Alfa Romeo 164LS "Sticky" Accelerator Issue

I am posting this question here because it seems that the AlfaBB is currently down, I am not able to log in nor even call it up using it's url.

Last night while driving my 164LS to my girl friend's house, on our local 101 freeway just out of San Jose, Ca. I got into the the throttle a little bit to pass a herd of traffic, and brought the car up to just over 80mph. After I passed the traffic the car would not slow down in fact it kept accelerating!!!. I blipped the accelerator pedal again and again, checked to see if the cruise control was on (and it was not, I almost never use it).

I took the next safe off ramp from the free-way and by this time I had the car slowed down to around 60mph by using the brakes. At the next safe area on the surface street off of the freeway I shut the ignition off, kept the car in gear, and then coasted for while to an acceptable safe speed. Then I turned the ignition back on and the car started right up without issue (without running the starter of course) and I drove the rest of the way on surface streets to my destination without any problems.

On the way home the same exact thing happened again, when the car reaches speeds over 80mph the accelerator won't shut off even when lifting off the pedal, the pedal always moves freely. It behaves like the cruise control is activated except that it is not. I checked the carpeting in the foot well and there is nothing blocking or holding the pedal form it's free range of motion. All thoughts and advice as to what this problem can be are very welcome. Thanks in advance and have a Happy Easter weekend!

 

Thanks so much Tifosi66 for the help/feedback! I will check the accelerator cable tomorrow during daylight hours. At any rate I was planning on taking the car in for regular service and to get the A/C recharged. BTW: The 164LS model has the 24 valve DOHC engine. Thanks again.

 

The problem with the accelerator sticking open was a bad cable that evidently had been mis-routed and installed improperly from the factory. Replacement cables can be had from International Auto Parts (IAP) for about $12.00 plus shipping. I'm told that the 164LS automatic uses a different accelerator cable as compared with the other 164 models so there are at least two different cables available for 164's.

Why is it that it seems the least expensive parts end up causing the highest risk to safety when they fail? Witness the 1986 space shuttle disaster, the failure of an "O ring" caused such a horrific end.