The gas pedal on my 2000 Ford Expedition stops working intermittently. The engine idles fine but no amount of pressure on the pedal with work to move the car. The engine will not rev at all, just idle. Once i restart the car the pedal starts working again.

When the problem occurs, I have tried shifting the car in and out of park and neutral, but it does not fix the problem until the car is restarted.

This has happened twice while stopped at a light, and once will moving at about 30 MPH.

Anyone have any ideas about what the problem is? It makes me pretty nervous...

 

I'm guessing the throttle body and cable

 

Tps?(throttle position sensor)

 

I thought that it could be the TPS, but even if it quit working intermittently, wouldn't the computer still detect an increase in flowing air when I pressed the pedal and up the fuel input, which would cause the engine to rev? I checked it, removed it, and cleaned it anyway, but everything there looks fine.

I also checked the cable and the way it moves, but everything there looks fine, too, including it's interaction with the throttle body plate...

 

If the gas pedal won't move when you press on it, the throttle plate won't move, (nor will the TPS voltage change), therefor the computer won't see an increase in air flow.

I suspect that either your throttle cable is unraveling within the sheath, your power pedals are binding up (if you have the power pedals), or your throttle body has a groove worn in it that is causing the throttle plate to get stuck.

I don't understand why turning the car off and back on fixes the problem. (Thats how I usually fix a problem with Windows XP ......)

 

The tps is pretty much a variable potentiometer, when you checked it did you take voltage readings? If you look at the plug,,, straight on,, the locking tab to the right, their are three pins top = gnd,middle=signal, bottom=reference voltage , with that handy, ref and ground should be 5 volts, gnd and signal should be .5 to 1 volt off pedal (closed) and swing to max of 5 volts as you press the gas pedal, if you have a fluke or a voltage meter and some pins to stab the wires you can see if its working . FYI when you disconnect the battery and reconnect this gets relearned or if you replace it you have to relearn it to the pcm