The Lotus Cars Community banner
  • Hi there! Why not register as a user to enjoy all of the benefits of the site? You may register here. When you register, please pick a username that is non-commercial. If you use a name that appears on any search engine commercially, you must pick another name, whether it applies to you or not. Commercial usernames are for supporting vendor use only. If you want to become a supporting vendor and grow your business, please follow this link. Thanks!

throttle cable too short after new throttle body

2K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  masheen 
#1 · (Edited)
the most annoying thing: just finished installing a new throttle body on my 2005 Elise (got it from Toyota) and it all went smoothly until the very end, after i attached the throttle cable to the throttle body, and found that the cable is now too short, even after taking up all the adjustment slack there is (by moving the two adjustment nuts away from the body all the way to the end of the threads) - the throttle is partly open (judging by the quarter pulley not reaching its rest stop nut, by about 5 mm) even when the throttle is fully closed.

i checked the throttle pedal and it looks like it is already as far up as it will go - so i can't get any more slack that way.

i have couple of ideas to try next, but they are a little wacky, so i am looking for better ideas:
1) i am thinking of grinding down the end of the adjustment threads on the cable so that i can move the adjustments nuts even further. the extra adjustment of almost one nut width might be enough.
2) there is some slack in the cable sheath where it goes around the pedals. so i could tighten that up, but that means unfastening all the cable sheath fasteners as it winds around the car, which seems quite involved and it's difficult to get the car up in the air where it happens to sit at the moment, and it's currently not drivable like this. and to help with that idea, i could use instructions anybody for replacing the cable - i have not been able to find any.

and the weird thing is: why is this even happening? - the throttle body i got looked to be the same as what was on the car, although i didn't take the time to compare the quarter-pulley in detail with the old (could still do that).

and why did i even get a new throttle body? - the old one wore out some space between the valve and the body which was causing high idle - it's a known problem described elsewhere (i had a hacked fix that worked for couple of years but doesn't anymore).

looking for better ideas to solve this. thanks!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
As a fellow sufferer of the sloppy high idle, I know how annoying this is. My understanding is that the quadrant (the arm the cable pulls) is unique to the Lotus. The cable routing is different than in the Toyota FWD applications, so this lead to the subtle difference that, in turn, put a weird load on the throttle and produces the slop. That all being said, I am just repeating what I have heard with no sources. Can you try to replace the Toyota quadrant with the Lotus one?
 
#3 ·
i can try moving over the old quadrant. not sure how difficult that is - i think i remember reading that there is some difficulty with that (when people where trying to fix the original load problem). also, i wonder whether the old quadrant will just fit without problems. so i am hoping for some encouragement from others who had done the same.

maybe i should try just moving it and see how far i get before running into problems. it's seems like an easier thing to try then other options.
 
#4 ·
well, it was not difficult to take off the quandrant off the old (original) throttle body. it's all a little finicky because once you take off the quandrant you have to make sure the spring that does pop up and unwind, by holding everything in place with your hands.

waiting for any advice or warnings before i attempt to replace the quandrant on the new with the old one.
 
#5 ·
success! i think.

first, i succeeded in moving the old quadrant to the new body. the car seemed to run ok in the garage, except for some idle hunting, and almost stalling when revving it up. then i adjusted the pedal stop and cable nuts near the throttle body, according to instructions, as far as i remembered them.

then i reset all the codes and went for a drive. finally driving the car after a long time was great. no craziness with the throttle. no stickiness of course. however, the car would stall at every stop around town, and after restarting it, the idle would be low and hunting up and down. then after about 10-20 minutes of highway driving i got back into city traffic and idling seemed normal. i am hoping it's just that the engine controller needed to adjust to the new sensors/actuators on the throttle body, but we'll see - maybe it is warm-up related.

so either the engine controller already got used it and it's all good, or i still might need to do some idle speed tuning - i think i remember that is something that can be done, but i am not sure.

and the high idle code is gone and the emissions self-tests are under way - i expect with some more driving it will be ready for pass smog testing.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top