I had to swap cars with my wife recently for some reason, and I noticed that the accelerator pedal in her 2004 Mazda 6 was a bit sticky at the top of its travel. There wasn't anything obviously wrong with the pedal itself so I did some research at the excellent Mazda 6 Club forums. Apparently it's possible for residue to build up around the throttle plate which can cause it to stick around the closed position. The 6 has a cable throttle so this kind of blockage would be felt at the pedal.
NB this car has the Euro/Jap 1.8 litre petrol engine. If you're in the US, you won't ever see this engine in a Mazda 6, but I believe the layout of the 2.0 is similar.
I started in the engine bay:
Off came the plastic engine cover (this just pulls off; there are clips at each corner).
The throttle body is at the bottom right corner of the engine block, where that wide hose is attached. Here's a close-up shot showing the hose connecting the throttle body on the left to the air box on the right:
I used a Philips screwdriver to loosen the hose clamps and wiggled the hose off at each end.
Removing it lets us see the throttle body itself. Here it is with the plate closed:
...and open, with me operating the mechanism:
The coiled spring just behind my finger holds the plate normally closed. You can see the throttle cable a bit further back. When you stomp on the pedal, it pulls the cable, which pulls the arm, which rotates the plate and lets more air in, which makes your car go faster. If you get an assistant to work the pedal, you can see this happening. Clever stuff!
Here's a little video showing the mechanism being manually operated:
At this point I got an old toothbrush, a clean jar and a little bit of petrol. Wetting the toothbrush in the petrol, I used it to scrub the area where the throttle plate in closed position touches the inside of the throttle body. There wasn't much noticeable residue in there, to be honest, but I gave it a good going over.
Warning: chances are there's some rust, dust, and muck in the engine bay. The hose I removed earlier feeds air to the engine AFTER filtering. If any pieces of metal or dirt get into the throttle body they will go straight into the cylinders and could potentially cause damage to the engine. Before replacing the hose, make sure the throttle body and air box outlet are both spotlessly clean, unlike in the pictures above.
Oh, and an extra warning: inside the air box you will be able to see the mass airflow sensor. This is a clever little device which is basically a fine wire that bends in the flow of the incoming air and tells the ECU how much air is entering the engine. It's a delicate little thing and will cost you a few quid to replace so don't jab your finger in there and poke it!
With the throttle body nice and clean, I put the hose back on and tightened both clamps, put the engine cover back on, then fired up the engine to test the fix. Accelerator pedal now nice and smooth all the way through its travel. Good result!
NB this car has the Euro/Jap 1.8 litre petrol engine. If you're in the US, you won't ever see this engine in a Mazda 6, but I believe the layout of the 2.0 is similar.
I started in the engine bay:
Off came the plastic engine cover (this just pulls off; there are clips at each corner).
The throttle body is at the bottom right corner of the engine block, where that wide hose is attached. Here's a close-up shot showing the hose connecting the throttle body on the left to the air box on the right:
I used a Philips screwdriver to loosen the hose clamps and wiggled the hose off at each end.
Removing it lets us see the throttle body itself. Here it is with the plate closed:
...and open, with me operating the mechanism:
The coiled spring just behind my finger holds the plate normally closed. You can see the throttle cable a bit further back. When you stomp on the pedal, it pulls the cable, which pulls the arm, which rotates the plate and lets more air in, which makes your car go faster. If you get an assistant to work the pedal, you can see this happening. Clever stuff!
Here's a little video showing the mechanism being manually operated:
At this point I got an old toothbrush, a clean jar and a little bit of petrol. Wetting the toothbrush in the petrol, I used it to scrub the area where the throttle plate in closed position touches the inside of the throttle body. There wasn't much noticeable residue in there, to be honest, but I gave it a good going over.
Warning: chances are there's some rust, dust, and muck in the engine bay. The hose I removed earlier feeds air to the engine AFTER filtering. If any pieces of metal or dirt get into the throttle body they will go straight into the cylinders and could potentially cause damage to the engine. Before replacing the hose, make sure the throttle body and air box outlet are both spotlessly clean, unlike in the pictures above.
Oh, and an extra warning: inside the air box you will be able to see the mass airflow sensor. This is a clever little device which is basically a fine wire that bends in the flow of the incoming air and tells the ECU how much air is entering the engine. It's a delicate little thing and will cost you a few quid to replace so don't jab your finger in there and poke it!
With the throttle body nice and clean, I put the hose back on and tightened both clamps, put the engine cover back on, then fired up the engine to test the fix. Accelerator pedal now nice and smooth all the way through its travel. Good result!
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