My wife has had her 2002 Tribute since new, and once again it's displaying its winter throttle cable problem at 100k miles. When you press the gas pedal it seems to bind when you initially press it, then it seems to "catch" and you get more acceleration than you want.

The car has been in to the dealer for the original throttle cable recall, two other mechanics have worked on it, and the problem still pops up when the weather gets cold.

I read in another post here that at least one other owner has this problem with their Tributes.

Is there anything else to try with this? Is the throttle cable something that a do-it-yourselfer could replace, and if so are there any resources on the web short of buying a manual that shows how to do it?

 

Are you sure it's the throttle cable? I had the same problem with my 2004 Tribute...the throttle pedal would stick a little right when I went to step on it. Sometimes it required a slightly hard tap on the gas to break it free. After that, the throttle pedal's operation was not smooth. I thought it was the throttle cable too, but I when I brought it to the dealer on the last day of warranty, they told me it was the throttle body. Apparently there is a coating on the inside of the throttle body that is supposed to prevent the build up of carbon. The coating wears away as the butterfly valve, operated directly by the throttle cable, rubs against it over the years. Then the butterfly valve sticks when it rests in its default position. My dealer replaced the whole throttle body because Mazda was worried that the throttle would eventually stick while open, leading to an unintended acceleration situation.

I would ask your dealer to check out the throttle body and see if your throttle plate (butterfly valve) is sticking.

 

I realize that the previous post was from 2008 but when I was looking for answers for the same problem I came across it and hope that my findings may help someone else.
My wife has a four cylinder 2005 Mazda Tribute with 130,000 km on it. We purchased it about four years ago with about 45,000km on it. Last year she mentioned that it was very difficult at times to accelerate as the gas pedle would not go down even though she would press as hard as she could. It seemed to happen as the temperature went below freezing. We take it to the dealer for regular oil changes and service so when it happened I had them look at it.Of course it wouldn't happen to me or the mechanic, but he said he freed something and it should be okay. To me it appeared better but started to act up for my wife several months later. Now that the temperature has dropped this sticking gas pedal problem has come back. She called me from the parking lot after work to come and get her. The gas pedal was not raising the rpm of the engine. She let the engine warm up till I arrived twenty minutes later. I was able to tap the pedal a few times and then drove it home. After all this time I finaly found the problem and it didn't have anything to do with the cold temperature. I opened the hood, then went inside and lightly pressed on the gas pedal to see what the cable was doing, I could see it moving a bit. The pedal and cable seemed to be moving freely but would not increase the rpm. I then removed the cover to expose where the cruise control and gas pedal cables attach to the throttle body. I was able to rotate the throttle body and rev the engine, so that was not stuck. Everything looked good but when depressing the gas pedal it still did not pull the throttle body open. The bracket that holds the two cables in place, positions the throttle cable too much in line of the centre pivot point of the throttle body. By twisting the bracket about ten or fifteen degrees with an adjusable wrench, the cable was repositioned enough to easily turn the throttle body. Standing with your legs against the front bumper looking down at the two cables, the cable closest to the radiator has to move about 1/4 of an inch to the left by twisting the bracket. After making this adjustment everything worked smoothly and I feel confident that this has resolved my problem.