Accelerator Cable or Throttle Body?

[Kenneth Keith]

Phil and Judy Rose <pjrose at frontiernet.net> wrote:
> 
> At 2:01 AM -0500 5/1/05, Brice Warnick wrote:
> >I let my brother-in-law drive my car last week and told him to not be
> >afraid to tromp the pedal. He did and the engine revved out of control.
> >I turned the key off and found that the little square black plastic
> >piece at the end of the accelerator cable had a piece broke off. I was
> >able to nestle it back under and it has only came off again once.
> >I ordered a new cable a few days ago.
> >Is the little square black plastic piece attached to the end of the
> >cable or is it part of the throttle body? It appears to be at the end of
> >the cable but I am not quite sure. I guess I will know for sure when the
> >cable arrives on Monday.  The cable was only $56.00 from the local
> >dealer.
> 
> Brice,
> No! It's _not_ attached to the end of the cable! It's molded around
> the small metal protrusion at the end of the throttle lever
> (actuator).  A very bad design---like most of Audi's plastic
> components. Cancel your order for that cable--you're throwing away
> "only" $56. The problem with the throttle mechanism and can be easily
> fixed--I use a couple of tight twists of baling wire (plus a small
> nylon cable-tie for good measure). It helped that I still had the
> broken plastic pieces and the clip.  That repair has worked fine for
> at least 4 years (and  a lot of hard throttle-tromping).
> 
> An alternative that I've heard someone describe involves drilling a
> couple of small holes through the sides of the actuator and inserting
> a metal rod which then act to restrain/retain the the cable end.
> AFAIK, the throttle bodies from other (more common) Audi models
> cannot be used as a substitute, unfortunately. A new '91 200q
> throttle body was something like $600, IIRC.
> 
> Phil

Be sure your cable is adjusted such that the pedal bottoms out on the
floor before/when the throttle body bottoms out.  If the throttle body
bottoms out at WOT before the pedal does, you are putting unnecessary
strain on the cable and everything else.

Ken