PSA: sticking throttle

I know a lot of us drive older vehicles with questionable quality of parts for certain things. A lot of us also drive BMWs. That said:

Sticking throttles are scary! Even if you only have about 100 crank hp like myself.

Make sure all your throttle cables are well lubed and snap back into position easily.

And as was the case with me today... FLOOR MATS ARE THE DEVIL! Especially if you have the BMW hinge-off-the-floor type of go pedal. So make sure they are well secured and that there is good clearance around the pedal.

That's my PSA for the day.

Don't forget the Miata's ability to capture the throttle with the stock carpet, no floor mats necessary.

If you've got a moon-shaped slice cut out of your Miata carpet right on the trans tunnel where the accelerator would touch the floor, do yourself a favor and bend the pedal a smidge towards the brake. Not only improves heel-toe, but will also prevents soiled underpants, or worse.

I had a similar problem with my 318ti.. bad engine mount allowed the engine to tilt far enough on WOT to pull the cable for the cruise control out of it's bracket.. when the engine tilted back to normal. the cable did not fall back in...

while it was not trapping the throttle at WOT.. it was enough that it would hit redline when not under load

Had two car stuck WFO in my younger years.

1st) 383 powered 70 Dodge dart with 2.73 rear end ratio thankfully i was on rt 91 north of springfeild mass and did not get a ticket....cable fraid and hung up.

2nd) My 68 bronco with 302 v8 motor mount let go motor rolled and bound up the linkages.

Both time were not fun...but i'm still here.

And to think I was all worked up when the throttle on my 951 hung slightly open because I had the cable too tight so that when everything got hot the aluminum manifold expanded enough to pull all the slack out of it.

In reply to Taiden:

You should have it happen when you're in a 250 hp A6 Bi-turbo. Luckily I was on a open highway and after 3-4 seconds of disbelief (after I pushed the clutch in and watched it bounce off of the rev limiter of course), I tugged on the floor mat and was on my way.

When I was in High School (and dumb) my buddy let me borrow his SHO to take a friend home. My friend wanted me to "burn out the tires" as we were leaving. The street we were on was about two blocks long before you needed to make a right or left turn. If you didn't turn you went into the woods.

So I floored it and got the tire to lose traction. We were heading straight towards the woods when the throttle stuck. I threw it into neutral and turned the engine off. I was able to muscle it around the corner without power steering or brakes. Amazingly we didn't hit anything. I didn't even E36 M3 my pants. I figure we probably would have died if I couldn't stop it.