing at me. It flashes 3 times in a row, then a pause, then 2 times...and so on repeating. Disconnected battery for an hour, and checked connections for the air bag sensors. Think I'm going to try taking it up to Autozone, for the free computer diagnostics. Hopefully they can figure it out. I swear the car is mad at me for trying to fix it.

If anyone else has had this same issue, any clues would help. Thank you to the others who gave their suggestions before as to what I could do about the acceleration issue.